New calculation – ration catalogue in fodjan Pro
Required: fodjan Pro | User rights: write, owner or admin.
The professional tool for ration optimisation
A catalogue for rations, sounds at first like a dull textbook, inflexible and standard – stop! This is exactly where the ration catalogue in fodjan Pro is different. It is rather an intelligent interactive assistant, which
- adapts to your goals, your feeding strategy (even if there are several)
- and according to your requirements.
- suggests a suitable amount of rations,
- which you can further narrow down and choose from
and all this with your own feeds or alternative feeds, if you want to try any. So if you feel like refining your feeding strategy, this is the place for you!
Note: To get the most out of the ration catalogue, we recommend that you first read our help article basic settings for ration optimisation To get started with ration optimisation with fodjan, the assistant is also suitable before you start with the ration catalogue.
Creating and optimising rations with the ration catalogue
With the ration catalogue you can optimise the current ration of a feed group, so you need to have created a ration with a current feeding start date, read more here.
Alternatively, you can also create a completely new ration with the ration catalogue, even if you have not created a ration with a current feeding start in your feed group.
How to work with the ration catalogue:
Go to Rations > New Calculation in the left menu and click on the feed group containing the ration you want to optimise or for which you want to calculate a new ration. If a ration with an active feeding date is available, it will be selected for optimisation.
or
Go to Rations > Overview in the left menu, select your desired feed group and click on “Ration catalogue” there.
You can add feedstuffs to the ration calculation in two ways:
- On the left, a table shows you the feeds you currently have in your stock.
- Under the tabs “Roughage”, “Concentrates” and “Mineral feed” the corresponding feeds from the database are displayed. You can add these feeds directly here. Enter the price of the feed you want to include in the calculation on the left and click on the star symbol in the corresponding column on the right.
Attention! The feeds selected in this way are not included in your stock, but (if you are planning with a feeding start date) are then listed under your feed stock with the following note: “The following feedstuffs must be purchased”:
Which feeds are included in the optimisation? + Have alternatives suggested
On the right-hand side of the table, you will see the feedstuffs that you are currently using in the ration marked with a yellow star. If you want to create a new ration first, you can click on the star in the corresponding column next to the desired feed. Depending on whether you have activated a feed station or not, there are two or more columns here.
- Feed mixer symbol (blue): Feed that is (to be) provided on the feed table.
- Feed station symbol (light brown): feed that is (to be) fed via feed station
- Mineral feed symbol (grey): Mineral feeds, even if they are provided via the feeding station.
In addition, you can have alternative feedstuffs suggested, more on this in our further help article Ration catalogue: Suggest alternative feeds.
If you scroll down the page, you will see “Feed included in calculation” again on the right, divided into “Feeding table”, “Feeding station” (only if the feeding station is activated) and “Mineral feed”.
If you do not want to include a feed in the calculation, you can deselect it by clicking on the pink arrow symbol.
If you scroll up again, there are two possible views to the right of the table in the “Results preview”:
- View if no ration suggestions can be calculated with selected feeds. In this case, read our further help article Ration catalogue: What to do if no ration suggestions are displayed?
- View for lactating dairy cows when ration suggestions can be calculated with the selected feeds. Note: For dry cows only energy density is shown, milk yield, income over feed cost (IOFC) and feed efficiency are missing. For fattening cattle and fattening pigs, only the number of feedstuffs is displayed here.
Right at the top you will see the maximum possible feed health score and the minimum feed cost.
At the bottom you can click on “Optimum milk yield”. Within the milk yield range set in your feed group, the point with the highest IOFC and the corresponding milk yield will be displayed.
Note: The optimal milk yield is the calculated milk yield, read more here. You can only display the optimal milk yield for lactating dairy cows.
If you now get the view at the top right that optimal rations can be calculated, go to the button “Calculate ration catalog” and read on in the next step.
The evaluation of the ration proposals according to different key figures is now shown in several bar charts.
The bars below the different key figures always belong to a ration. If you move the mouse over them, the columns belonging to a ration are highlighted in color.
Using the arrow symbols on the right above each key figure, you can sort the suggestions according to this key figure in ascending (arrow up) or descending (arrow down) order.
The cross symbol can be used to hide the corresponding key figure.
- By clicking on the green total ration symbol (cow, pig or beef cattle eating) you can select additional evaluations for the total ration to be displayed and which you want to use as a filter for your ration suggestions.
- By clicking on one of the adjacent icons, you can also select key figures for the feeding table, the feeding station or the mineral feed in fodjan Dairy Cow.
If you select one of these, it will be listed at the bottom as a further key figure/information. Additional evaluations can be displayed for the following key figure groups:
- Key figures (e.g. costs per kg milk, feed efficiency or similar).
- Feedstuffs used in the ration proposal (dairy cow, beef cattle only)
- Feedstuff in % (share of the feedstuff in the total ration)
- Nutrients (e.g. amount of ME, NEL, XP per day or similar)
- Nutrients (density) (amount of ingredient per kg DM)
- Feed health score of the ration (how well requirements of the feed group are fulfilled, related to individual ingredients, only for the total ration)
If you move the mouse over a bar, all associated bars of the other key figures will be highlighted in yellow and the corresponding ration suggestion will be displayed at the bottom right (as already shown above in the first screenshot of this section).
Note on the feed station: If a feed station is used, it is taken into account. So if you have selected feed for feeding via the feeding station, it will now also be displayed in the overview under “Feeding station”. In the ration suggestions, not all feeds you have selected are always used, but the feeds you have selected are optimally combined.
Once you have decided on a ration suggestion, click on it. The ration overview appears. If you want to save this ration, click on the “Save” button at the bottom right.
Note on saving: Regardless of whether you save the ration with or without feeding start, the optimised ration is saved as a new ration, the old ration is retained.
Intermediate step: mineralisation
Before you can save the ration, you may be asked to add the minerals. We recommend adding the minerals according to the calculation by clicking on the grey plus symbol.
Set description + Save
If necessary, add a suitable description to the ration, more about this here.
On the right you can now select whether the ration should be saved with or without the feeding start date. If necessary, select the date of the feeding start. Then click on the desired option
- the button “Create new” (with feeding start)
- or “Save” (without feeding start).
The ration has been successfully saved. You can then return to the ration catalogue, the ration overview or start a new calculation. You can also select another menu item via the menu on the left.
See also
Ration optimisation with fodjan – Overview
Read more >
Page „Assistant“ in fodjan Pro
Read more >
Basic settings for ration optimisation
Read more >
Ration catalogue: Have alternative feeds suggested
Read more >
Ration catalogue: What to do if no ration suggestions are displayed?
Read more >
Questions we couldn’t answer?
Simply keep searching here:
Contact us:
support@fodjan.de
or weekdays in in urgent cases:
+49 (0) 351 4188 6693