Insight Focus
Livestock nutrition drives successful farming operations. Animals are classified as ruminant or monogastric, with nutrition supporting growth, reproduction and productivity. Effective feeding balances energy, protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals and water to meet livestock needs cost effectively.
Humans have farmed livestock for thousands of years providing a huge variety of staples in modern day diets for populations across the globe.
In terms of nutrition and digestion, animals are generally classified as either ruminant or monogastric, with livestock farming practices having evolved into the highly complex enterprises of today. Nutrition has been at the forefront of this progress.
Primarily, animal feed needs to be digestible and be able to provide livestock with all the nutrients that they require for their respective farming operations and objectives, in a cost-effective manner.
When considering nutritional needs, it is critical to focus on the enterprise output objectives, followed by the various stages of productivity given the age of animals.
Animal Physiology
It is critical that animals can regulate their various body functions. For this, they rely upon the nervous and the endocrine systems as means of communication.
This enables them to be sensitive to and regulate numerous aspects of their day-to-day needs, such as temperature, muscle use, internal chemical requirements and metabolism. In addition, these systems enable animals to perform their respective farming needs.
Digestion of feed
Food needs to be broken down and digested in order to provide animals with the necessary components to enable them to function properly.
Digestibility and the resultant ‘Dry Matter Content’ is simply the proportion of a given food that is absorbed by the animal and not excreted.
The percentage of digestible organic matter contained within feed is referred to as the ‘D-value’. The ‘D value’ can be used to assess the nutritive value of a given feed. This process of digestion is executed by the different digestive systems within livestock.
Various foods will be eaten by animals with the breakdown beginning in the mouth or beak, aided by teeth, gums and silva before entering the digestive system. The digestible parts will be absorbed and used, while the non-digestible parts will then be excreted.
It is possible, through analysis to determine a given foods dry matter content and nutrient constitution, such as organic matter, energy and protein content.
Understanding nutrient components of a diet enable the correct feed formulation for livestock to function efficiently, grow and maximise their respective productivity within the relevant farming enterprise.
Animal Needs
All needs will inevitably vary depending upon the livestock type, breed and farming enterprise production requirements. In addition, the age, weight and general health of animals must be factored into ration calculations.
Fundamentally, levels of the following will help with feed formulation:
1. Energy
For the general maintenance and day to day activity, body functions and mere existence of an animal, sufficient energy must be provided by the feed.
In principle, the likes of cereals and concentrate feeds will provide more energy for animals than forage, such as grass, hay and silage.
However, ruminants cannot tolerate the same high levels of cereals within their feed that monogastric livestock can. Thus, ruminants have more forage-based feeding regimes.
2. Protein
Protein is simply a group of compounds, known as amino acids, which form chains. These chains bond together and are the foundations of protein that, in turn, are the building blocks for the majority of an animal.
Ruminants have the added advantage that the fermentation process, using the microbes in their rumens, enables them to produce their own amino acids, which are essentially microbial proteins.
Monogastric animals are unable to replicate this function and thus must have proteins provided within their diet. These can be provided by the likes of high protein ‘meals’, which are by products of other processes. Although costly, they are a valuable asset to ratio formulation.
3. Fibre
Making up a significant proportion of feeds, fibre helps with the digestibility and movement of feed through the digestive system. Good sources of fibre include wheat bran/feed, sugar beet pulp, soya hulls and others.
Ruminants can have a higher proportion of fibre in their diets than non-ruminants.
4. Vitamins & Minerals
Both vitamins and minerals are required for basic metabolic processes within livestock.
Ruminants are able to produce some of their own vitamins, here again having an advantage over their monogastric counterparts who cannot. Both vitamins and minerals can be supplied as additives to feed rations.
5. Water
Essential to life, water should be clean and readily available to livestock to aid with all of their necessary body functions.
Raw Feed Materials
Feedstuffs for livestock can be referred to as either ‘bulky’ or ‘concentrate’ feeds.
Bulky feeds can often be home-produced on the farm, while not all, but many concentrates will be higher cost bought in products from straights traders and feed mills.
Examples of Bulk Feeds:
- Grass grazed in the field
- Grass products, such as hay
- Cereal straw
- Root and green forage crops
- Grass, maize and whole crop silage
Examples of Concentrate Feeds:
- Cereal grains and legume seeds
- Cereal and oilseed by products, such as high protein meals
- High energy feeds, such as molasses and fats
- Feed supplements
Overall…
- Livestock nutrition is at the very heart of any farming operation.
- Feed needs to be appropriate for the digestive system of the animal, ruminant or monogastric.
- Energy, protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals and water must all form the focus of ration formulation.
- Ultimately, the feeding decisions of a farmer will be geared towards achieving the maximum output for the individual farming enterprise, depending upon animal type, breed, age and environment, while doing so in the most cost-effective manner.
- Livestock are what they eat and only the best feeding regime will produce the best results.
