Importance of understand Feed! -by Boots N Lace

Feed is a "hot" topic among farmers and homesteaders. Have you noticed lab results on the back of food and treats? Half that crap, no one knows what it means! Proteins most of us understand--that's what grows muscle. But to much (depending on the animal class) will cause health issues too. To little--the animal will be sluggish and not grow. They need the RIGHT amount for growing AND energy. Pregnancy, the mom needs more. So now you are understanding why this is such a HOT topic! Gotta get it right!

Having this Lab Analysis done on my bakery we serve here to dogs on the Farm, has raised some research on my part I figured I would share with you. The focus for this post is TND. WHAT IS IT? Results from ranchers smarter than me: Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN)

TDN is a measure of the energy value in a feedstuff. The term TDN has its origins in an older system of measuring available energy in feeds and is very hard to measure directly. Today, reported TDN values are calculated, not measured values. Formulas for calculating TDN originally were based on ADF and frequently varied by region and the nutritionist doing the calculation. The National Research Council (NRC) suggested a more accurate and robust procedure of estimating TDN than those based solely on ADF (NRC, 2001). Their procedure is based on the assumption that forage classes (legumes, cool season grasses, warm season grasses, etc.) have more uniform and predictable digestion coefficients. So, they proposed that the TDN for alfalfa, clovers and legume/grass mixtures be calculated as follows....

See the link for more information on the formulas

http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.cfm?number=B1367