Animal Nutrition - Chapter 1 Notes

What is animal nutrition?

The focus of how and what animals need to retain to properly grow, survive, and maintain correct health.

What are the 6 most important nutrients in order of importance?

1. Water

2. Protein

3. Carbohydrates

4. Fats

5. Minerals

6. Vitamins

What are the different types of feed with examples?

1. Fodder (hay, pellets, silage, slop, chicken scratch, etc)

2. Forage (plant materials, pasture grass, etc)

Why is animal nutrition important?

This formulation of feed is necessary for the growth, health, and performance of animals.

What are complete rations and examples?

Combinations of feed like vitamins, chemically prepared inorganic salts, and synthesized amino acids. (quality and assortment of the nutrients is key!)

Steps for making animal feed.

1. Raw material

2. Crushing

3. Mixing

4. Pelletizing

5. Cooling

6. Crumbier

7. Sieving

8. Packaging

9. FEED

Environmental aspects of animal nutrition.

Healthy animals will produce high quality products which are also good for the soil, water, and air.

What are the sub-categories of nutrients for analysis?

1. Feed

   a. water

   b. ash

   c. Carbohydrates (crude fiber and nitrogen free extract)

   d. Crude Protein

   e. Fat/ ether extract

What are the steps for proximate anaylsis of feed (Weende analysis)?

1. Sample feed as much as possible

2. Dry feed

3. Ground feed

4. Mix feed for subsampling

Drying explanation:

To determine the water content of a feed. The mass of feed is measured before and after drying, and the loss in mass is the water content, so the leftover is Dry Matter.

What does Crude Protein analyze?

It measures the nitrogen content in a feed.

What does ether extract determine?

It determines the fat content and extracts the dried matter in organic solvents. The ether extract is taken out and the loss in mass is the fat content.

What is ash?

Ash is the remaining residue after nutrients have been burned off.

What is Crude Fiber?

It is the indigestible cell wall of plants.

What is the detergent fiber system?

It separates the digestible cell contents of plants from the non-digestible cell wall.

Difference between NDF and ADF.

NDF (neutral detergent fiber) consists of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin.

ADF (acid detergent fiber) has cellulose and lignin.

Hemicellulose= NDF- ADF

Equation for Dry Matter.

Dry weight / fresh weight (100) = % dry matter.

Equation for Crude Protein.

Nitrogen (6.25) = Crude Protein

Equation for % nitrogen-free extract.

100% DM - (% DM + % Protein + % Minerals + % Crude Fiber) = % NFE