Prediction of voluntary feed intake in dairy cattle nutrition

Abstract

Prediction of voluntary feed intake (dry matter intake) is fundamentally important in nutrition because it establishes the amount of nutrients available to an animal for health and production. Actual or accurately estimated dry matter intake (DMI) is important for the formulation of diets to prevent underfeeding or overfeeding of nutrients and to promote efficient nutrient use. Underfeeding of nutrients restricts production and can affect the health of an animal. Overfeeding of nutrients increases feed costs, can results in excessive excretion of nutrients into the environment, and at excessively high amounts may be toxic or cause adverse health effects. Several DMI prediction equations have been developed for use in the field but only a few have been written in this paper.

Poznavanje voljnog konzumiranja hrane (suve materije), odnosno tačno predviđanje je od fundamentalnog značaja za sastavljanje obroka koji će obezbediti efikasnu i jeftinu proizvodnju. Tačno balansiranje koncentracije hranljivih materija u kg suve materije ili, pak, dnevne količine hranljivih materija, koje bi krava trebalo da konzumira, zavise od tačnosti predviđanja voljnog konzumiranja hrane. Na osnovu do sada izvedenih istraživanja, model MAFF (1975) se preporučuje za predviđanje konzumiranja suve materije za krave niže do srednje mlečnosti i treba ga koristiti kada se sastavljaju obroci u skladu sa preporukama Obračević-a (1984 i 1990). Modeli Glamočić (1999) i NRC (2001) se preporučuju za upotrebu kod krava holštajn rase i u tom slučaju obroke treba sastavljati u skladu sa NRC preporukama.