William P Weiss

IntroductionPrecision nutrition means diets are formulated as close as possible to requirements while avoiding any deficiency issues. Benefits of precision mineral nutrition can include reduced diet costs, reduced environmental impact, and reduced risk of toxicity. The major problem with precision mineral nutrition is increased risk of deficiency. Deficiency can be manifested as a clinical deficie ...

IntroductionHistorically, most nutritionists have given little consideration to the cost of vitamins A, D, and E. Cows needed them and even at high supplementation rates, cost per cow per day was reasonable. However, because of a fire at a chemical factory in late 2017, worldwide production of feed grade vitamin A has been reduced by more than 40%. Production of vitamin E has also been reduced bec ...

IntroductionVitamins are organic compounds needed in minute amounts that are essential for life. A vitamin must be in the diet or be synthesized by microorganisms in the digestive system and then absorbed by the host animal. Currently there are 14 recognized vitamins of which four are fat-soluble and ten are water-soluble, but not all animals require all 14 vitamins (Table 1). When an animal absor ...

As this is written (Winter, 2012) feed prices continue to hover around historic highs and although milk prices have risen they have not kept pace with the increases in feed costs. Feed costs are usually the largest single expense on a dairy farm and with well-above average feed costs, the feeding management and nutrition of the dairy herd must be scrutinized now more than ever. Expressing Fee ...

IntroductionProper sampling of ration ingredients and submitting those samples for nutrient analysis to a good lab are essential components of diet formulation. The relative importance of sampling, analytical, and real variation on overall variation in nutrient composition data of ingredients has been discussed at previous conferences (Weiss et al., 2012; Weiss et al., 2014). Sampling variation wa ...

ALLTECH 2003 CD: Selenium nutrition of dairy cows: comparing responses to organic and inorganic selenium forms Department of Animal Sciences, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, Wooster, Ohio, USA Introduction Research regarding the nutritional importance of selenium (Se) has changed markedly over the last 75 years. In the 1930s selenium was identified ...