Formulate2 Preview Sponsored by Adisseo ...

On Wednesday September 19, 2007, at the Minnesota Nutrition Conference, Adisseo North America sponsored a post-conference session to preview Formulate2 as a practical day-to-day formulation tool for balancing Amino Acids.

After a welcome by Dr. Brian Sloan, Adisseo, Dr. Chuck Schwab, University of New Hampshire, began the post conference session by providing an overview of the NRC 2001 model as an introduction to Formulate2.

Gary Foster, Central Valley Nutritional Associates, then introduced the Formulate2 Dairy Ration Optimizer and demonstrated how to use its powerful toolset to optimize diets at the duodenal AA level on a least-cost basis.

We'd like to express our appreciation to Dr. Sloan and Dr. Schwab and to everyone who took time to attend the post-conference session. We'd also like express a special thank you to John Geuss, Adisseo, for working with us to put the details together.

Thank you all so much!

Central Valley Nutritional Associates

Formulate2 goes to Kansas State ...

In the spring of 2007, Formulate2 saw use in the senior level nutrition courses at Kansas State University. We recently recieved this kind letter from Dr. Barry Bradford who teaches the course and initially contacted us about using Formulate2 ...

September 17, 2007

Mr. Gary Foster
Central Valley Nutritional Associates

Dear Mr. Foster,

I want to thank you for donating the use of Formulate2 for our dairy nutrition courses here at Kansas State University.  Through the use of Formulate2, my students have developed a much more in-depth understanding of the factors that influence diet formulation for dairy cattle.

I chose to use Formulate2 for my course primarily because it offers the ability to automatically formulate least-cost rations within constraints set by the students. In addition, I liked the fact that Formulate2 accomplishes this using 2001 NRC model; I referred to this publication heavily in lectures, and it was important to me that our ration formulation problems were consistent with what we discussed in lecture.  These attributes allowed me to present students with formulation problems that nicely demonstrated the potential effects of formulating for metabolizable protein vs. crude protein, high production vs. low production, or balancing carbohydrate fractions in high byproduct rations.  It also provided valuable insight into the shortcomings of our current models, driving home the point that human evaluation of rations is still required.  I hope this encouraged the students to work hard in the class!

In general, I found Formulate2 to be an extremely powerful, adaptable, and well-designed tool for formulating dairy rations of all types.  With a short introduction to the program, students were able to navigate effectively and focus on the nutrition concepts rather than the program.  Just as importantly, whenever I ran into any difficulties, I was able to get support and trouble-shooting advice very quickly.  In combination with the 2001 NRC and the help menu included with the program, this may be the best-supported program available to dairy nutritionists.  It is exceedingly rare to be able to find a single individual capable of trouble-shooting both technical problems and ration formulation issues!

I highly recommend Formulate2 for use in the classroom, and with the tools included for managing multiple herds, I suspect that it would be even more valuable for consultants in the field.  Again, thank you for your donation and for your continued support. 

Sincerely,

Barry Bradford, PhD
Assistant Professor of Dairy Cattle Nutrition
Kansas State University

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Eadier Solutions 368 Oxford Street West, London, ON N6H 1T4

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Finding Optimum Return-Over Feed Cost

Central Valley Nutritional Associates (CVNA) has reported that the Formulate2 Dairy Ration Optimizer featured prominently in the preparation of a key paper presented by Dr. Roger Epley of Epley Nutrition, Ltd., Neenah, Wisconsin at the recent Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference. Dr. Epley’s paper, “Optimizing the use of Distiller’s Grains in Rations”, examines the role of Distiller’s Grains in dairy rations given the current interplay of ethanol production with feed markets.

“At current ingredient prices does DG fit in eastern Wisconsin rations? The answer is yes if we set a minimum for metabolizable or crude protein…However, if we want to improve the quality of metabolizable protein in the ration by setting a minimum (for) metabolizable lysine, DG is not a good choice of ingredients …Schwab et al. (2003) demonstrated that we can produce more milk protein by increasing the quality of metabolizable protein.”

“By using (the) Formulate2 Dairy Ration Optimizer (Central Valley Nutritional Associates, Visalia, CA; www.formulate2.com, version 5.0, based on NRC (2001)), we can demonstrate decreased utilization of DG by increasing the minimum level of metabolizable lysine. In this exercise metabolizable protein, rumen degradable protein and net energy for milk is set according to the NRC 2001 requirements. The dry matter intake is the NRC estimate. Table 3 shows the specifications used for these optimizations…The ratio of lysine to methionine is kept at 3:1.”

“Using equations developed by Schwab et al. (2006) to estimate milk and milk protein yields, we see more milk and milk protein production as the result of improving metabolizable protein.” (Proceedings of the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference April 24th and 25th, 2007, pages 105-109)

In private communication with CVNA Dr. Epley stated, “There is an error in Table 4 in the paper. Under the column "No Minimum Lysine" (diet not optimized for lysine content), the "Total feed cost, $/day" should be $4.91 (rather than $4.51). And, the "Net after feed cost, $/day" should be $8.11 (rather than $8.51).

This gives us a 55 cent per cow daily advantage for the ration with the metabolizable lysine set at 6.3% (optimized lysine content).

Commenting on the accuracy of the NRC 2001 model and its implementation in Formulate2, Dr. Epley observed, “Also, it may be interesting to note that we actually do feed the ration with the metabolizable lysine set at 6.3% to a herd of real live cows. And, we do get close to 100 lbs. of milk with a 3.75% milk fat and 3.05% milk protein. “

Dr. Epley’s paper may be viewed by clicking on the Nutrition link on the home page of the Formulate2 web site at www.formulate2.com.

Contact Information:

Gary Foster
Central Valley Nutritional Associates
Tulare County, California
559-732-0515
559-732-1703 - fax
cvnasoft@formulate2.com

Jim Eadie
Proprietor
Eadier Solutions
519-438-0444
jimeadie@eadiersolutions.com

References
Epley, R. (2007). Proceedings from Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference.
Optimizing the use of distillers grains in rations. Fort Wayne, IN.
Schwab, C.G., Ordway, R.S., & Whitehouse N.L. (2003). Amino acid
balancing in the context of MP and RUP requirements. Proc. Four-State
Applied Nutrition and Management Conference. Bafabook, WI.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The first Windows version of Formulate 2 Dairy Ration Optimizer is officially released

Tulare County, CA - Central Valley Nutritional Associates (CVNA) providing dairy nutrition consulting services in Tulare County, California since 1994 has announced the release of the first Windows version of the Formulate2 Dairy Ration Optimizer for use by professional nutritionists and producers.

“As you work with Formulate2 and become familiar with its methods and capabilities we’re confident you’ll find it to be a powerful toolset, one that can enhance your ability to do what you do best,” says Gary Foster, owner of CVNA. “We’ve grown to appreciate the NRC 2001 model and all that it offers and we think putting it at the center of Formulate2 adds considerably to both the software and the usability of the model when it comes to implementing its principles in commercial operations.”

Several of the unique features of Formulate2 are as follows:

• First diet set up Help-based interactive exercise in a read-and-do format to guide you smoothly and quickly through setting up your first Formulate2 diet
• A legacy bridge from NRC 1989 to NRC 2001 with constraints from both models simultaneously enforceable in the same solution attempt allows you to work with either model - or both
• “Tagged cost group” least cost optimization allows minimization of user “tagged” feeds – to help manage monthly cash flow, tag all purchased feeds to minimize their use.
• Constrain AA at the duodenum as percentages of MP and in ratio to one another to enhance milk component production.
• Easily scale formulations up or down from formulated DMI for analysis by energy and protein allowable milk etc. allowing accurate assessment of diet support for fresh animals
• Manual formulation option allows evaluation of existing diets
• Memorize load sheet parameters and load order by diet – re-enter items only when they change
• Comprehensive customizable standard report set with the capability to create reports the way you want them completely from scratch with Formulate2’s powerful report formatter.
• Easily exchange formulation data between Formulate2 users with user selected datasets
• Summary Reports allow the summarization of complete feeding programs in terms of feed usage, inventory requirements, feed dollar distribution and return over feed cost by diet type over 1 day, 1 week, 30 day and 1 year periods allowing a comprehensive financial overview of feeding programs with the click of a mouse button
• Link all of a producer’s diets to the same producer feed library and the diets automatically inherit any changes to prices and nutrient values – no more manually updating each diet

This next generation formulation suite fully implements the NRC 2001 Dairy Model in a powerful, user friendly Windows relational database application that provides a variety of productivity features designed to simplify, expedite and enhance diet formulation.

CVNA has received generous feed back on the quality of Formulate2 from a range of different users. Richard Ware, Ph.D., who is a consulting nutritionist from Tulare County, California, recommends using Formulate2 for all individuals in the dairy industry.  “I’ve worked with Formulate2 for about seven months now and probably the best way for me to describe my experience with the program would be to say that everybody wants this; they just don’t know it yet. If anyone will sit down and take time to learn Formulate2, they will come to the conclusion that they don’t want to be a nutritionist without it.”

"We've used Formulate2 for several years and have enjoyed great success with the program. Currently our herd of Jersey cows is milking at 17,676 actual pounds of milk with 4.5% fat and 3.4% protein on 2 times a day milking,” say Roy and Lorraine Andreasen, owners of Andsmithasen Dairy of Corinne, Utah. “We'd like to thank CVNA for putting out such a high quality and usable program. It is truly effective!"

Free 60 day trial downloads are available at the Formulate2 web site, www.formulate2.com. Trial periods can also be extended as required. The web site features several Flash movie tutorials and CVNA also provides email and telephone support for both trials and registered users.

More information is available on the website, www.formulate2.com, or contact Central Valley Nutritional Associates directly.

Contact Information:

Gary Foster
Central Valley Nutritional Associates
Tulare County, California
559-732-0515
559-732-1703 - fax
cvnasoft@formulate2.com

Jim Eadie
Proprietor
Eadier Solutions
519-438-0444
jimeadie@eadiersolutions.com