Feeding standards - Definition and expression

FEEDING STANDARDS -Definition and expression 

  • Feeding standards are statements or quantitative descriptions of the amounts of one or more such nutrients needed by animals.
  • Feedings standards are the tables, which indicate the quantities of nutrients to be fed to the various classes of livestock for different physiological functions like growth, maintenance, lactation, egg production and wool growth.
  • The nutrient requirements are generally expressed in quantities of nutrients required per day or as a percentage of diet.
  • For dairy animals, nutrient requirements are generally expressed as separate body functions but in case of poultry and pigs, combined requirements of maintenance and other body functions are given.
  • There are two terms, which has been used, in the feeding standards.
  • One is the nutrient allowance and another is the nutrient requirement.
  • The former gives an extra allowance of nutrient over the requirement, which gives a margin of safety whereas latter term gives the requirement for optimum production.
  • For convenience, all such feeding standards are grouped under major heading on the basis of principles of the standards such as
    • Comparative type
    • Digestible nutrient system
    • Production value type.
  • The various feeding standards of the world which are available for feeding of different categories of livestock are given below:

Name of the country
Protein
Energy
NRC (USA)
CP, DCP
TDN, DE, NE
ARC (UK)
DCP, AP
DE, ME
SCANDINAVIA
DTP
FEED UNIT
GERMAN
DCP
SE
INDIA
DCP
TDN,ME

 Where,

CP    = Crude Protein
DCP = Digestible Crude Protein
DTP = Digestible True Protein
AP    =  Available Protein
TDN =  Total Digestible Nutrient
DE   = Digestible Energy
ME = Metabolizable Energy
NE = Net Enrgy
Last modified: Friday, 30 March 2012, 10:30 AM