Identifies animal nutritional needs and gathers together data universally acknowledged as being relevant and beneficial for a species. The reader is shown how to economically produce suitable feed ingredients and blend them in the most efficient manner.

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.

Animals are biological transformers of dietary matter and energy to produce high-quality foods and wools for human consumption and use. Mammals, birds, fish, and shrimp require nutrients to survive, grow, develop, and reproduce. As an interesting, dynamic, and challenging discipline in biological sciences, animal nutrition spans an immense range from chemistry, biochemistry, anatomy and physiology to reproduction, immunology, pathology, and cell biology. Thus, nutrition is a foundational subject in livestock, poultry and fish production, as well as the rearing and health of companion animals. This book entitled Principles of Animal Nutrition consists of 13 chapters. Recent advances in biochemistry, physiology and anatomy provide the foundation to understand how nutrients are utilized by ruminants and non-ruminants. The text begins with an overview of the physiological and biochemical bases of animal nutrition, followed by a detailed description of chemical properties of carbohydrates, lipids, protein, and amino acids. It advances to the coverage of the digestion, absorption, transport, and metabolism of macronutrients, energy, vitamins, and minerals in animals. To integrate the basic knowledge of nutrition with practical animal feeding, the book continues with discussion on nutritional requirements of animals for maintenance and production, as well as the regulation of food intake by animals. Finally, the book closes with feed additives, including those used to enhance animal growth and survival, improve feed efficiency for protein production, and replace feed antibiotics. While the classical and modern concepts of animal nutrition are emphasized throughout the book, every effort has been made to include the most recent progress in this ever-expanding field, so that readers in various biological disciplines can integrate biochemistry and physiology with nutrition, health, and disease in mammals, birds, and other animal species (e.g., fish and shrimp). All chapters clearly provide the essential literature related to the principles of animal nutrition, which should be useful for academic researchers, practitioners, beginners, and government policy makers. This book is an excellent reference for professionals and a comprehensive textbook for senior undergraduate and graduate students in animal science, biochemistry, biomedicine, biology, food science, nutrition, veterinary medicine, and related fields.

This monumental text-reference places in clear persepctive the importance of nutritional assessments to the ecology and biology of ruminants and other nonruminant herbivorous mammals. Now extensively revised and significantly expanded, it reflects the changes and growth in ruminant nutrition and related ecology since 1982. Among the subjects Peter J. Van Soest covers are nutritional constraints, mineral nutrition, rumen fermentation, microbial ecology, utilization of fibrous carbohydrates, application of ruminant precepts to fermentive digestion in nonruminants, as well as taxonomy, evolution, nonruminant competitors, gastrointestinal anatomies, feeding behavior, and problems fo animal size. He also discusses methods of evaluation, nutritive value, physical struture and chemical composition of feeds, forages, and broses, the effects of lignification, and ecology of plant self-protection, in addition to metabolism of energy, protein, lipids, control of feed intake, mathematical models of animal function, digestive flow, and net energy. Van Soest has introduced a number of changes in this edition, including new illustrations and tables. He places nutritional studies in historical context to show not only the effectiveness of nutritional approaches but also why nutrition is of fundamental importance to issues of world conservation. He has extended precepts of ruminant nutritional ecology to such distant adaptations as the giant panda and streamlined conceptual issues in a clearer logical progression, with emphasis on mechanistic causal interrelationships. Peter J. Van Soest is Professor of Animal Nutrition in the Department of Animal Science and the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University.

This comprehensive volume examines the interrelationships of nitrogen and energy nutrition of ruminants. It provides exhaustive coverage of basic concepts, applications, and new research developments. Rumen microbial activity is emphasized. The author, an expert in animal nutrition, discusses new systems of determining dietary energy requirements, the effect of processing feedstuffs, and stress factors. He reviews the availability of nutrients in grains, distillers' grain residues, oilseed meals, molasses, silages, pastures, crop residues, and aquatic plants. Growth stimulants, nutritional management of ruminants in feedlots and pastures, and the value of feed additives are also among the topics considered. The scope of coverage provided by this volume will make it the leading reference for teachers, researchers, consultants, livestock producers, feed manufacturers, and all others who are involved in ruminant feeding and nutrition. From the Preface: This volume covers research on various nitrogen and energy feedstuffs and defines terminology commonly utilized in nitrogen and energy nutrition. The utilization of nitrogen and energy in oilseed meals, fish meals, cereal grains, distillers' residues, molasses, silages, grasses, hays, crop residues, animal waste, and nonprotein nitrogen sources is discussed. Details are given on development and utilization of net energy systems, systems for balancing total nitrogen, and nonprotein nitrogen with total digestible nutrients (TDN) or energy components of ruminant diets. Discussions are presented on metabolism, feedlot, milking, and grazing trials. Growth stimulants, processing of feedstuffs, type of animal, and environmental and management factors that affect feed intake, growth, feed efficiency, and quality of product are reviewed. Emphasis is given to the contributions of ruminal microbes in upgrading forage and nonprotein nitrogen sources to higher-quality bacterial protein, as well as their ability to downgrade high-quality protein and waste nitrogen when protein is fed in excess of microbial needs. Research is presented on means to increase bypassing of the rumen to prevent nitrogen wastage when ruminants are fed concentrate diets. Contributions of ruminal microbes in utilizing cellulosic materials as lignocellulose and hemicellulose as well as starch and other carbohydrates are discussed.