Determination of nutritional needs, multicriteria formulation and progressive adjustment of nutrients to pig needs : tools for controlling nitrogen and phosphorus waste

Abstract

Precision feeding is proposed as an essential approach to improve the utilisation of dietary nitrogen and phosphorous, and thus reduce nutrient excretion in a context in which the high cost of feed ingredients and the use of non-renewable sources of phosphate are major challenges for the livestock industry. Precision feeding requires accurate knowledge of the nutritional value of feedstuffs and nutrient requirements, formulating diets with environmental constraints, and the gradual adjustment of nutrient supply in order to follow the decreasing requirements of animals during growth. Nevertheless, it is necessary to increase our knowledge and improve current calculation methods to ensure that the proposed feed formulas are those that optimize the production system from different perspectives (i.e., the animal, economy and environment).