Gene Pesti

@Antônio Mário Penz Junior I think this is an area where modern data analyses collection and modeling techniques will be particularly helpful. Temperature, body size and egg output all influence how much energy the hens need to stay slim, but not too slim. There were some excellent equations developed in Brasil a few years ago that should be particularly helpful. If we believe weather forecasts we ...

@Gene Pesti OOPS! I meant to say the starch for normal and waxy corns are different. Waxy corn is grown specifically for making corn starch and does not dent. That is the reason corn gluten meal, a by-product of starch production has a different amino acid profile from normal corn. We occasionally found non-dent corn in commerce and assumed it had been rejected by CGM manufacturers. Or maybe too m ...

@Antônio Mário Penz Junior For sure! Starch from normal corn is the same as starch from waxy corn, etc. we could go on all day. The gross energy and digestibility and absorption as birds age for each ingredient can be measured. Then computer modeling can help get the right combination of ingredients for each situation. I'm just guessing that the companies selling amylase should be happy to determi ...

@Antônio Mário Penz Junior Absolutely! I hope some young people looking for important research areas to develop read your comments.

@Gonzalo Gonzalez Mateos Absolutely. EE especially in regard to phospholipid N being counted as crude protein. CIH? Warsaw?

@Luis Fernando Vergamini Luna Thank you. I also wonder about the effects of starch forms. In particular, is starch form responsible for peanut meal making incredible pellets compared to other protein sources? And I'm glad you said thermal comfort zone and not thermal neutral zone. Animals are always loosing heat to their environments as long as their body temperature is less than room temperature. ...

@Kees Geerse Yes, definitely. Many aspects of modern chemical techniques need discussion on the best way forward, especially starch.

For a discussion of the true protein content of feed ingredients and a pretty good N to true protein factor see Alhotan et al. (2024) https://doi.org/10.1080/23311932.2024.2428821. Of course it is better if true protein is determined from the sum of the amino acid residues.And then to balance true protein and dLYS see Alhotan and Pesti (2016) https://doi.org/10.1080/00071668.2016.1180666Some comme ...

There still seems to be considerable confusion about the concept of optimum dietary density and birds eating to meet their energy requirements or needs: “The broiler still eats quite precisely to its energy needs and alters its feed intake in response to variable diet energy level.” There is a classic graph in the 1974 paper by Colin Fisher and Brian Wilson, titled "Response to dietary energy conc ...