Ration formulation

1. Ration formulation • The goal is to offset the animals requirement with an appropriate level of feed nutrients. • There are economic and possibly animal welfare consequences when the ration is „out of balance” in either surplus or deficient direction. • The accuracy of the process depends, how reliable the information provided for each „side” of the balance are (nutrient requirements of the animals, nutrient content of feeds).

2. Ration formulation • There are two ways for formulation: • hand methods (needs practice, practical experience, slow, does not take into account the price of feedstuffs) • computer methods (quick, takes into account also the price of feedstuffs, needs also practical experience) • For ruminants daily rations are prepared (daily ration for cows producing 20l milk per day) • For monogastric animals compound diets are produced (diets for 30-60 kg pigs) The nutrient content of feeds • can be measured in a laboratory • can be found in the same recommendations like to the requirements In the case of ruminants the following requirement values are used: • dry matter, NE, crude protein, crude fibre, Ca, P, In the case of monogastric animals: • dry matter, DE or ME, crude protein, crude fibre, Ca, P, Lysine, Methionine+Cystine Other minerals, vitamins, salt are added in the form of so called premixes

3. Ration formulation The requirement of animals depends on the • species (feedstuffs used for the ruminants and monogastrics are different) • form of utilisation (the ration of milking cows contain more forage, on the other hand beef cattle are fed with rations containing high amounts of grains) • age of animals (young animals need more energy, protein, minerals, vitamins; requirements decline in elder animals) Requirement values can be determined or found in different recommendations (National Research Council, NRC; other national recommendations, like Hungarian Feed Codex, research publications etc.)

4. Determination the energy, protein or amino acid requirements with animal experiments 12,8

5. Requirements of some animal species * = non phytate, or available P

8. Basic ration (the roughage part of the ration, covers the maintenance requirement of cows and the production of about 10-12 l milk per day) Supplementary feed (contains cereals and protein concentrates, covers the requirement of producing milk above the basic ration) Mineral and vitamin premixes are mixed with the supplementary feed. If no supplementary feed is needed some grain meal (0,5-1 kg) is used to mix with the premixes. Formulation daily rations for milking cows

9. find out the nutrient requirement of the cow or th group of cows • find out the feedstuffs available • define the ratio of feedstuffs, according to the potential dry matter intake of cows and the recommended maximum ratios of feedstuffs • NEl and crude protein contents of the ration is calculated and compared with the requirements • Check the Ca and P supply. If necessary use Ca and P supplements. If both minerals are missing, use the P supplement first, since it contains also Ca. The final deficiency of Ca can be supplied with limestone. • Check the fibre content of the ration (20±3% of the dry matter intake) • Ruminants can feed about 8-10% green forages, 3-5% silages, and 0,5-1% hays of their live weight. Formulation daily rations for milking cows

10. Formulation daily ration for 600 kg milking cows, producing 14 litre milk per day, the milk contains 3,6% fat, grazing on good quality pasture

12. Maintenance requirements of cows

13. Requirements of production 1 litre milk

14. Potential dry matter intake of dairy cows, kg (±1kg)

15. Ca and P supplements