A few pieces of advice every aquatic feed formulator must know
A few pieces of advice for aquatic feed formulators
I have seen formulas for aquatic feed from many plants, and not many are reasonable; some are simply dreadful. Taking this opportunity on the forum, I would like to offer a few pieces of advice to my colleagues:
1. You must pay attention to the balance among all indicators, especially the balance among digestible energy, digestible protein, and essential amino acids. Note that this does not refer only to the balance of the AAs themselves. In 99% of cases, for essential amino acids you only need to consider lys and met.
2. Try not to use raw materials whose quality is hard to control, such as domestic fishmeal, corn gluten meal, fermented feed, shrimp shell meal, squid viscera meal, and so on.
3. Use additives with unclear effects cautiously; when you have no choice but to use them, do not include more than 2 kinds in the formula.
4. Do not add free amino acids.
5. Monocalcium phosphate must be added in sufficient amount; do not replace it with dicalcium phosphate.
6. Bacterial protein should not exceed 4%, and starch slurry protein should not exceed 6%; unconventional raw materials generally must be used in limited amounts.
7. It is best that no single raw material exceeds 30%, especially rapeseed meal and cottonseed meal.
8. Unconventional raw materials are the patent of large plants with testing capability and the ability to control suppliers; small plants should use conventional raw materials even more.
9. When making shrimp and crab feed, even at the expense of nutritional indicators, you must ensure palatability and water stability.
If, on the basis of ABC, you can achieve these points, the formula will not have any major problems.
These points came to mind just now; I will say more when I think of them later:)
This is messy, and a few points seem to be repeated.
[ This post was last edited by zengehl on 2007-6-26 23:21 ]
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Agreed! Bookmarked!
But not many can do all of the above; sometimes it is done out of having no other choice.
Friends who make aquatic formulas, let us all speak up more!
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"Try not to use raw materials whose quality is hard to control, such as domestic fishmeal, corn gluten meal, fermented feed, shrimp shell meal, squid viscera meal, and so on."
I do not think so. These raw materials are very commonly used; the key still lies in controlling their quality! Unless you are making recommended formulas for small plants with no testing capability!
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Advice
8. Unconventional raw materials are the patent of large plants with testing capability and the ability to control suppliers; small plants should use conventional raw materials even more.
Explanation: Only large plants with large purchase volumes have an advantage in raw material costs. Small plants should not expect to compete with large plants on raw material costs; things with a low unit price often have poor cost performance. The advantage of small plants lies in low expenses (management, sales, labor).
[ This post was last edited by zengehl on 2007-3-8 16:25 ]
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Agreed! Try not to use raw materials whose quality is hard to control, such as domestic fishmeal, corn gluten meal, fermented feed, shrimp shell meal, squid viscera meal, and so on.
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Not new as a newcomer, but very insightful!
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That makes sense. When feed making reaches this point, it has returned to the past. Energy, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, lipids, moisture, these are what matter; additives are more about giving people psychological comfort!
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[7. It is best that no single raw material exceeds 30%, especially rapeseed meal and cottonseed meal.]
People at Tongwei and Haida probably would not think so. Some Tongwei feed is even blacker than rapeseed meal; I estimate more than 40% rapeseed meal was added.
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I am afraid there is no basis for not adding free amino acids.
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In some experiments, adding synthetic amino acids did not show growth-promoting effects. Some people believe that added free amino acids cannot be absorbed in sync with the amino acids released from feed protein and cannot participate in protein synthesis, so adding synthetic amino acids to feed has no effect. But other data show that adding an appropriate amount of the first limiting amino acid can promote growth and save protein. In feed containing 25% crude protein and 1.35% lysine, adding HCl-lysine increased the lysine content to 1.7%, and as a result the weight gain, energy deposition rate, and protein deposition rate of common carp increased by 46.6%, 17.9%, and 54.8% respectively. After adding 0.25% methionine to carp feed with soybean meal as the main protein source, the growth, protein deposition, and feed efficiency of common carp all improved; but when the methionine addition amount was 0.5%, the growth of common carp fell back to the level of the control group.
Judging from the current data, fish and shrimp can utilize free amino acids, but the conditions for utilization are quite demanding. First, it must be confirmed that what is added is the first limiting amino acid, and the energy-to-protein ratio of the feed must be relatively high, and the daily feeding frequency must be high, preferably reaching 5 times. Only when these conditions are met can the added synthetic amino acids play a role. It can be seen that adding free amino acids to fish and shrimp feed has specific requirements for feed quality and feeding, so when deciding whether to use them, you must consider carefully and investigate the user's feeding method to avoid unnecessary waste. According to foreign reports, after amino acids are coated with protein, the utilization rate can increase by 2 to 4 times. Therefore, when adding uncoated amino acids, their true cost should be at least 3 times the unit price. Calculated this way, it is often not cost-effective, or the cost reduction is very small. Personally, I think it is better not to add them.
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Soybean meal also cannot exceed 30%?
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Thank you very much for the host's generosity!
I think many formulators also work with this line of thinking.
At this point today, can there be some innovation?
Experience often rigidifies our minds.
Regarding the limited use of raw materials, the effective utilization of free amino acids, and the digestibility and utilization rate of certain unconventional raw materials, further research and discussion are needed.
1. You must pay attention to the balance among all indicators, especially the balance among digestible energy, digestible protein, and essential amino acids. Note that this does not refer only to the balance of the AAs themselves. In 99% of cases, for essential amino acids you only need to consider lys and met.
2. Try not to use raw materials whose quality is hard to control, such as domestic fishmeal, corn gluten meal, fermented feed, shrimp shell meal, squid viscera meal, and so on.
3. Use additives with unclear effects cautiously; when you have no choice but to use them, do not include more than 2 kinds in the formula.
4. Do not add free amino acids.
5. Monocalcium phosphate must be added in sufficient amount; do not replace it with dicalcium phosphate.
6. Bacterial protein should not exceed 4%, and starch slurry protein should not exceed 6%; unconventional raw materials generally must be used in limited amounts.
7. It is best that no single raw material exceeds 30%, especially rapeseed meal and cottonseed meal.
8. Unconventional raw materials are the patent of large plants with testing capability and the ability to control suppliers; small plants should use conventional raw materials even more.
9. When making shrimp and crab feed, even at the expense of nutritional indicators, you must ensure palatability and water stability.
If, on the basis of ABC, you can achieve these points, the formula will not have any major problems.
These points came to mind just now; I will say more when I think of them later:)
This is messy, and a few points seem to be repeated.
[ This post was last edited by zengehl on 2007-6-26 23:21 ]
--------------------------------------
Agreed! Bookmarked!
But not many can do all of the above; sometimes it is done out of having no other choice.
Friends who make aquatic formulas, let us all speak up more!
--------------------------------------
"Try not to use raw materials whose quality is hard to control, such as domestic fishmeal, corn gluten meal, fermented feed, shrimp shell meal, squid viscera meal, and so on."
I do not think so. These raw materials are very commonly used; the key still lies in controlling their quality! Unless you are making recommended formulas for small plants with no testing capability!
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Originally posted by zouyr on 2007-3-8 13:21Precisely because "the key still lies in controlling their quality!", that is why we should "try not to use raw materials whose quality is hard to control", and the more a plant is a "small plant with no testing capability", the more it should stick to this principle. Based on my experience, using too much of such raw materials will inevitably cause problems. Some people will say these raw materials are cheap, but the premise of "cheap" is genuine goods; if something is fake or inferior, will its cost performance really be good?
"Try not to use raw materials whose quality is hard to control, such as domestic fishmeal, corn gluten meal, fermented feed, shrimp shell meal, squid viscera meal, and so on."
I do not think so. These raw materials are very commonly used,the key still lies in controlling their quality!Unless you are making recommended formulas for small plants with no testing capability!
Advice
8. Unconventional raw materials are the patent of large plants with testing capability and the ability to control suppliers; small plants should use conventional raw materials even more.
Explanation: Only large plants with large purchase volumes have an advantage in raw material costs. Small plants should not expect to compete with large plants on raw material costs; things with a low unit price often have poor cost performance. The advantage of small plants lies in low expenses (management, sales, labor).
[ This post was last edited by zengehl on 2007-3-8 16:25 ]
--------------------------------------
Agreed! Try not to use raw materials whose quality is hard to control, such as domestic fishmeal, corn gluten meal, fermented feed, shrimp shell meal, squid viscera meal, and so on.
--------------------------------------
Not new as a newcomer, but very insightful!
--------------------------------------
That makes sense. When feed making reaches this point, it has returned to the past. Energy, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, lipids, moisture, these are what matter; additives are more about giving people psychological comfort!
--------------------------------------
[7. It is best that no single raw material exceeds 30%, especially rapeseed meal and cottonseed meal.]
People at Tongwei and Haida probably would not think so. Some Tongwei feed is even blacker than rapeseed meal; I estimate more than 40% rapeseed meal was added.
--------------------------------------
I am afraid there is no basis for not adding free amino acids.
--------------------------------------
In some experiments, adding synthetic amino acids did not show growth-promoting effects. Some people believe that added free amino acids cannot be absorbed in sync with the amino acids released from feed protein and cannot participate in protein synthesis, so adding synthetic amino acids to feed has no effect. But other data show that adding an appropriate amount of the first limiting amino acid can promote growth and save protein. In feed containing 25% crude protein and 1.35% lysine, adding HCl-lysine increased the lysine content to 1.7%, and as a result the weight gain, energy deposition rate, and protein deposition rate of common carp increased by 46.6%, 17.9%, and 54.8% respectively. After adding 0.25% methionine to carp feed with soybean meal as the main protein source, the growth, protein deposition, and feed efficiency of common carp all improved; but when the methionine addition amount was 0.5%, the growth of common carp fell back to the level of the control group.
Judging from the current data, fish and shrimp can utilize free amino acids, but the conditions for utilization are quite demanding. First, it must be confirmed that what is added is the first limiting amino acid, and the energy-to-protein ratio of the feed must be relatively high, and the daily feeding frequency must be high, preferably reaching 5 times. Only when these conditions are met can the added synthetic amino acids play a role. It can be seen that adding free amino acids to fish and shrimp feed has specific requirements for feed quality and feeding, so when deciding whether to use them, you must consider carefully and investigate the user's feeding method to avoid unnecessary waste. According to foreign reports, after amino acids are coated with protein, the utilization rate can increase by 2 to 4 times. Therefore, when adding uncoated amino acids, their true cost should be at least 3 times the unit price. Calculated this way, it is often not cost-effective, or the cost reduction is very small. Personally, I think it is better not to add them.
--------------------------------------
Soybean meal also cannot exceed 30%?
--------------------------------------
Thank you very much for the host's generosity!
I think many formulators also work with this line of thinking.
At this point today, can there be some innovation?
Experience often rigidifies our minds.
Regarding the limited use of raw materials, the effective utilization of free amino acids, and the digestibility and utilization rate of certain unconventional raw materials, further research and discussion are needed.