Nutrient Tools

Ideal Protein Model

In poultry nutrition, an Ideal Protein Model (IPM) is the exact balance of amino acids that meets a bird’s needs, with no excess, no deficiency, and few of the amino acids used for energy. The expected result is that nitrogen excretion is minimal.

Cargill Animal Nutrition has developed an IPM for every poultry species and its classes. We express IPM as a ratio of essential digestible amino acids to digestible lysine. This information is valuable when designing or modifying nutrient specifications. Once the level of digestible lysine changes, other digestible amino acids can be changed automatically with an IPM.

Poultry Available Phosphorus

Considering adding microbial phytase to your poultry feed? You’ll want to know the Poultry Available Phosphorus content of your current feed as well as the effect of adding phytase.

Poultry Available Phosphorus is that which has potential to be digested, absorbed, used and retained by your birds. For each ingredient that contains phosphorus, we look at availability of phytate and nonphytate phosphorus. The accuracy of our method allows us to pinpoint requirements and calculate potential excess dietary phosphorus. Additionally, we can measure both the contribution of endogenous phytase from wheat, barley and rye, and the effects of feed processing on the enzymes.

Poultry Digestible Amino Acids

Truly digestible amino acids are those that can be digested and absorbed readily in the gastrointestinal tract. We consider the influences of endogenous protein and amino acids when gathering data from cecectomies. That way we know exactly what our roosters require as well as the amount of amino acids in specific ingredients.

This information takes the guess-work out of feed formulation, improves overall formulation accuracy and ensures you achieve high performance for the least cost. And, since we include just the right amount of amino acid material in the feed, you’ll see less nitrogen waste, which lessens your operation’s environmental impact.

Poultry Digestible Cystine Equivalency

Cystine is one of the nutrients critical to successful production. However, feed often contains synthetic methionine or its analog to meet the requirement for digestible cystine. While both cystine and methionine are sulfur-containing amino acids, methionine cannot be used interchangeably with cystine. The use of both together as a nutrient specification is misleading and can result in a shortage of cystine.

Biochemically, the poultry digestive system can convert methionine to cystine, but it cannot convert cystine to methionine. Further, in a weight-for-weight conversion, one gram of methionine can replace just 0.8 gram of cystine (an 80 % replacement value).

By describing, instead, Poultry Digestible Cystine Equivalency as a nutrient specification, we determine the precise sulfur amino acid required. In doing so, we review the relationship between methionine, cystine and sulfur amino acids. This helps you to manage feed costs intelligently, and maintain consistent performance among your flocks.

Poultry Metabolizable Energy

Energy provided from feed directly influences growth, feed efficiency, product quality and cost. Accurate measurement of poultry apparent metabolizable energy (PME) results in better conditioning and more stable birds. A good measurement includes bird age, as young birds digest feed less efficiently than adults. AutoCalc� takes all these factors into account to adjust nutrient and PME sum totals automatically. PME comes from the following sources:

Protein

Fat

Starch

Sugar

Other carbohydrates