Application of the modified feed formulation to optimize economic and environmental criteria in beef cattle fattening systems with food by-products
Introduction
Due to economic and environmental concerns, the feasibility of using by-products as animal feeds has been examined in many regions of both developing and developed countries. In developing countries, better utilization of non-conventional feed resources (food by-products) which do not compete with human nutrition is imperative in order to meet the projected high demand of livestock products (Maghsoud et al., 2008). In developed countries, low-cost waste management programs that involve feeding by-products from crop- and food-processing industries to farm animals have become very important in recent years (Bampidis and Robinson, 2006). As in Japan, utilization of food by-products has been strongly promoted for raising the self-sufficiency rate of feeds (Sugiura et al., 2009).
Available food by-products, or so-called Ecofeed (Economical and ecological feed resources) in Japan, include beverage wastes such as brewer's grain, distiller's grain, fruit juice pomace and tea waste, food manufacturing wastes such as soybean curd residue (tofu waste), soy sauce cake and blackstrap molasses, vegetable wastes, bakery and noodle wastes and disposals from food service industries. These food by-products usually have high energy and/or protein contents, which can provide competitive alternatives to more traditional energy or protein sources (Westendorf, 2000). Replacing imported commercial feeds with food by-products can save energy in transportation and reduce the environmental impact of burning or landfilling food wastes (Cao et al., 2009). Nonetheless, despite the vast potential of by-products as a constituent of farm animal diets, the degree of usage is dependent on the economic value of the by-products and the market prices of conventional feedstuffs (Harpster, 2000).
In recent years, environmental pollution caused by high levels of animal waste has become one of the major concerns regarding intensive animal production systems in many countries. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus excretion from feces and urine of farm animals can lead to several environmental problems. For instance, nitrogen contributes to environmental pollution in two ways, as ammonia in the air or as nitrate in soil and ground water, and a high level of phosphorus excretion leads to leakage into surface and ground waters (Tamminga, 1992). In particular, N2O derived from nitrogen in cattle waste contributes to global warming in the process of Japanese beef production systems (Ogino et al., 2004, Ogino et al., 2007), and the reduction in nitrogen excretion from beef production is strongly expected to meet the Kyoto Protocol in Japan.
Linear programming is certainly the most popular method for diet formulation (Brokken, 1971, Crabtree, 1982, Kikuhara et al., 2009, Tedeschi et al., 2000, Tozer, 2000). The ordinal linear programming method enables the formulation of least-cost diets that satisfy specific nutrient requirements, but it cannot consider the effects of excess nitrogen and phosphorus contents in the diets on the excretions of these substances into soil and ground water. To solve this problem, Jean dit Bailleul et al. (2001) and Pomar et al. (2007) modified the ordinal least-cost feed formulation to simultaneously minimize feed cost and excess nitrogen and phosphorus, respectively, and then applied it to the actual formulation of feed for pig production. Hirooka and Oishi (2010) used the same method to minimize feed cost and nitrogen excretion when whole crop rice silage was utilized as a feed for beef cattle feedlot production in Japan.
The objective of this study was, therefore, to evaluate the economic and environmental impact of the use of food by-products as animal feeds on the Japanese beef fattening system by using the modified least-cost feed formulation method.
Section snippets
Overview of the simulation
It was assumed in this study that the beef fattening system for Japanese Black (Wagyu) steers starts from the purchase of calves with a body weight of 285 kg (initial weight) at calf markets and culminates with slaughter at a final weight of 714 kg. The fattening period was equally divided into three parts: early, middle and late. The daily gain in each period was estimated from the given average daily gain (0.7 kg/day) for the whole fattening period using the Gompertz growth curve function with
Effects of nitrogen and phosphorus penalties on the replacement price of food by-products
Fig. 2 shows the differences between the total feed costs with and without the use of food by-products under three nitrogen and phosphorus penalty conditions under various prices of food by-products. The replacement price of food by-products was 17 (yen/kg, as-fed basis) under the no penalty and penalty x1 conditions, and 16 (yen/kg, as-fed basis) under the penalty x2 condition. This result showed that the effect of penalty levels for nitrogen and phosphorus excretions on the replacement prices
Reduction of phosphorus excretion with the use of food by-products
Nitrogen excretion was increased by the use of food by-products because of higher CP contents of food by-products selected in this study than those of concentrates, but phosphorus excretion was strongly decreased with the use of food by-products (Fig. 3). In the ration formulation with only concentrates, the proportion of wheat bran was approximately the upper bound of the feeding limit. Because wheat bran had the highest phosphorus content per DM among all ingredients of the feeds used in this
Conclusions
This study demonstrated the application of the modified least-cost feed formulation to the beef fattening production system using food by-products, while introducing the penalty costs for nitrogen and phosphorus excretions. Analyses of the price of food by-products indicated that the replacement price was not greatly affected by the change in the penalty level. The nitrogen and phosphorus penalties greatly changed the feed composition and reduced the excretions, indicating the importance of
References (37)
- et al.
Citrus by-products as ruminant feeds: a review
Anim. Feed Sci. Technol.
(2006) - et al.
Effects of addition of food by-products on the fermentation quality of a total mixed ration with whole crop rice and its digestibility, performance, and rumen fermentation in sheep
Anim. Feed Sci. Technol.
(2009) - et al.
Methane emissions from sheep fed fermented or non-fermented total mixed ration containing whole-crop rice and rice bran
Anim. Feed Sci. Technol.
(2010) - et al.
Multicriteria fractional model for feed formulation: economic, nutritional and environmental criteria
Agric. Sys.
(2005) Interactive formulation system for cattle diets
Agric. Sys.
(1982)- et al.
Quantity and economic importance of nine selected by-products used in California dairy rations
J. Dairy Sci.
(1995) - et al.
Perspectives and limitations of the Dutch mineral accounting system (MINAS)
Eur. J. Agron.
(2003) - et al.
Reducing nitrogen excretion in pigs by modifying the traditional least-cost formulation algorithm
Livest. Prod. Sci.
(2001) - et al.
Influence of vitamin A on the quality of beef from the Tajima strain of Japanese Black cattle
Meat Sci.
(1998) - et al.
Reducing phosphorus concentration in pig diets by adding an environmental objective to the traditional feed formulation algorithm
Livest. Sci.
(2007)
Quantitative evaluation of fiber from nonforage sources used to replace alfalfa silage
J. Dairy Sci.
Nutrition management of dairy cows as a contribution to pollution control
J. Dairy Sci.
Whole-herd optimization with the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein system. I. Predicting feed biological values for diet optimization with linear programming
J. Dairy Sci.
Least-cost ration formulations for Holstein dairy heifers by using linear and stochastic programming
J. Dairy Sci.
A multi-objective programming approach to feed ration balancing and nutrient management
Agric. Sys.
Effect of dietary starch on rumen and small intestine morphology and digesta pH in goats
Livest. Sci.
Programming models for use of the Lofgreen–Garrett net energy system in formulating rations for beef cattle
J. Anim. Sci.
Environmental and economic optimization of dairy manure management
Agron. J.
Cited by (21)
Evaluating environmental and economic trade-offs in cattle feed strategies using multiobjective optimization
2022, Agricultural SystemsCitation Excerpt :Future research can also explore the inclusion of agro-industrial by-products in the animal diet as a strategy to reduce emissions. Figs. 1–4 suggests that the inclusion of by-products – which usually carry lower LCA footprint – in the animal diet may further decrease all environmental impacts, as suggested by literature (Oishi et al., 2011). This is corroborated by Fig. 3, which shows that the main source of CO2eq is LCA footprint.
Proposing a framework for sustainable feed formulation for laying hens: A systematic review of recent developments and future directions
2021, Journal of Cleaner ProductionCitation Excerpt :The use of penalty functions enables overcoming constraint rigidities to obtain optimal diets (Ghosh et al., 2014; Jernej et al., 2014; Rahman et al., 2017). For example, they have been used to balance nitrogen and phosphorous levels so as to reduce excretion (Oishi et al., 2011). It is often infeasible to satisfy all nutrient constraints for a feed at the least-cost level.
An improved algorithm for solving profit-maximizing cattle diet problems
2020, AnimalCitation Excerpt :Deriving a profit-maximizing beef cattle diet implies the need to address nonlinear animal weight gain associated with the simultaneous change in diet energy concentration and the gain composition of the animal. Many cattle ration formulation studies are based on linear cost-minimizing diets (Oishi et al., 2011 and 2013; Moraes et al., 2012 and 2015; Cortez-Arriola et al., 2016; Mackenzie et al., 2016; Garcia-Launay et al., 2018). Linear cost-minimizing diet models based on NASEM (2016) assume a fixed daily shrunk weight gain (SWG) rather than a variable to be determined.
Donation management for menu planning at soup kitchens
2019, European Journal of Operational ResearchEconomic and environmental impacts of changes in culling parity of cows and diet composition in Japanese beef cow-calf production systems
2013, Agricultural SystemsCitation Excerpt :Feed rations at an individual level were determined for a cow and her calves using a feed formulation method based on linear programming in the present study. The ordinal least-cost feed formulation (Method 1) was used in the base simulation, and two alternative feed formulation methods were examined for their potential to reduce environmental loads: the least-excretion feed formulation (Method 2) to reduce both feed cost and nitrogen and phosphorus excretions (Oishi et al., 2011a), and the novel least-emission feed formulation (Method 3), which can reduce both feed cost and environmental emission gases at the feed production and transport stages. Environmental impacts in this study were calculated following the LCA study by Ogino et al. (2007).