Performance of broilers fed rations formulated by stochastic nonlinear programming or linear programming with a margin of safety

• Published in: Poultry science 1993-04, Vol.72 (4), p.620-627
• Main Authors: D'Alfonso, T.H. (Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA), Roush, W.B, Cravener, T.L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ALIMENTACION DE LOS ANIMALES; ALIMENTATION DES ANIMAUX; ANALISIS ESTADISTICO; ANALYSE STATISTIQUE; AVES DE CORRAL; COSTOS DE PRODUCCION; COUT DE PRODUCTION; DESEMPENO; FARINE D'OS; FARINE DE VIANDE; FORMULACIONES; FORMULATION; HARINA DE CARNE; HARINA DE HUESOS; LOGICIEL; MODELE MATHEMATIQUE; MODELOS MATEMATICOS; POLLO DE ENGORDE; POULET DE CHAIR; PROGRAMACION LINEAL; PROGRAMAS DE ORDENADOR; PROGRAMMATION LINEAIRE; VALEUR NUTRITIVE; VALOR NUTRITIVO; VOLAILLE
• ISSN: 0032-5791; 1525-3171
• DOI: 10.3382/ps.0720620

A feeding trial compared the production of broilers fed rations formulated by linear programming (LP), linear programming with a margin of safety (LPMS), and stochastic nonlinear programming (SP). The SP and LPMS programs met requirements at a specified confidence level (CL); however, SP rations were lower in cost. Treatments included six rations (four replicates per ration with 15 birds per replicate). Variances of methionine, lysine, calcium, and phosphorus were considered. Treatments were: 1) LP; 2) SP and 3) LPMS, both with 0.69 CL on meeting requirements (NRC, 1984) for the specified nutrients; 4) SP and 5) LPMS, with amino acid CL increased to 0.90; and 6) SP identical to Treatment 4, but with meat and bone meal restrictions relaxed from 5 to 10%. The SP rations utilized both nutritionally variable ingredients (e.g., rendered by-products) and nutritionally consistent ingredients (e.g., amino acid supplements) while costing less than the equivalent LPMS rations. Birds performed the same between equivalent SP and LPMS treatments (P 0.05) on the basis of body weight and feed conversion. The SP rations were more profitable than the LPMS counterparts