Ruminant Nutrition

The first part of this book deals with the Feed Units systems for net energy, the PDI system for absorbable protein and the Fill Units systems for feed intake. These systems are additive and allow accurate comparison of the nutritive value of feeds, formulation of well balanced rations to achieve a production goal and the prediction of animal performance from the quantity and quality of the ration. The second part of the volume updates the nutrient requirements of all the main categories of ruminant, including dairy and beef cattle, sheep for meat and milk production and goats. The tables of allowances and the simple approach in formulation of rations based on the use of the maximum amount of forage, are likely to be widely applicable. The Feed Tables list about 800 typical forages, 65 crop residues and 120 concentrate and by-product feeds. The data are derived from the cool temperate zone (France), the Mediterranean area, arid tropical (Senegal) and humid tropical (West Indies) areas. They have been derived from digestibility trials with sheep and measurements of voluntary intake for most of the forages, for nearly 5000 samples of feeds. This book should be of interest to advisers, teachers, specialist scientists and industrialists.