An Introduction to Least-Cost Feed Formulation Software
Published:October 25, 2006
Summary
Purpose The following article is a primer on least-cost formulation. While explaining the fundamentals of least-cost formulation, the author also goes over more advanced features such as shadow prices, price maps and nutrient factoring. This is a must-read for those who want a concise introduction to least-cost formulation. In the not so distant past, feed manufacturers used to balance ...
Elsayed Mickdam, It depends on what you need from the software, and how you are going to use it and what species you need to formulate for:
a. Personal use vs Profesional (Consultant) vs Feed Plant use
b. Ruminants (Ration balancing on dry matter basis) vs Non ruminants (Complete feed formulation on as feed basis).
You will need to try the demo version and choose the one you feel comfortable with.
For complete feed formulation: WinFeed, SysnovaFeed(Free), FeedAcces (Free, online) FeedLive, AFOS. There are other software mainly used at feed plant level like Brill, Alix, Bestmix, WinMix.
For dairy cattle: NDS, AMTS,Spartan 3, FeedExpert, DinaMilk
I personally like AFOS for feed formulation because is not too expensive and have a good funcionalities. WinFeed is also a good one to start but you will need to enter nutritional requirements and feed composition information.
The one mentioned in the original article (Feedsoft), was very good but is not available anymore.
Rogelio BeltranI am exoce and I am a breeder I have just discovered the world of formulation software like sysnova and winfeed and for the use I have no problem the worries I have where I can say the question I ask myself is to know about the nutritional values ??of foods because everything I find on the net is different from each other so if I can get help from you regarding a table of nutrients with their composition it will be very useful thank you for your time I hope to hear from you
DR ABUBAKAR GENE ,
Try WinFeed 2.8 (http://www.winfeed.com) wich is not expensive, AFOS (http://animalfeedsoftware.com/index.php) has 3 different versions, in general is not expensive, SysnovaFeed ( https://www.sysnova.com/SysnovaFeed), is free. Contact me if you need more help.
Thanks for your explanation. I am a familiar in poultry ration formulation. as you said we need to know more about the animal requirement mainly minerals, mineral ratio such as ca:p and Na: Cl, and DEB,.... and of-course the chicken species
Thanks again for your information which it is very valuable especially the software.
K. Indira , you can use any software available commercially. Depending what you need that software can be very simple or more complete. Try WinFeed 2.8 (http://www.winfeed.com) wich is not expensive, AFOS (http://animalfeedsoftware.com/index.php) has 3 different versions, in general is not expensive, SysnovaFeed ( https://www.sysnova.com/SysnovaFeed), is free. There are a lot more.
