economic priority.
Formulating broiler feeds according to economic priorities is critical to the integrated poultry enterprise’s success as measured by feed costs and finished product yield, but this can be difficult to achieve due to challenges involving measurement and accountability.
Speaking at the Arkansas Nutrition Conference, Dr. Steve Bolden, director of world tech services, Cobb, identified the challenges for poultry nutritionists and outlined ways of aligning nutritional programs and the integrated operation’s broader goals involving feed costs, feed conversion and processing yield.
Essential steps in optimizing a poultry operation’s nutritional programs, he said, include the following:
• Establish confidence within the integrated poultry complex that the management of nutritional programs can have a predictable and profitable impact on the organization’s overall results
• Track theoretical yield in order to establish achievable performance goals
• Establish meaningful and dependable baselines by which to measure overall cost and yield performance
First of all, economic priorities differ from company to company, Bolden said, and not all situations are the same. The key is that modern broilers are flexible and can be fed optimally, regardless of economic priority.
Amino acid and protein economics
Bolden offered a number of conclusions and recommendations, as he discussed various priorities and solutions:
• Modern broilers respond to positively to protein/amino acids with feed conversion, growth and yield
• Recommended feed density depends on the individual operation’s priorities:
• If average daily gain (ADG) in broiler weight is the priority, the highest density feed is recommended
• If the best feed conversion ratio (FCR) is the priority, use the highest density feed
• For the lowest cost of feed per ton, use the lowest density ration
• When birds are processed but not deboned, the best economics are obtained with medium-high level deed rations
• When birds are deboned for breast meat, use the highest density feed
• For best feed cost per kilogram of bird, use the low density feed
Economic priorities differ from company to company
“The nutritionist must be aware of the economic drivers in his operation and company,” Bolden said.
Economic drivers include the following:
• Growth rate due to how grower contracts are structured and housing availability
• Feed conversion
• Feed cost per kilogram or pound of live bird
• Cost per ton of feed
• Profitability through the processing plant
“These priorities will change over time due to housing availability, feed costs and finished product prices. Plus, businesses are structured differently. Some integrated operations do not value yield the way. And there are differences in their sophistication of capturing metrics from production through the plant,” he added.
Carcass and breast meat yield
Yield in salable product is an important measure of the performance of nutritional formulation, Bolden said, and how well the company’s economic priorities are being met.
“The processing plant is the point in the process where poultry is turned into food,” he said. “It is the point where the company makes money, and nutritionists need to understand yield and how nutritional decisions help their company make money,” he said.
“The great majority of discussion around carcass yield improvement will really involve breast meat,” he added, and it is important to understand the metrics involved with nutrition and yield. He cited the following:
• 1 percent increase in carcass yield for every 254g (.56 lb.) in live weight
• 1 percent increase in boneless breast yield for every 275g (.60 lb.) in live weight
Difficulties in capturing yield information
As important as yield is to any poultry company’s success, there are going to be challenges involving measurement and accountability.
Bolden illustrated this challenge by citing a statement that is familiar in nutritional circles: “If we spend the money on nutrition to increase our yield, the plant will lose it anyway. So why spend the money?” It’s just one of the management hurdles to be overcome, but he cited other, more technical, challenges in measuring and capturing yield:
• The plant runs “outside” birds, WOGs or fronts
• Chillers today are top notch, with 7 percent to 8 percent water retention, which masks the impact of nutrition
• WOGs or fronts will be kept in inventory for aging or other reasons, resulting in water loss and yield loss
• Meat will go through extreme cut-up processes, resulting in yield losses
• Plant flow is connected to further processing segment, such as marination, IQF, etc., which clouds yield metrics
• If birds are too big for the plant sales profile, over-pack is created, resulting in yield loss (“paid-for” yield)
Establishing confidence in nutritional yield improvement
It is important to establish confidence within the integrated poultry complex that the management of nutritional programs can have a predictable and profitable impact on the organization’s overall results.
Bolden outlined ways to establish the needed confidence:
• Run pen trials, hand weigh the yielded parts, establish differences between the treatments and move forward with changes in the field
• Follow pen trials (or skip pen trials) with field trials (side by sides, intermittent cycles on/off), then use the data from the plant or yield values from a benchmarking service
• Go straight to the field with changes based on the best-known science (skip pen trials and field trials) and monitor with plant data
Whatever path is taken, the nutritionist must establish communication with the plant personnel who are directly responsible for tracking yields, Bolden said.
Tracking theoretical yield is the key
It is important to establish that the yield is there in the operation to be captured, Bolden said.
Yield availability in breast meat can be tracked in the plant in a number of ways:
• Designated QA personnel checking approximately 600 birds (front halves) per 8-hour shift
• The tracking should be performed by the same people every day, using the same techniques
“The objective is to make sure the plant is capturing all available (theoretical) breast meat,” he said.
Again, it is important for the nutritionist to maintain a working relationship with the plant personnel responsible for these yield measurements.
Diet nutrient levels study
Bolden shared results of a study conducted by Cobb on diet nutrient levels, involving low, medium, high and extra high densities (see Table 1). The study, which assumed specific feed costs and product values, resulted in recommendations for feed profiles for different markets – live bird markets, processed bird markets where boneless breast meat in not harvested, and processed bird markets where boneless breast meat is 100 percent harvested.
Following are the economic assumptions used in the study:
• $317 per metric ton for corn, $550 for 48 percent soymeal
• DDGs, bakery, meat and bone at market prices
• $1.20 per kg for live bird market value
• $1.76 per kg for processed carcass value
• $4.41 per kg for boneless breast value
Feed economics for the live bird markets
Using the economic assumptions, the low feed profile would be the most economical for growing chickens for the live bird markets. The value of live bird sales was $1.20 per kg. The net calculation is based on feed cost per bird at actual weight subtracted from the sales value.
Processed bird markets where boneless breast is not harvested
Using the economic assumptions, the high feed profile would be the most economical for growing chickens for the processed bird markets where boneless breasts harvest is not important. The value of carcass and parts sales was $1.76 per kg. The net calculation is based on feed cost per bird at actual weight subtracted from the sales value.
Processed bird markets where boneless breast is 100 percent harvested
Using the economic assumptions, the extra high feed profile would be the most economical for growing chickens for the processed bird markets, where 100 percent of boneless breast is harvested. Value of carcass and parts sales was $1.76 per kg, and the boneless breast was $4.41. The net calculation is based on feed cost per bird at actual carcass weight subtracted from the sales value. All weights are kg.
Conclusions on amino acid/protein economics
Modern broilers respond positively to protein/amino acids with performance in feed conversion ratio, growth and yield, Bolden concluded.
Remember, not all situations are the same, he advised. The key is that modern broilers are flexible and can be fed optimally, regardless of economic priority.
