Sep 13, 2007 2763 views 9 comments

Variations in nutritional values of poultry feed ingredients

Mojtaba Yegani

In this blog, I would like to discuss an issue which is not new but very important to the animal feed industry: variation in ingredients.

It is well known that there are always variations in nutrient values of feed ingredients.

There are many reasons which may contribute to this variability. Sampling and analytical methods are among the important ones although all agricultural circumstances (under which these ingredients are produced and processed) can play an important role as well.

If we send same ingredient or feed samples to two different laboratories for analyses, we may get different results.

How do you deal with this problem at your feed mill or poultry farm?
How often do you submit ingredient and feed samples to laboratory for analyses?
Do you formulate your rations based on results (nutrient values) that you get from a laboratory or also get help from you previous experiences?

There are many factors which can affect flock performance but do you monitor performance of your flocks with respect to diet's formula?

Do not hesitate to give your point of view or your experiences here.

9 comments

Dr.N.Balaguru

14 Sep 2007 12:50

Yes there are always variations in values of nutrients .
good sampling practices could minimize the variations.Ofcource the analytical procedures are equally important.
It is always better to formulate the raw materials based on the latest lab reports (for e.g. fish samples shown protein %ranges between 28 to 45%)
similarly all ingredients show a min and max range of nutrient values.
Prof. Dr. Youssef Attia, Egypt

14 Sep 2007 14:13

I usually formulate the diet based on laboratory analyses, however, when it is difficult I use my best guess using several tables of feedstuffs, and stick to the intermediate values and correct the amino acids content based on protein percentage (NRC, 1994), and as soon as I get the lab analyses I reassess the formulas again, this the beat choice.
Tariq Mushtaq, Pakistan

18 Sep 2007 07:12

Before diet formulation, I go for proximate analysis of the feed ingredients, calculate the amino acid contents by the prediction equations of Degussa using AminoDat 2. I also prefer to calculate ME of each ingredient by the regression equations provided by NRC (1994).
Regarding the differences due to analytical labs. i think if you are running good stardards, then the differnce will not be more than 5% which normally does not have any pronounced effect on bird's performance.
Amiya Dharmapada Nath

19 Sep 2007 08:35

Yes the the analysis varies from batch to batch of finish products so better to analyse the the intake ingredients at the time of production and calculate the formula value as per the materials used in the particular batches to avoid variation of nutrition content.
dr bayo

19 Sep 2007 14:05

I usually formulate the diet based on using several tables of local available feedstuffs
and then deducting some % of error out of the calculated values for the materials used
Mahdi Ebrahimi

22 Sep 2007 12:32

i formulate diet in accordance to the laboratory analysis. but approximate analysis only give us a general information and we haven't the detail of nutrition. for example in case of protein we know only crude protein and we don't know about special amino acid.the determination of amino acid is very expensive i think it is a problem and we can not formulate feed exactly. we need new, fast and cheap methods for determination of nutrient on diet.
dr.abdelaziz.abdelftah

22 Sep 2007 14:06

I usually make diet formulation according analysis which goodbut knowdays i import feeders for make pelleted food but the big problem face me that whenthe chick eat this food,sever dirhaea ,kidney dissorders and rickets
when i make analysis of food are good
please give me the answer for this problem on my mail
aaapoultry@yahoo.com
Andy Safalaoh, University of Malawi

24 Sep 2007 13:06

For our farm, we periodically do proximate analyses for every batch of feed ingredients being used. The emphasis had been on crude protein content. Form exoperience, there has been very little/elamost negligible differences in the locally available ingredinets being used
Maxwell Tissera < mtissera@slt.lk >

13 Nov 2007 06:09

I am a small Farmer in Sri Lanka and formulate and mix my own requirements. Could someone please advise me of a site from where I could download feed nutrient values for poultry, preferably Indian or Pakistani Tables. Thank you. Please email to mtissera@slt.lk