Back to the future
F The Flockman system of supplying nutrients on a day-to-day
eed contributes over 75% of the costs
of poultry production in the UK and
has a major effect on bird perfor-
mance, welfare and health. Proper manage-
ment of nutrition is therefore vital if the
correct balance between production profit,
bird health and welfare and environment
considerations are to be achieved.
Feed for today- and tomorrow
Traditionally, broilers are fed a series of
feeds of decreasing protein content from
day old to slaughter. The starter feed may be
fed for the first ten days and the grower
feed for the next 14 days. Because the birds’
needs change gradually with age, each feed
can only be correctly balanced for one par-
ticular day. Hence, at the end of the starter
phase, the feed will be too high in protein
and will lead to excessive nitrogen excretion
and at the beginning of the grower phase,
the feed will be too low in protein and be
inadequate to support optimal growth.
Figure 1 shows the feeding of four feeds of
descending protein content fed for various
time intervals and superimposes an “ideal
protein” curve where the protein content is
a function of age and changes gradually
over the life span of the broiler. This con-
trasts to the “step feeding” of protein typical
of most broiler feeding today.
One answer to this inadequacy is to use a
greater number of feeds over the life cycle,
How do you estimate feed intake in advance of preparing the feed formulation?
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basis now feeds 15% of all UK broilers. But David Filmer is
not resting on his laurels. He aims for a fully automated, prac-
tical feeding model and is drawing from jungle fowl behaviour
and pre-intensification know-how as his inspiration.
By David Filmer
with the ultimate logical solution of one
feed for each day of life. However, even a few
more feeds cause manufacturing, delivery
and control problems and is not practical. A
commercial solution is to provide a high
and a low protein feed in two separate silos
at the poultry production house.
However, there is a major practical prob-
lem with this approach, even assuming that
you can construct correct nutrient intake
profiles. How do you estimate feed intake in
advance of preparing the feed formulation?
Estimating intake
The most common method used in commer-
cial practice is to use the published tables of
feed intakes per day issued by the breed
companies. These can form a good basis for
initial estimations but can and should be
modified in the light of experience, using
feed back from commercial sites.
Secondly one can use mathematical mod-
elling techniques. These use some of the
known factors affecting appetite such as age
and weight of the bird, expected growth
rate, temperature, humidity, insulation of
the house, theoretical energy in the feed,
etc. However, they cannot take all factors
into account, as these will vary from house
to house in unpredictable ways. Such fore-
casts into the future are bound to be inaccu-
rate as is seen when predicted intakes by
such methods are compared to actual
intakes. Unfortunately most animal growth
models rely on predictions of feed intake in
order to predict performance on various
diets and dietary regimes. Although they
have some value, they are clearly not accu-
rate enough to enable diet calculations to
be made so as to deliver specific daily nutri-
ents to the birds.
The third method is not to predict feed
intake at all, but to measure it in real-time
at each poultry house. Here there is no esti-
mate involved. This is the system that is
incorporated into the Flockman system to
ensure that the daily intakes of nutrients
are as close to those set up in the nutrient
profiles as possible. Total daily feed intakes
are weighed accurately in real-time, and
extrapolated forward one day. From the
table for the nutrient intakes required for
that day, the composition of a feed is calcu-
lated which will deliver the required nutri-
ents at the extrapolated feed intake.
Knowing the analysis of the two component
feeds stored in the two silos at the poultry
house, the ratio required to produce the cal-
culated diet composition can be calculated.
This mix is delivered to the birds via the
normal feeding system (Filmer, 1991).
Red jungle fowl
A study of the Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus
Gallus), the ancestor of the domestic fowl,
FEED MIX Volume 10 Number 1 2002 19
 Figure 1 - Typical step feeding of broilers does not Figure 2 - Ad libitum feeding does not do justice to
accurately reflect their nutritional needs liveweight gain

Table 1 - Restricting feed intake and including maximum of 50-100 birds tity of feed weighed out in each six-minute
whole wheat in turkey diets improves were kept in night arks or period of the day. So ten records are taken
liveweight and uniformity small sheds at night. Early each hour and 240 in each 24-hour period.
in the morning a given At the same time, the quantity of water con-
quantity of mash feed (usu- sumed is recorded, as is the ON/OFF status
Ad lib Control fed Difference ally soaked in water (hot in of the house lights and the enabled/disabled
No whole + whole (B-A) the winter)), was delivered. status of the lane augers. Such data can be
wheat (A) wheat (B) as % (A) Observation gave the stock- quite revealing and can initiate ideas of ide-
man an idea as to intake, al patterns of feed distribution during the
Age of birds (days) 56 56 0
Mean weight (g) 4242 4337 2.2 which could be adjusted dai- day in relation to various lighting pro-
Weight gain (g/day) 154 154 0 ly according to the previous grammes. Such a study was carried out in
Growth curve weight (g) 4557 4557 0 day’s intake (feedback). 1995 on a commercial broiler farm.
Diff. from curve (g) -315 -220 30 During the late afternoon, a Figure 2 shows a three-day running aver-
No. of birds weighed 861 808 -6 scratch feed, usually of age for liveweight of mixed sexed commer-
Standard Deviation (g) 391 371 -5 mixed whole grains (wheat, cial broilers fed ad libitum throughout life.
Coefficient of Variation 9.2% 8.5% -7.5 barley, sorghum, maize, Each day’s plot is the average of the record-
Uniformity 67.3% 71.5% +6.4 etc.), was broadcast directly ed gain for that day plus the day before and
% outside 10% of mean 32.7% 28.5% -12.8
onto the grass. Rapid eating the day after. Trends are now obvious, with
led to the development of gains exceeding target from two weeks of
full crops. age until just after four weeks. At that time
the three-day average for the mixed sex
should be of considerable interest and rele- Introducing ad-lib flock exceeded 80 grams/day. A collapse in
vance to today’s industry. The bird is used to Control of intake by the stockman was no subsequent daily gain then occurred. We
a hot climate with high humidity levels. It longer possible when the industry adopted have seen this many times on ad-lib feeding
forages rapidly as soon as dawn breaks, ad-lib feeding. With feed mechanically systems. It would appear that birds can
before temperatures rise and fills its crop replenished 24 hours a day, knowledge of grow excessively fast for short periods, but
with seeds, grains, berries, insects and vege- how much the birds were actually eating that these high levels cannot be sustained
tation. During the heat of the day it shelters each day was lost. Until the advent of feed and subsequently a recovery stage follows.
in the undergrowth away from direct sun- weighing systems, nutritionists had to make Daily gains from five weeks on were disap-
light and seeks wet patches where it preens assumptions concerning daily feed intakes. pointingly below the breed targets leading
to assist cooling by evaporation, living on It is true to say that even today, most com- to the poor final results.
the feed stored in its crop. When the sun mercial nutritionists know a lot more about Deviation of feed intake from breed target
goes down, it again forages rapidly in the feed formulations than they do about daily is shown in Figure 3. A cyclical pattern
cooler evening and fills its crop again for feed intakes. Modern batch weighers based emerges with peaks and troughs of appetite.
the second time in 24 hours. It then seeks a on accurate load cells and linked to comput- From these conclusions, a theory was devel-
roost for the night, safe from predators ers can now provide excellent data. The oped that if we could regulate the daily feed
where it sleeps for 6+ hours, living again on quantity of feed weighed out per day can be intake, daily liveweight gain might be more
the stored food until it awakes gradually at accurately recorded, stored on disk and consistent.
dawn, ready to forage again. reproduced numerically and graphically.
Comparisons of actual versus expected daily Controlled feeding
Husbandry in the past intakes can be made. A practical system for controlled feeding
Husbandry systems of 50 years ago had was developed through a series of experi-
more similarities to the Jungle Fowl sce- Bird monitoring ments.
nario than current intensive systems. A The (Flockman) system can record the quan- The first system tried was based on dis-

20 FEED MIX Volume 10 Number 1 2002 www.AgriWorld.nl

abling the feed system during parts of the
day, allowing the feed pans to become emp-
ty so that there was no build-up of stale
feed. These systems were not successful, as
we found that the birds soon learnt the
times that the feeders did not run and ate
more in the times they did to compensate.
Total feed intakes and variation were not
reduced.
A second attempt was based on the pre-
war stockman’s system of feed control
described earlier. A given quantity of feed is
fed per bird per day, based on breed intake
tables for the strain and sex involved. As
soon as the target feed per house was
reached, the augers supplying the feed pans
were stopped and the time of feeding
(reached time) recorded. Based on these
measurements, more or less feed was
offered the next day. Experience showed
that once control of the birds’ appetites was
achieved, the scale factor could be adjusted
1-2% upward or 2-3% downward per day
without losing control.
The skill is in keeping an edge on the
birds’ appetites by feeding them just below
what they would have eaten given free
access to feed. Adding actual daily
liveweight gains to this balance, control to
as near the target liveweight gain curve as
possible should be achievable. The nutri-
tional argument for this is that if birds
exceed the target weights before the final
age, they have a heavier body mass to main-
tain and therefore higher maintenance
requirements for energy and protein
turnover are required. This contributes to
inefficiency. In addition, if birds put on too
much weight from the surplus energy they
consume, this is laid down as fat. Fat con-
tains more energy, gram for gram, than
does lean tissue, again leading to energy
inefficiency. Both these sources of ineffi-
ciency lead to deterioration in the final
overall feed efficiency of ad-lib fed flocks.
Table 1 compares ad-lib feeding of turkeys
on standard feeds (A), with using a propor-
tion of whole wheat in the diet and control
fed (B). There was less variation in factory
liveweights with (B). The % of birds falling
outside 10% of the mean weight was
reduced from 32.7% to 28.5%, a reduction of
12.8%. Results however, with less skilled or
disinterested farm managers were poor, and
often not as good as ad-lib feeding. The
method also needed regular examination of
the reached times and the graphs showing
liveweights and particularly daily liveweight
gains. Skilled interpretation and experience
is needed to convert these observations into
changes in the feed intake scale factor for
the next day. All this proved to be excessive-
ly time consuming, particularly on large
sites where eight to ten houses were man-
aged by one farm manager.
Refining controlled feeding
As soon as individual birds in the controlled
feeding system were satiated and had full
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crops they lost interest in feed and went off consisted of two houses each of 40,000
to rest. It seemed logical to continue feeding birds. The target for a major integrator
until all, including the least dominant, had involved was 2.75kg at 49 days.
full crops. The problem was to produce a
sensor that would determine when this The perfect model?
occurred so as to send a signal back to the Current systems of deciding diets or daily
computer to stop the feed system. The nutrient intakes are prescriptive. In other
patented “Automated Controlled Feeding” words, assumptions are made that if a series
system needs no intervention by the site of feeds are given, or if a daily nutrient
manager. Its main benefit is that there is intake profile is followed, all crops of birds
direct and instant feedback from the birds, will perform as predicted. In the real world,
which controls their immediate feed intake, whilst this may be true on average, this does
instead of waiting for the manager to inter- not happen consistently. Some flocks per-
pret eating times, and then to set the next form better or worse than expected for a
day’s feed intake scale factor. This is particu- variety of reasons. What is really needed is a
larly apparent in turkey pole barns, which system that detects if the flock is deviating
are largely un-insulated, and where house from the desired growth curve, and then
temperatures are affected greatly by exter- automatically makes appropriate adjust-
nal temperatures. Should a sudden drop in ments in real-time to bring birds back on
external temperature occur, then the birds target. In order to construct this model, the
will immediately respond by wanting to eat three-year “Integrated Management Systems
more before they reach satiation. The auto- for Poultry” project started in 1998. A new
matic system responds immediately to the type of mathematical growth model was
demand for greater energy intake. The auto- developed. The new model did not have to
mated system is also independent of the predict feed intake as this was measured
numbers of birds in the house, so errors in continuously. It is designed to make predic-
the records of birds
placed or daily mortality
are irrelevant. Nor does it Table 2 - Field results with automated controlled
depend on the breed feed feeding were better even than skilled
intake targets being accu- stockmanship
rate. Field results show
that results are better
with “Automated Manual Automated Benefit % Benefit
Controlled Feeding” than
Age (days) 48.25 48.0 0.25 0.5%
even skilled stockmen can Weight (kg) 2.60 2.72 0.12 4.5%
produce. Table 2 com- FCR 1.99 1.91 0.08 4.0%
pares two crop results on Mortality % 5.8% 2.23% 3.57 60%
the manual system, with EPEF (PIF) 253 292 39 15%
a further two on the auto- Whole Wheat 15.5 16.0 0.5% 3%
mated system. Each crop
Figure 3 - Feed intake almost always deviates from the target when birds
are allowed to feed ad lib
FEED MIX Volume 10 Number 1 2002 21
tions of the next few day’s growth, using all
actual liveweight, feed intake and nutrient
intake data it has collected. The model
recalculates every 24 hours, using the last
24 hours’ performance data to refine its pre-
dictions. A major difference is that the new
model calculates any changes to feed intake
and/or balanced protein intake that are nec-
essary in order to bring the flock perfor-
mance back on target, based on commercial
data. The model is now substantially com-
plete and the link between it and the
Flockman programme near completion. A
series of evaluation trials is now underway
to establish performance on various sites
before a commercial introduction of the sys-
tem to the market place.
Future developments
This is the first real-time growth model for
broiler production and several extensions
22 FEED MIX Volume 10 Number 1 2002
flow logically from it. Firstly the objective
function could be modified to include
achieving target weights at least cost; min-
imising cost per kg body weight or breast
meat; or maximising margin per bird
placed or per square metre per year. Further
integration, incorporating costs and effects
of maintaining temperature/humidity
and/or cutting pollution would be possible.
An exciting possibility is for the model to
“learn” from further feedback comparing
its own predictions to what actually hap-
pened. It may then be possible for internal
adjustments to the model to be made auto-
matically so the model can effectively “fit”
itself to the circumstances found within a
given integrator’s operation. This would
then automatically take into account differ-
ences in nutrient levels ascribed to feed
ingredients and/or differences in growth
curves and their related nutrient intake pro-
files that do, no doubt, exist between vari-
ous integrators. Commercial adaptation to
other species such as turkeys and ducks are
priorities. ●
References
Cumming, R. B. 1991. Recent advances in Animal
Nutrition in Australia. 1991. Pages 339-344
Cumming, R. B. 1992. Proceedings of Australian
Poultry Science Symposium. February 1992.
University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW. Vol. 4. Pages
46 - 51
Cowan,P.J. and W.Michie. 1978, British Poultry
Science 19, 1-6.
Emmans,G.C. 1977. British Poultry Science 18,
227-236.
Filmer, D. 1991. Feeds & Feeding July / August
1991. Pages 30-33
Yalda,A.Y. and J.M.Forbes. 1995, British Poultry
Science 36, 357-369.
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