COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR

FORMULATION OF MINIMUM COST DIETS

IN RUMINANTS

USE AND OPERATION MANUAL

AGRICULTURAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

“AGROSIS”

Santiago de Chile, 1999

AEZO FD for Windows

AEZO FD for Windows is a minimum-cost ration

formulation system based on linear programming and
developed in Visual Basic. The objective of the formulation
is to determine the best possible combination, within a set
of available foods, so that the calculated quantities meet the
requirements of the animals and at the same time minimize
the cost of the ration. The system creates the linear
programming model and solves it, providing information
on diet identification, available foods and type of
requirement.

Among the main advantages that can be mentioned when

formulating diets using a computer program, the following
can be mentioned:

ÿ Quick responses are obtained, allowing any change in

requirements, prices or nutritional values to be made.
ÿ A high number of ingredients can be handled.
ÿ Nutrient and ingredient restrictions may be included.
ÿ It allows you to obtain additional information on the
final result that you can use as elements of judgment
for the purchase of raw materials and to improve
production levels.

To formulate a ration, it is necessary to have information

that must be entered into the program to make the
calculations. This corresponds to the constraints of the
mathematical model and the nutrient contribution of each
food or ingredient available along with its price. The
system's database is very flexible and has information that
you can expand according to the usual and available foods
in the work area.

It is important to note that the program is just a tool and the

results will be good as long as the information used is
reliable. On the other hand, it must be taken into account at
all times that the results that the program finds are based on
the mathematical feasibility of the ration, which does not
necessarily coincide with its practical feasibility. That is,
according to the species and type of animal, there will be
certain food restrictions that must be verified in the
formulation of the ration, as well as analyzing the general
structure of the diet, seeking to ensure that it is easy to
prepare and handle. For example, in the case of dairy cows,
the program will not distinguish the quality of protein
unless it is included as a new nutrient and the use of non-
protein nitrogen sources is restricted, which must be done
according to the technical criteria of the formulator.

STRUCTURE OF THE AEZO FD

The AEZO FD is a fairly simple system to use with a very

easy to understand structure. You must indicate to the
program the type of ration to be calculated and the foods
from the database that can be used.

Once a diet has been entered in which the foods and

requirements to be considered have been selected,
modifications can be made to such specifications, such as
deleting or adding available ingredients, restricting an
ingredient to a minimum or maximum quantity, changing
the composition of an ingredient, modifying the value of a
requirement, etc.

It is important that you consider the following points that

will help you avoid making mistakes:

1. Food databases are managed “in green”, meaning that

the percentages of nutrients in foods must be entered
on the fresh composition and not on dry matter.
2. Likewise, food restrictions are made in kilograms of
“green” food.
3. The constraints of the ruminant model are: maximum
dry matter, minimum dry matter, metabolizable energy,
crude protein, crude fiber, calcium, phosphorus, neutral
detergent fiber and rumen-degradable protein, but the
system allows the possibility of expanding them to
thirty. In the case of birds, constrictions refer, in
addition to the first five nutrients mentioned, to six
amino acids: lysine, methionine, cystine, tryptophan,
arginine and threonine. And for the pig program, as in
the previous case, in addition to the first five nutrients,
they include: lysine, methionine+cystine, tryptophan
and threonine.
4. The prices are unitary, they are given for one kilogram
of “green” food.
5. The system is based on the use of metabolizable
energy. If you want to use another form of energy, you
must enter it as a new nutrient and ensure that each
food has its content in those units. Likewise, you must
enter a new requirement expressed in the same units.
6. In general, whether the system databases and the
“default” configuration of the system are used, there is
always the possibility of modifying any data, whether
it be the composition or price of the food, or referring
to the requirements.
7. The cost of the ration, in the case of AEZO FD
Ruminants, refers to the cost of the total ration, while
in the Pigs and Poultry modules, we work with prices
per kilogram of calculated ration.

To operate the system, you must follow the following steps:

1. Enter foods, with their green matter composition, and

sets of requirements most commonly used on campus.
2. Formulate the diet, that is, indicate the potentially
available ingredients and the set of requirements that
identify the group of animals and the productive
condition in which they are.
3. A first run is done without restrictions of any kind. It is
analyzed and according to its results, the necessary
modifications are made.
4. The diet is run again, reviewing the calculated results.
5. If adjustments are needed, make the necessary
modifications and run again.

In the diagram on the next page you can see in general how
the system works.

COMPUTATIONAL FEATURES OF THE AEZO FD

The AEZO FD diet formulation system is made up of a set

of compiled, but unprotected, programs. It can run on any
compatible PC with at least Windows 95 installed. It is
available on 3.5” diskettes, in CD format and on the
Internet through the AGROSIS website, which you will
find with a link from the address: http//www.agroneg.com.

This program is designed in Visual Basic 5.0. It is made up

of three modules that can be purchased separately:

ÿ AEZO FD - Ruminants
ÿ AEZO FD - Pigs
ÿ AEZO FD - Birds

It is perfectly compatible with files from the previous

version of DOS (AEZO FD) in its poultry and pig modules.
In the case of ruminants, the DOS version did not maintain
compatibility as two new nutrients were included in the
formulation: rumen-degradable protein and neutral
detergent fiber.

The Ruminants module contains 21 files with a total weight

of 2.73 MB. There are files with a DAT extension that are
delivered optionally and correspond to files with food data
and requirements. The bases included in the CD are simple
examples to show the manipulation of data, but in no case
should they be considered as a suggestion for the
composition of a particular food or a recommendation for a
specific requirement.

SYSTEM INSTALLATION

If you have the CD or Diskettes

q Put the CD or Diskette 1 of the AEZO FD – Ruminants

in the corresponding drive of your computer (CD ROM
or Diskette) and make sure that your PC has recognized
it.
q Enter Start and within it choose Run.
q Enter the Browse option and select the drive that
corresponds to the drive you will be working with (CD-
ROM, normally “D:” or the Disk Drive, “A:”). When
reading the program, the Set up file will appear.
Choose it and then it should appear in the addressing
window as you can see on the screen below.
q Finally choose the Accept option.

The system will begin the installation and automatically

create a new folder on your computer's hard drive where it
will save the program under the name AezoRum. Once
installed, it will show you a notification that the program
was installed successfully. In the case of floppy disks, after
the first diskette, you will be asked on the screen to enter
the second one. You can access the program directly from
Windows Explorer, by clicking twice on the executable
file or by directly dragging the icon to the screen for direct
access.

Direct access
to AezoRum

If you install the program from the Internet

The website is under construction at the moment.

TO START WITH AEZO RUMINANTS

Once AezoRum has been run, the start screen will be

displayed that will show you the general options that the
program has, which are activated directly by positioning
yourself over the option with the mouse and clicking on
them. The screen you will see will be the following.

AEZO FD 3.0 for Windows

Ruminants

Formulate a diet
Food Table
Requirements Table

In addition to this screen, there is a main work screen. In it

you will find a toolbar at the top, from where you can direct
the different options that the system has. The main screen
will look like this.
Bar of
Tools

MODULE: INITIAL DATA

The first option in the toolbar is the Initial Data , from

where the information necessary to Formulate a diet is
entered, understood as the identification of the ration (to
create its file), the foods to be used and its characteristics,
and the requirements for the type of animal. It also allows
the management of databases to enter/delete foods and/or
requirements, or simply to make any desired modification
to the characteristics of the foods and/or requirements.
Finally, the last option of this module allows you to exit the
system. This is the menu that you will see when entering
this option.

\ Calculation of diets for Ruminants

Initial data Results Modify the formulation About

Formulate a diet
Food table management Requirements table
management Exit the system

1. FORMULATE A DIET

The first submenu of Initial data is Formulate a diet that

allows, through a series of consecutive screens, to request
the information that will be required to carry out a ration.
This information refers to identification of the diet,
selection of foods to be used and selection of the animal's
requirements according to the type of animal for which it is
being formulated.

When the ration is identified, a file with the RMC

extension is created that will record the ration that was last
calculated. The ration name must have a maximum of eight
characters and must not have any periods or blank spaces
between them. When naming the ration, the displayed
screen requests additional information to specify the type of
ration that will be formulated. These are not process data,
but simply informative.

By double clicking on the “Ration name” box you can

access the AEZO file directory, from where you can
recover a previously prepared file. To finish the
identification, click on the lower right button “continue”. A
new screen will appear offering you the foods that exist in
the program's database, so you can choose those that you
will consider for the formulation.

The foods are chosen in the window on the left, where you
must choose one by one those foods that you are going to
use and move them to the window on the right “Selected
foods” using the “>” symbol. In case you have made a
mistake, or simply want to remove a food, simply mark it
by clicking on it and with the “<” symbol you can return it
to the food database. A maximum of 20 foods can be
selected.

However, the foods listed are not the only ones that can be
used. The system only has some examples and you can
enter the foods you want by activating the “Add food”
button that appears in the lower left. Another way to add
foods is from the “Food table management” submenu from
where you can access the same previous option “Add
food”. The screen you will see is below.
When you finish selecting your foods, click on “Continue”
and a new screen will appear offering you the opportunity
to verify the composition of the foods in terms of Dry
Matter, Metabolizable Energy, Crude Protein, Crude Fiber,
Calcium , Phosphorus, Degradable Protein in the rumen
and Neutral Detergent Fiber. If you would like to consider
other nutrients in your formulation, you can enter them
from the “Modify formulation”/ “nutrients”/ “include
nutrient” menu .

The next screen will offer you the prices that the system
will consider for each selected food. If you want to modify
any of them, just click on the price in question and the box
at the top of the list will be activated, where you must write
the new figure and enter it with Enter. The system
recognizes the comma and the period as separators of the
integer and decimal part of a number, so you can use either
form.

The last data requested by the program is requirements. The

system has a database of requirements for seven types of
animals, as an example. As can be seen in the following
screen, three correspond to fattening steers and four to
cows of different productive levels. If your animal falls into
one of these categories, you can choose the appropriate one
and a table will automatically appear at the bottom showing
the values that will be considered.
As in the previous cases, the system allows you to make
modifications to existing requirements or otherwise design
your own requirements. In the first case, you simply have
to activate the box you want to modify with the mouse and
write the new data. In the second case, you must enter the
submenu “Management of requirements table” and
choose the “new requirement” option.

2. FOOD CHART MANAGEMENT

This option will allow you to access a table that lists all the
foods entered into the system database with their respective
composition characteristics (nutritive value) and price.
Remember that food data is handled “in green”. The screen
that will be displayed is the same as the one you see below
and can be printed directly.
From this module you can enter new foods by activating
the Add food button below, after which a line will be
activated at the end of the table with the name of the new
food that must be filled in according to its composition as
seen below. continuation. If you want to delete any food,
just mark it and operate the “Delete line” button.

3. MANAGEMENT OF REQUIREMENTS TABLE

This alternative allows you to update, delete, consult, list

and/or print the requirements saved in the system database.
This file is designed for daily requirements of an animal.

The screen has two buttons at the bottom, the first deletes
the entire row where the information for a requirement is
located if desired, and the other allows the entry of a new
requirement, automatically creating a row with the name of
the new type of animal. and the boxes corresponding to
 each nutrient requirement that must be filled out according
to the user's data. In the following example you can see
how a new row was created for the requirements of a calf.

=. Requirements table

DRY MAT DRY MAT ENERGY PROTEIN CALCIUM PHOSPHOR

Max (Kg) MIN (Kg] MET. (meal) C (Kg) CRUDE (Gt) US (Gf)
FIBER (Kg)
steer 500 1 16.5000 15.4000 32.3000 1.4600 2.6200 80.0000 70.0000
bull 400 1 14.4000 12.6000 24.8000 1.2400 2.0000 80.0000 70.0000
steer 300 1 11.2000 21.6000 1.0800 1.6700 80.0000 50.0000
aeooo
extra cows 2 24.0000 22.5000 61.0000 3.4500 3.5000 140.0000 90.0000
cows 25 It. 2 20.5000 19.0000 50.0000 2.8000 3.1200 120.0000 80.0000
cows 20 It. 2 20.5000 19.0000 45.0000 2.4500 3.1200 100.0000 70.0000
cows 15 It. 1 17.5000 16.2000 37.4000 2.0000 2.6000 80.0000 60.0000
Calf

4. GET OUT OF THE SYSTEM

Finally, the last option in this menu, “Exit System” , allows

you to leave AEZO Rum, automatically saving the
modifications made and the file created for the ration as
long as it has been displayed in Results .

MODULE: RESULTS

Once the “Initial Data” is completed, you can display the

results from the “Results” option that you will find in the
toolbar. The calculation of the ration is carried out
internally and automatically as soon as this option is
activated.

This module allows displaying both the calculated ration,

as well as the foods that were not considered, the
requirements that served as the basis for the calculation and
the restrictions that were imposed, the nutritional values of
the foods that were considered as alternatives and their
nutritional contributions to the final ration. Let's review
each of the options.
1. SOLUTION DEPLOYMENT

Activating this option displays the results in the format

seen below. In the upper right box, an announcement will
appear about the mathematical feasibility of the ration,
which may be FEASIBLE or, failing that, INFACTIBLE. If
the ration is “FEASIBLE”, you will be able to see the
calculated diet in the upper table where the selected foods
and the quantities in which they are included in the ration
appear, so that in the last column you can see the cost of
each food. the diet, according to the quantities considered,
and finally the total cost of the ration.

In the second table are those foods that were not considered
for the formulation of the ration and together with a
calculation of how much their price should be reduced to be
considered in the ration.

The results can be printed directly by clicking the “Print”

button located at the bottom right.

2. DEPLOYMENT OF REQUIREMENTS AND

RESTRICTIONS

On this screen, the contributions of the ration are displayed

compared to the requirements of the animal. The last
column shows the difference between these quantities so
that the limiting nutrients or those deficiencies that are
making the ration infeasible can be analyzed. Any
restrictions that the user has entered are also listed. See the
screen below.
3. DEPLOYMENT OF NUTRITIONAL VALUE

With this option, the nutritional composition of the

ingredients used is displayed so that the user can verify that
the values considered in the ration are correct.

4. DISPLAY OF CONTRIBUTION BY
INGREDIENT

This last option shows a table detailing the contributions by

nutrient that each of the foods makes to the ration. In this
table you can analyze the foods that are being considered as
the main source of each nutrient. Ingredients that were not
considered are also listed, but their contributions are
quantified as 0 in the boxes.
MODULE: MODIFY THE FORMULATION

This module has three options that allow you to make

changes to the nutrient and food data, include foods and
make restrictions, and finally include nutrients. It is very
useful when adjusting the calculated rations until reaching
those that are technically feasible and/or applicable.

1. FOOD, NUTRIENTS, PRICES

This option allows you to make any modification in the

values given to the foods used in the formulation, in terms
of their nutrient composition and price.

2. FOOD

This submenu also presents two options: Include or

exclude foods and Restrict foods. The first allows you to
display a screen equal to the one in which the foods were
initially chosen within Initial data/Ration formulation . The
foods remaining in the database will appear and the choice
will be made in a similar way as it was done the first time,
moving the foods from the left window to the right
window. Once accepted as new foods, the program will ask
you to verify the composition of that (those) new food(s),
showing you a table with the composition data and then
another with prices. After including the new foods, display
results again and verify that the new foods have been
considered in the new formulation.

The second option allows you to enter, modify and/or

remove food restrictions. The screen that will be displayed
when activated will be the following:

The table that appears there offers you the option to choose
the food on which you want to impose a restriction. Any
square is activated by standing on it. You must not forget to
use Enter to enter each data. First specify whether this is a
maximum or
 minimum and then write the amount of food “in green” (as
fed) and in kilograms, which must be considered. After
making the restriction, display the result and verify that it
has been considered in the new formulation.

3. NUTRIENTS

If you wish to formulate your ration with a nutrient other

than those provided by the system or an additional nutrient,
this is the option that will allow you to do so. Upon
entering, you will find a screen like the one you see below,
where you can move the requirements from the window
from the right to the left or vice versa according to those
nutrients you want to consider. At the bottom left you will
see an “Add Nutrient” button, which will allow you to
include new options. When you activate it, a box will
appear on the right that says “new nutrient” where you
must write the name of the nutrient that will be added and
press “Add nutrient” again. Verify that the new name
appears in the right window under “Selected Nutrients.”
In the previous example, the nutrient “ZINC (GR)” was
added. When you click Continue , a table will appear (see
below) that you must fill out with the contributions of each
food selected for the ration with respect to the new nutrient.
Finally click on Exit and the data will be automatically
stored.

When formulating the new ration with the restriction,

verify that it appears in the “display of requirements” and
that it has been met. In this example, a minimum type
requirement was considered and appears to be met with the
contributions of the selected foods.

Finally, in the last option of the About toolbar, you will

find information regarding the provider of this software.
EXAMPLES AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

EXAMPLE 1A: AVERAGE PRODUCTION COWS IN

GRAZING

A ration will be formulated for a cow of 500 kg live weight

with a production of 20 liters per day. The foods available
immediately are the following: corn grain, green alfalfa,
tricalcium phosphate and triticale.

Step 1: Data Entry

Once you enter the program, choose the first option “Ration
formulation” on the main screen and enter the identification
data of your ration as seen on the following screen.

Choose from the food base those that were previously set as
those of immediate availability.
 In the next two screens (as can be seen below) you will be
shown the nutritional composition of the chosen foods and
their prices, according to the information in the database.
Verify that these values are correct and continue. If you
would like to make any corrections, you can do so by
directly activating the box in which you want to change the
information by clicking on it. It is important to mention that
all changes made within a portion are recorded only within
that file and do not modify the database. If you want to
make permanent changes to your data, do so from the Food
database.

Nutritional
composition of foods

Prices of the
food

Next, select the requirement according to the production of

the animal, in this case 20 l, and verify that the values
offered (which come from the requirements database) are
correct as seen below. Finally, click on “Finish”.
Step 2: Interpretation and Analysis of Results

Once on the Main Menu screen, activate the “Results”

module and choose the first option: “Solution
Deployment”. The result of the calculation will
immediately appear on the screen informing you if it was
Feasible or Infeasible. In addition, two windows will
appear, the first will show you the calculated diet and the
second will show those ingredients that were not included
in the diet as well as the price they should have to be
considered in the formulation.

In this case, we can see that the result was UNFACTIBLE

and in order to analyze the causes of this result, we have
the following three options in this module: “Display of
Requirements”, “Display of nutritional value” and “Display
of contribution x ingredient ”. The first of them will allow
you to see which requirements are being covered with the
calculated ration and which are not, and in what quantity.
This option presents the requirement per nutrient, the total
contributions of the diet in each nutrient and the balance
between these values. Let's see what happened on the
calculated diet.
In the balance it can be seen that the ration does not meet
the NDF requirements. When one of the requirements
cannot be met, it is necessary to incorporate new ingredient
options into the ration calculation. In this case we will
include corn silage, which means that we will make a
modification to the ration and we will have to do it from the
corresponding submenu.

By activating the Include/Exclude foods option, the screen

that was presented when entering foods the first time will
be displayed again, where you can add those foods that are
considered necessary and/or accessible.
Once the new food is entered, you will be asked to verify
its composition and price. Once this is done, go to the
“Results” submenu again and display the solution.
Once again the result of the diet is UNFACTIBLE and to
analyze the causes we display the following screen.

Now it can be seen that the calculated ration does not meet
the requirement for degradable protein and for that reason
the diet is infeasible. Therefore, protein sources should be
added as new options. In this case, bran raps and fish meal
will be chosen. The procedure followed is the same as the
previous one, except that this time two foods will be
included.

Once the modification is made, we run the program again

and display the result. Now the ration turned out to be
FEASIBLE with a total cost of $327.06. Now that
mathematically, the ration is viable, it will be necessary to
review its practical viability and review the amounts of
food that the program has included in the diet, ensuring that
they are not dangerous or harmful to the animal's health.

The diet is based on three foods: green alfalfa, corn silage

and fish meal. Green alfalfa has no restrictions on its
consumption in quantity but rather requires good animal
and forage management to avoid bloating problems. Corn
silage forms approximately 20% of the DM consumed,
which is within acceptable limits and fish meal is included
in a small amount (320 g) that will ensure the contribution
of Methionine and Lysine to the diet.

In conclusion, the diet meets the requirements efficiently

and has no drawbacks in its application. You can display
this diet in the program, the file name is EJEM_1.RMC.

EXAMPLE 2A: HIGH PRODUCTION COWS m

A ration will be formulated for a cow of 600 kg live weight

with a production of 35 liters per day. The foods available
immediately are the following: corn silage, grain oats, fish
meal, wheat straw and urea.

Solution

As in the previous example, the first step is to offer the

initial data to the program. Once this is done, and by
displaying the results we can see that the calculated diet
was FEASIBLE. This means that the next step to follow is
to verify the technical applicability of the diet.
The calculated diet included three foods: corn silage, oat
grains and urea. The first observation to the solution is due
to the high percentage of silage considered: 91.8% of the
DM of the diet, which could cause physiological disorders
at the rumen level. Feeding standards for dairy cows allow
the inclusion of silages up to 30% of the DM consumed by
the animal. Therefore, it will be necessary to make a
restriction on this food and you should remember that the
restrictions are made “in green”. The calculations to
determine the maximum amount to be included are:
Consumption: 24 kg MS
Restriction: MAX 30% of the DM consumed
MS Corn Silage = 32%
Silage (Kg DM) = 24 * 0.3 = 7.2 Kg
Silage (Kg of MV) = 7.2 / 0.32 = 22.5 Kg

Then the restriction for the ration will refer to NOT

including more than 22.5 kg of corn silage. Restrictions are
made from “Modify a formulation”/“Foods”/”Restrict a
food”, as follows:
Once again we display the result to see the new calculation
and the ration has become UNFACTIBLE. This means that
by not allowing the program to take more silage, it has not
found another way to meet the requirements. Let's look at
the “Solution” screens.

In this last screen of “Restrictions and Requirements” we

can see that the ration fails to meet the energy requirement
(-2.35) so we will have to enter new energy food options.
Furthermore, the share of fishmeal is high, so we will give
another vegetable protein food and see if the program
considers it.

Within “Modify the formulation”/ “Food”/ “Include or

Exclude”, two new foods are chosen: fatty acids and
rapeseed bran.
We deploy the new ration and analyze it. This time it
turned out FEASIBLE. However, there are two
observations, the first refers to the high fatty acid content
that could cause a deactivation of the rumen function by
reducing the functionality of the microorganisms that are
covered by a film around them. Therefore it will be
necessary to restrict fat.

On the other hand, the “Requirements and restrictions”

table clearly shows us that both calcium and phosphorus
are active restrictions (difference equal to 0.0) which makes
us think that these nutrients are being taken from a specific
food and if we make available Another low-cost food that
meets these requirements will surely be taken.
Therefore, it will be necessary to restrict fatty acids.
According to recommendations, its energy contribution
should not exceed 16% of the total metabolizable energy
consumed. Let's do the math.

EM consumption = 61 Mcal
Fatty Acid Restriction = 16% of ME consumption
ME Fatty Acids = 8 Mcal/kg MS
MS Fatty Acids = 85%

Consumption of A.Fats = 61 * 0.16 = 9.76 Mcal/ 8

= 1.22 kg MS A. Fat /0.85 = 1.43 Kg MV A. Fatty

As a source of Calcium and Phosphorus we will include

tricalcium phosphate. The solution obtained is the
following.
The new solution is also FEASIBLE. The program took
tricalcium phosphate, which means we were correct in
making the above assumption.

There is still one modification to make to this diet. When

working with high milk production, it is important to
provide a good quality protein to be able to supply the
limiting amino acids. From this point of view, it is
recommended that the diet contain at least 0.5 kg of fish
meal or other protein food of animal origin. In this case, the
program did not include fishmeal, so we will have to force
it to do so. To achieve this we will use a new restriction,
but of type MINIMUM.

The result we obtain is FEASIBLE and appears to be a

good diet, but we would have to consider the way of
offering the food, so that the content of straw or oats is not
a problem. The straw would have to be chopped and the
oats ground.

There is another alternative, and that is to include a new

food that could provide effective fiber and reduce the
participation of straw. Let's try alfalfa hay and see the
results.
The solution was FEASIBLE, alfalfa hay was considered in
the formulation, which decreased the participation of
wheat. In addition, oats were left out, resulting in a good
diet with no observations of any kind.

The ration we finally get is FEASIBLE. In the program you

will find this example with the name EJEM_1B.RMC.

EXAMPLE 1B: FIELDING HEERS

A ration will be formulated for steers of 400 kg live weight

with a daily gain of 600 g per day. The foods available
immediately are the following: pork guano, wheat straw,
melazan, almond nuts and tricalcium phosphate.

Solution

The first run of the program is UNFACTIBLE since the

crude protein requirements cannot be met, as can be seen in
the following screens.
It is important to analyze that the nitrogen supply in the diet
is largely of non-protein origin. Therefore, we will try to
add a real protein source that is very cheap such as first cut
hay.
#. Solution AND
Serving name Type of cattle Weight Production formulated by: Solution:
EXEM_1B r 400 ¡00g
igrosis jlNFACTIBLE

Requirements and restrictions

Set of database
Name Restriction Type Amount Royal Difference requirements for:
(MAX/MIN) Contribution
steer 400

MAX 14.40 14.40 0.00

DRY MAT MAX DRY
MIN 12.60 14.40 1.80
MAT MIN ENERGY
MIN 24.80 24.80 0.00
MET. (Meal) CRUDE
MIN 1.24 .90 -.34
PROTEIN CRUDE
MIN 2.00 5.10 3.10
FIBER (Kg) CALCIUM MIN 80.00 80.00 0.00
(Gr) PHOSPHORUS MIN 24.80 75.68 50.88
(Gr) PDR(Prot.DegR)Kg MIN .64 .67 .02
NDF (Fibr.Det.N) Kg MIN 6.48 6.48 0.00

The new ration is FEASIBLE. Indeed the program turned

to alfalfa hay to largely meet the protein requirements. This
could be considered a good portion, however, if you want
to experience something more we could try to lower the
price perhaps with some other food. For example, energy is
active restriction (difference is equal to 0.0) therefore we
can include some type of fat.

Print salif

This diet also appears FEASIBLE and technically

applicable. The price of the ration is reduced, but very
little. An important aspect to analyze when achieving the
final diets is to analyze the ease of handling of the mixture.
In this case, for example, it will surely be more convenient
to maintain the first diet than to apply the second since the
latter involves the management of fat, which is always a
problem when achieving homogeneous mixtures.

You will find this example in the program as the file

EJEM_1B.RMC.