Animal nutrition is an extremely important topic in the life of those who raise production animals. This is because animal nutrition is one of the main pillars to keep them healthy and well so that they can generate quality products and bring the expected return on investment for the producer or company. Added to this is the fact that feed costs end up representing almost 80% d of the total costs of animal production systems, which requires special care and dedication to ensure increasingly profitable operations.
Thus, it becomes even more relevant to understand exactly what animal nutrition is, as well as its importance and what are the consequences of a good nutritional strategy for the entire production chain. In today’s article we will talk more about this subject!
What is animal nutrition?
Regardless of the type of animal that is being raised, its nutrition is the basis for keeping it healthy and, consequently, for generating quality products. However, we still find cattle farmers and producers who end up having squeezed margins or lower profitability, by not valuing the type, the nutritional contribution, and the economic viability of the food they eat.
The nutritional balance in production animals ensures that the final product is at a high level of quality, whether it is meat, eggs, milk, or wool. In addition, the impact that good nutrition causes on the environment is taken into account, enabling more sustainable production practices and management strategies that impact the operation.
What are production animals?
Production animals are defined as those raised and cared for to generate some product or byproduct, such as meat, milk, eggs, wool, honey, leather, silk, among others. For each type, stage, physiological characterization, and performance goal of the animal, a type of diet is required, or the definition of food to be ingested that meets all of its nutritional requirements, in a way that also considers the profitability of the operation.
Therefore, the formulation of the feed and the composition of the ingested diet must be made unique to each breed and stage of the animals to suit the correct needs and requirements. A common mistake is, for example, to believe that the same feed that satisfies one breed will be good for another. This is why precision in the type and quantity of ingredients is so essential.
The competitive production of animals
Competitive production is based on three fundamental elements: genetics, nutrition, and management. Each one of them carries its importance in the entire chain of cultivation, treatment, and breeding of production animals.
We highlight here nutrition as a crucial point for the success of a business, after all, as mentioned before, the animal’s balance and well-being reflect on the product’s quality and for being one of the most representative factors in the final composition of the production costs.
Thus, good nutritional monitoring begins with the proper formulation of the feed that will feed the animals and the diet to be ingested. Tools that help in the predictability and planning of the nutritional strategy are essential. Companies specializing in food production use feed and diet formulation software that store information, optimize time, and contribute to the production of specific foods and diets for each type of animal raised.
The importance of nutrition in the pillars of competitive production
As you can see from what we have brought above, animal nutrition is extremely important in the process of competitive production, since it is responsible for ensuring that the animals have the energy to stay healthy and produce what is needed.
The consequence of a balanced diet is the increase in animal productivity, feed efficiency, cost reduction, and an extra care in the adoption of more sustainable practices in production.
What is the cost burden of proper animal nutrition?
As we mentioned before, the cost of feed for farm animals is quite high, representing 60 to 80% of the total values. Just looking at broilers, nutrition represented in November 2022 more than 72% of the total costs, while that of pigs almost reached 80%. If you want to consult the data of production cost indexes for pigs and broilers (ICO) by CIAS, the Poultry and Pork Intelligence Center of Embrapa, focus more on the process of formulation and reformulation of products.
Tables taken from the Embrapa site for November 2022, available at this link.
It is important to emphasize that the wrong investment in this pillar of competitive production can result in a huge loss, both with the loss of animal performance (i.e. problems in the field due to non-compliance with nutritional requirements) and with higher production costs due to the overuse of raw materials of lesser contribution to the nutritional strategy.
Therefore, it is becoming more and more interesting that cattle breeders and producers understand that the application of money in the animal’s nutrition is fundamental in order to reap the results later on.
How to measure the performance of the given nutrition?
Of course, nutritionists and formulators can evaluate zootechnical indicators of your production, such as feed conversion, digestibility, age at slaughter, carcass yield, stocking rate, among many others. An approach focused on productive data, quantitative and qualitative, impacts on better performance of your production.
Bringing these indicators to the creation of the nutritional strategy, there are several software programs on the market that allow professionals to optimize time, raw material, and improve the profitability of their operations while still in the process of preparing feed and diet that meet the needs of the animals.
For ruminants, Windiet allows you, for example, to select the feeds available in production, define which reference model you will use for nutritional requirement calculations (such as NRC or Br-Corte) and define the required combinations of ingredients – the program will automatically calculate for you which diet meets these requirements at the lowest possible cost.
For monogastric and formulators of commercial feeds, premixes, supplements, nuclei, or concentrates, Formula will become a great ally for you to optimize formulas sent to production that meet all nutritional requirements, respect amino acid combinations, deliver the minimum energy and still have the lowest cost of the batch produced.
Both are tools that help formulators create a nutritional strategy that reflects the possibilities and needs of the company, allow you to satisfy all the nutritional requirements of the animals, and still create products at the lowest possible cost. Overall, this approach brings more predictability to your operation, and allows you to plan to reduce your costs for more profitable production.
Conclusion
As we have seen, animal nutrition is far from being only the type of food given to production animals. This pillar of production also encompasses animal welfare, the quality of what is produced, and the profitability that companies and producers have in their productions. It is becoming more and more an indispensable subject in the daily life of any nutritionist and animal producer.
