THE USE OF COMPUTERS IN ANIMAL NUTRITION

Abstract

The use of microcomputers in agricultural enterprises can save time and money. Time can be saved through quicker and more accurate record keeping. Money can be made through more detailed analysis of the agricultural or agri-related business that leads to sound management decisions. As farmers strive to maintain a competitive edge in world markets, the use of computers as a tool to generate timely information to aid in decision making is becoming more widespread. Livestock and feed producers have many possible uses for computers. Computerised linear programmed rations have been used extensively in the feed industry in order to minimise feed costs which are 60-70 % of animal production costs. Diet formulation using computers more efficiently matches diet requirements than do ‘hand‘ methods. The latter methods are very time consuming and are likely to lead to an empirical rather than a ‘least-cost‘ formulation. The former ones have contributed significantly to both the economics of animal nutrition and animal production because they are rapid and enable feed manufacturers to change their formulas frequently as the feed ingredient availability and costs change. Ration formulation using computers has intrigued animal nutritionists and economists in both developed and less developed countries (including some tropical countries), since the sophisticated mathematical linear programme was developed by Dantzig in 1947. Linear programming then began to be explored by animal nutritionists in the late 1950‘s. The practical application of linear programming for feed formulation for animal are briefly described.