Livestock Ration Formulation for Dairy Cattle and Buffalo 1st Edition

Livestock Ration Formulation for Dairy Cattle and Buffalo: Your Guide to Optimized Feeding

This book provides an interdisciplinary, integrative perspective and optimization on dairy cattle feed formulation problem-solving. It is a step forward in providing least-cost diet formulation based on the nutrient requirements of cattle and buffalo. This resource helps dairy farmers by introducing them to the right frequency and amount of balanced diet, leading to decreased feeding costs and increased income.

Key Features

• Farmer-Centric Guidance: It is a good reference for local dairy farmers, introducing them to the right frequency and right amount of balanced diet to be fed to cattle and buffaloes at different production cycles.
• Scientific Optimization Models: It helps animal nutritionists develop low-budget diets by applying Linear and Goal programming models, with one model for non-pregnant dairy buffalo solved using the Hybrid Real Coded Genetic Algorithm (RGA).
• Software Development Platform: The book provides a basic platform and solutions to build software and Android applications for least-cost ration formulation for end-users, based on the data and algorithms used in the book.
• Nutrient Focus: It focuses on fulfilling nutrient requirements in terms of crude protein (CP), total digestible nutrient (TDN), calcium (Ca), and phosphorus (P), using established national and international guidelines (ICAR, 2013 and NRC, 2001).
• Advanced Techniques: The book incorporates a good balance between coding/programming and animal nutrition towards the application of soft computing techniques to improve the quality of the solution due to the rigidity of the constraints.