Feed Templates

The tree on the left-hand side lists all the previously defined feed templates. Each animal has a corresponding first level folder in the tree structure, named animal name + feeds. e.g. if there are two animals, called pig and broiler, then there will be two corresponding folders called pig feeds and broiler feeds. These main animal folders cannot be renamed, deleted or moved. You may however add folders within these main animal folders to better organise your data.

An example of a useful structure

Each folder is animal specific, so it is not possible to drag a pig feed into a broiler folder. Any sub-folders are linked to the same animal as the main folder, so e.g. in the above example, the folders chicks, adults and Broiler feeds all contain feed templates for broilers. It would not be possible to drag a pig finisher feed into any of the broiler folders, but it is possible to drag the broiler feeds from one broiler folder to another.

General editing functions are available by right-clicking on the tree and selecting the function from the pop-up menu. See Editing using the tree structure.

Below is the pop-up menu created when right-clicking on the tree on the Feed Templates tab.

The bottom four functions on the pop-up menu can be used to show or hide columns in the tree if it is using up too much space on your screen.

Feed templates are animal-specific. This means that only those nutrients and ingredients that have been selected as being applicable to the animal will be visible.

In addition to the normal editing functions is the function Publish to Client, which will publish the selected feed template to a chosen client. This menu item is only visible when a single feed is selected. When this menu item is selected, it shows all the available clients and any sub-folders that have been created for the animal of the feed to be published. So, for example, if the selected feed template is a pig feed, then it will show the basic Pig feeds folder for each client, as well as any sub-folders that had been created under the Pig feeds folder.

In the example below, the currently selected feed will be published to the Broiler feeds folder for Client A.

The newly published feed will now appear in the chosen folder under the Client Feeds tab. It will only be visible if the current client and animal are the ones to which the feed was published. Under Client Feeds, the new feed will be client and animal specific. This means that only those ingredients applicable to both the client and animal will be visible.

Underneath the Publish to Client function the digestibility group chosen for the currently selected feed template is displayed. When this menu item is selected, it displays a list of all previously defined digestibility groups except the one already chosen for the feed. See below:

Selecting another digestibility group from the list will change the digestibility group assigned to the selected feed template.

When a feed template is selected, the following will appear on the right-hand side.

All nutrients and ingredients applicable to the animal assigned to the feed template are listed. To exclude a nutrient or ingredient from the formulation, uncheck it in the first column. All nutrients or ingredients can be included or excluded in one step by using the incl. all and excl. all buttons available at the top.

Amendments or additions to the ‘ideal’ protein ratio can be made by selecting the Amino Acid Ratios button outlined in the screenshot above. For more information on how this function works refer to Amino Acid Ratios.

For each nutrient, the minimum and maximum bounds can be entered in terms of the unit assigned to that nutrient. It is also possible to choose to formulate a particular nutrient in terms of digestible rather than total values by checking the Dig? column. If a particular nutrient does not have digestibility values, then the Dig? column will be grayed, and cannot be checked.

Calculated nutrients are marked in a light purple colour in the Nutrient column. Any nutrients defined as ratios (e.g. Ca:P) are marked in darker purple.

Ingredient bounds can be entered in terms of either percentages or weights.

To facilitate editing, click on a column heading to sort on that column. If you have entered values for the Sort Order columns of nutrients and ingredients, then it can be particularly useful to sort on this column. See Sorting.