  (22 Sent)
Who saw this article? New!
Author: Nataliya Roth DI (MSc) - Courtesy of BIOMIN GmbH
Feed prices jumped to the record high and further increase is on the horizon. There are several reasons for these circumstances. First of all it is a distinction between diminishing supplies and increasing demand. Diminishing supplies are mainly due to bad crops in many producing countries. Increasing demand is due to corn use for food and feed industries and bioethanol production. The discrepancy between supplies and demand is nor expecting to diminish in the future.
Livestock producers were already facing heavy losses due to the high cost of production. Unfortunately, there is no way to pass on the additional increased feed cost. Possibilities to improve the situation are requested. One of the possibilities is to reduce feed consumption but to keep animal performance at an optimum. Feed conversion ratio is one of the main factors delivering profitability. Improving FCR leads to cost savings.
The benefit of acidifiers in poultry production demonstrates following calculation. Data is based on the 5% FCR improvement, which is an average benefit of world wide use of Biotronic®, acidifier of BIOMIN, Austria
All parameters are constant, except the FCR, which has an influence on feed intake and therefore on feed savings. For the clear view further benefits of acidifiers were not considered in the calculation.
Table 1: Effect of acidifier in poultry production
As shown in Table 1, total feed intake of broilers in the trial group with acidifier was decreased by 1 854 kg, because of reduced FCR from 1.80 to 1.71.
Feed prices differ depending on the country, but an increase in price is worldwide. Table 2 shows the difference in cost savings due to reduced feed intake at two price levels. The two price levels are the market prices of feed for poultry in December 2006 and December 2007.
Table 2: Benefit of acidifier at different levels of feed costs
In both cost regimens, the inclusion of acidifier reduced the total feed cost per 10 000 birds. It is evident that, as the feed cost increases, the benefit of acidifier increases markedly (Figure 2). It can be seen in the example that feed costs increased by 36% but cost savings due to incorporation of acidifier increased by 214%!
Figure 2: Cost savings due to use of acidifier for 10 000 broilers at different levels of feed cost
As mentioned, feed costs vary depending on the country and there will be further price increases. Therefore one more example (Figure 3), shows the influence of different
feed cost levels on cost savings. Data for calculations were the same as shown in the example above (10 000 broilers, FCR improved from 1.8 to 1.71)
Figure 3: Influence of feed cost increase on cost savings
Conclusion
Acidifiers markedly improve FCR and therefore help farmers to save money. Feed cost calculations incorporating FCR optimizing due to feed supplementation with acidifier highlights this effect. The noticeable outcome of this calculation is a profit difference between higher and lower feed cost. The multiple effects of cost savings were observed. This means the higher the feed costs are the higher the benefit is due to the use of acidifiers.
Author: Nataliya Roth DI (MSc) - Courtesy of BIOMIN GmbH
(22 Sent)
Who saw this article? New!
 DISCUSSIONS ON THIS ISSUE.
 
| 03/04/2008 |
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I have no idea what an acidifier is, but it looks like a brilliant product. Will it work for my fish farm I have here in Paraguay? Every week the special feed goes up dramatically. I have approximately 15 000 fishes 4 months old. | Answer Checked by Engormix.com  |
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| 03/06/2008 |
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Kurt Wegleitner
Marketing/biomin
Niederosterreich - Austria |
| Biomin - Phone: +43 2782 803 - Fax: +43 2782 803 40 |
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Dear Mr. Hekelaar,
acidifier can be used in aquaculture and improve performance of fish. To give you more information about the product and dosage I need to know what fish species do you have
You can contact me directly: nataliya.roth@biomin.net
Best regards.
Nataliya | | Answer Checked by Engormix.com |
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| 03/11/2008 |
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Pej
Ghyujnhh/
hong - Japan |
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Thanks a lot about the ARTICLE, it is very useful.
When we want a better FCR that mine more fish weight per food all the factors such as temperature and...... can influence it.
(It is good to discuss about these factor in rain trout). | | Answer Checked by Engormix.com |
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| 03/11/2008 |
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There is not a big influence of temperature in FCR. Fish are poikilotherm animals and as such their metabolism will depend on water temperature. At higher temperatures they eat more and grow more then at lower temperatures. Nevertheless, this should not influence the efficiency of how the nutrients are utilized, they just up regulate or down regulate the metabolism (eating more or less) with temperature but the FCR or feed efficiency should remain quite constant.
Best regards.
Nataliya | | Answer Checked by Engormix.com |
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