In some of the countries oriented to an
increase of the efficiency in the dairy industry, there is a growing interest in
the Regional Feeding Center system.
The Feeding Center is essentially a location where the TMR rations are formulated and prepared to be delivered to a number of farms, generally located in the same region.
The basic principles that characterize the Feeding Centers are:
- Based on TMR feeding system;
- Flexibility and better formulation of the TMR;
- Different rations for Milking cows, Dry cows (Far-off and Close-up), Heifers and Beef;
- Rations provided to farmer in the feeding center or in his farm;
- Liberate dairy farmers from dealing with feeding so they can focus on herd management;
- Less problems with farm layout and fewer investments;
- Allow to move from optimizing on farm level towards level of area.
NDS Feeding Center management
Since version 3.8.10.02, NDS provides a new set of features to manage Feeding Centers as centralized units, which can supply recipes to farms of different working groups.
The following image depicts the Feeding Center paradigm in NDS:
A feeding center can supply recipes to farms that are assigned to different working groups, while a farm can receive recipes coming from one or more feeding centers.
Feeding Center
structure
To start working with Feeding Centers click on the related tab in the Startup tab screen of NDS:
The drop down menu under the Feeding Center Structure button is initially empty; after creating the first Feeding Center, it is set to its name. If there are more Feeding Centers, it can be used to switch from one Feeding Center to another.
To create and define the structure of a new Feeding Center click on the Feeding Center Structure button:
The management of the Feeding Center structure is similar to that of a structured working group, but simpler, since there are only two hierarchical levels:
1. Feeding Center
2. Animal Group: each Feeding Center can have more Animal Groups, each one related to a specific animal type; the recipes created in the Feeding Center can be assigned to an Animal Group to have the default values for the related animal input parameters loaded. It is possible to add to a Feeding Center more Animal Groups of the same animal type.
The Feeding Center structure can be related to a set of file system folders, that will contain the external files that store the recipes created for the matching Animal Group. The Managing Path tab provides the tools to create and manage these folders.
