国外的饲料配方软件 Feed Formulation Software

Feed Formulation Software

- A Comparative Study

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

With increased computer capabilities and improved software feed rations can be calculated in almost unlimited numbers. Still, linear programming is the system of choice in the industry, but there are quite a few providers of software programs. Dr. Pratiksha Saxena has gone through the programs.

Feed formulation is an important aspect of livestock and animal industry for any country. The development of feed industry in a country directly depends on the quality of feed supplied. Quality of feed is based on quality of raw materials, which are used to constitute the animal diet. A diet should supply all essential nutrients and energy to maintain vital physiological functions of growth, reproduction and health of animals. A quality diet should supply all the necessary nutrients in adequate quantity with high digestibility.

 

Another important aspect is ensuring good environmental conditions and animal yield based on nutrition of the animal. While formulating the animal diet it is very important to consider that the diet should include all essential nutrients in adequate quantity with consideration of cost. The diet should be in a form which is easily acceptable to the animal and have minimal adverse environmental effects.

 

This article gives comparison of eight feed formulation software based on specific inputs and interface applications, During the past few years, computer use has progressively increased to minimize the time needed for calculation of ration formulation. This article represents a basic of feed formulation and use of programs for this purpose.

 

Various formulation methods

 

There are various methods defined for feed formulation, but appropriateness of the method depends upon the objective for which diet it is to be formulated. Be fore formulating an animal diet, feeding standard tables for various livestock are to be considered. Then different ingredients premixes are included in the diet according to the purpose of study. A number of conventional and non-conventional methods are defined for this purpose. Conventional approaches for feed formulation are: Simultaneous equation method, trial-and-error method, two by two matrix method and square method. After this pioneer work new methods came: Linear programming, stochastic programming, goal programming, least-cost formulation and non-linear programming.For feed formulation one requires to know about the various nutrient values of each feed ingredient. Nutrient values vary according to animals and their age, so formulation is to be done at various stages in the animal’s life. This is a tedious job to do manually where as a computer can perform various calculations within no time. As the number of ingredients and complexity increases, it becomes very difficult to program it manually. In the modern era of technology, computer assisted formulation in reasonable sized feed mills is common practice. The systems calculate nutrient requirements of the animal, program in nutrient profile and use the feed library. It explores various ration balancing programs. Hereafter several software applications for feed formulation are described features of different available software, platforms in which they work and requirements are defined here in detail.

 

FeedLIVE

 

This software (www.liveinformatics.com) is meant for least-cost feed formulation and it is bilingual in Thai and English language. It uses linear programming to formulate the diet and use MS-Windows applications.

 

After opening the program, nutrient components of ingredients are defined which are to be used in the formula. After this specification of nutritional requirement, ingredients and its limitations are added and then by pressing the formulate button,  a least-cost feed formulation is obtained. FeedLIVE has the ability to analyze existing formula, like a backward operation. It can be used with any kind of animal – swine, poultry or cattle etc. The only specification which is needed is to define whether it should calculate for a ruminant or non-ruminant animal. FeedLIVE can formulate feed from 1-10,000 kg batch size.

 

Feed MU

 

Feed MU (http://feedmu.codeplex.com) is a simple feed formulation software, which is based on trial-and-error method and a simple method of linear programming. It enhances view point transfer requirement data and ingredient data. Then it saves the formula and reports in PDF format. It can manage animal requirements composition for formulating a well-balanced diet. It is designed for feed manufacturers, feed formulators, nutritionists and veterinarians. It can be used to formulate simple feed for animal farms and complex feed for feed mills. FeedMU is aWindows-based application developed using Visual Basic, a full featured.NET application for feed formulation. 

 

FeedMU has recently been upgraded to a new version FeedMu 2, which uses .NET framework 2.0 technologies. It opens multi-formula and bilingual in English and Thai. It shows old cost, current cost, old weight and current weight for comparison and uses a new interface for expression creation and checkable created expression. It also creates a set of ingredients, which can be added, modified and deleted directly into the grid.

 

Feed Formulation

 

Feed formulation (www.kasturi.info/feed.htm) is software which is used to formulate the optimum diet. It uses two functions: optimize and analysis. The optimize tool uses linear programming for optimizing Feed Formulation at least-cost. The analysis tool is used to modify the results obtained from the optimize tool. Sometime the optimize tool can provide impractical results which are modified by the analysis tool. It uses a trial-and-error method for the modifications. The calculates and shows the nutrients’ values and the formula cost upon entering the ingredients’ quantity and price rate. This process can be done until a desired result is obtained. It formulates the diet for sheep, pig, fish, broilers and layers. The operating system is Windows XP with SP2/Windows 2000 with SP4/Windows Server 2003 with SP1/Windows Vista.

 

Win Feed

WinFeed (www.winfeed.com) is a very simple and straightforward software, which prepares least-cost formula diets for ruminants and non-ruminants by using linear and stochastic programming method. Most of the controls are self-explanatory in this software.

WinFeed allows the savings of animals’ nutrient requirement in one file and the feed store (Ingredient Composition Database) in another file. After selecting feed store, a main window appears where ingredient are selected to be used in formulation. Nutrient requirement, their price and nutrient composition are entered manually in the main window. Animal requirements from an Excel file are imported into WinFeed. The formulation method can be selected as linear or stochastic. The probability box will be automatically enabled if the formulation method is selected as stochastic. After fixing the minimum and maximum limits for nutrients, the ingredient formula is saved and its nutrient analysis is saved in a text file. This text file can be opened in Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel for further processing.

 

Other available packages and not mentioned in this article (in random order):

1.    Feedsoft – www.feedsoft.com

2.    Feed Management System – www.feedsys.com

3.    Creative Formulation Concepts – www.agri-data.com

4.    Global Mix – www.formatinternational.com

5.    WinPas – www.winpas.com

6.    Alfablend – www.fnt.com

7.    Feedmania – htpp://saltbush.une.edu.au

8.    Precision Feeding – www.dinamicagenerale.com

9.    Maximix – www.ndcontrols.com

10.  Autofeed – www.feedlab.eu

Eco-Mix

 

This software (www.logicsoftsolutions.com) is Windows based and prepares for any kind of balanced feed with least-cost based on ingredient group and type of feed. Specifications for standard rations are available as default and formulas can be compared with standard feed types. Modifications like updating, creation of new ingredients, nutrients and feed types can be performed very easily. Nutrient values of feed ingredient can be modified as per the specifications. To reduce the cost of the feed, Eco-Mix will indicate substitution of ingredients with the rate in ascending order and nutrients values in descending order. It also monitors the changes of ingredient rates and profit-loss per tonne.

 

Best Mix

BestMix Feed (www.adifo.be) is an advanced least-cost feed formulation and optimization package. The main functions of this software are multiblend and ingredient allocation, advanced labeling, bulk blending etc. It is SQL database and Microsoft Windows certified. It is a multi-language program which can handle multi-company and multi-plant operations as one, in clusters, but also as separate simultaneous operations. All functionalities are completely integrated and can easily be navigated. It is fully integrated in the Microsoft environment and sales support functions.

 

OptiMIX

OptiMix 4.1 (www.domit.com.br) is a software package to create and manage feed formulas for small to large feed producers. It is embedded with multi-client, multi-plant, multi-product and multi-user capabilities. It has a Windows interface and allows date to be exported to MS Word and Excel. The Corporate package can work in a network and can be integrated with database management software like Oracle, MS SQL, etc. It also provides a tool for data integration between the main office computer and remote, off-line systems.

 

By Dr. Pratiksha Saxena

Department of Mathematics, BLS Institute of Management, Ghaziabad India