Animal Feed Formulation

Students in animal science, industry personnel involved in the feeding of animals, and professionals working for feed-mixing companies will all benefit from this current, comprehensive package - a text on the economic and nutritional aspects of feed formulations that optimize nutritional content while minimizing costs. Animal Feed Formulation applies a well-tested, easy-to-use computer program called UFFDA that illustrates the principles of least-cost food formulation. Developed in a cooperative effort by the Departments of Poultry Science and Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Georgia, UFFDA is menu-driven software that has the editing capabilities of a spreadsheet program for altering the ingredient and nutrient matrix. The book begins by solving a simple ration-balancing problem, providing step-by-step instructions with the computer program that any user - even one without computer training - can readily follow. It then discusses specific feed formulation techniques in terms of their practical applications and economic implications. Included are such techniques as sensitivity analysis, parametric cost and nutrient ranging, optimum-density formulation, multi-blending, and risk analysis, among others. Applying these and other techniques using the special features of UFFDA, users can select the proper ingredients, adjust proportions among nutrients, determine which feeds might require scarce ingredients, consider the risks involved in dealing with ingredients with below-average compositions, and ultimately determine the costs and nutritional content of various feed formulations. The program can be applied to determining feed formulations for any animal, including sheep, beef and dairy cattle, swine, turkeys, broilers, catfish, and horses. Practitioners who are growing animals will be able to maximize the nutritional content of their feed while keeping costs down. Professionals working in feed-mixing companies will be able to maximize profits by offering products composed of low-cost ingredients that are also of good nutritional value. Students will gain a firm background in nutritional and economic concepts, insight into how to apply them to practical problems, and an understanding of the way good nutrition and good value can be achieved by applying the latest computer technology.

This handbook on animal feed formulations has been prepared by the American Soybean Association to assist poultry feed millers, nutritionists, and poultry farmers to formulate good quality poultry feeds. ASA intends this document to be an easily readable reference manual reviewing each and every aspect of poultry nutrition.

"Integrated textbook coverage of animal feeding and nutrition with computer software used during ration formulation".--Pref.

It is a good reference to local dairy farmers by introducing them to the right frequency and right amount of balanced diet to be fed to cattle and buffaloes at different production cycles. It will provide basic platform and some solutions to built-up software about cattle nutrition development and least cost formulation for end-user. It has several techniques for optimizing animal diet formulation but a good balance between coding/programming and animal nutrition is incorporated towards application of soft computing technique to improve the quality of the solution due to rigidity of the constraints.

In the years since the third edition of this indispensable reference was published, a great deal has been learned about the nutritional requirements of common laboratory species: rat, mouse, guinea pig, hamster, gerbil, and vole. The Fourth Revised Edition presents the current expert understanding of the lipid, carbohydrate, protein, mineral, vitamin, and other nutritional needs of these animals. The extensive use of tables provides easy access to a wealth of comprehensive data and resource information. The volume also provides an expanded background discussion of general dietary considerations. In addition to a more user-friendly organization, new features in this edition include: A significantly expanded section on dietary requirements for rats, reporting substantial new findings. A new section on nutrients that are not required but that may produce beneficial results. New information on growth and reproductive performance among the most commonly used strains of rats and mice and on several hamster species. An expanded discussion of diet formulation and preparationâ€"including sample diets of both purified and natural ingredients. New information on mineral deficiency and toxicity, including warning signs. This authoritative resource will be important to researchers, laboratory technicians, and manufacturers of laboratory animal feed.

The feed manufacturing business; Composition and digestibility of feedstuffs; Nutrients, their uses and deficiencies; Effect of processing on feed quality; Effect of storage on nutritional value; Beef cattle formulations; Dairy cattle formulations; Horse formulations; Poultry formulations; Sheep formulations; Swine formulations; Dog formulations; Utilization of a ration; Variation in feed ingredients; How to make a feed formula; Selection of feeds for formulas; Classification of feedstuffs; Costs of procuring, manufacturing and distributing mixed feeds; Microingredients and premixes; Linear programming; Special points to feed manufacturers; Cautions to feed manufacturers; Feed standards and the feed control service.