NASEM Diagnostics
Hello, and welcome to this video explaining the diagnostic capabilities within NASCalf. In this walkthrough, we’ll look at how to access and use the various diagnostic reports available in the program.
We’ll begin with the Diagnostics menu on the right side of the Diagnostics screen. There are seven diagnostic reports available in total. In this video, we’ll focus on most of them, but we’ll skip the supply calculations for now, as those are covered in a separate video.
Let’s start with the Daily Nutrient Report. When we open this report, we see nutrient values provided across the full 122-day simulation period. The report begins with dry matter intake, including intake from liquids, grains, and forages, as well as dry feed, which is the sum of grains and forages, and total dry matter intake.
Both the number of nutrients shown and the number of decimal places displayed can be adjusted. For example, if you’re interested in starch intake, you’ll notice that most intake variables end with an “I.” Non-fiber carbohydrates, or NFC, can be shown either as a percent of ration dry matter or as intake in kilograms per day.
As with most diagnostic tables, you can double-click anywhere in the table to copy the data to the clipboard. You’ll see a brief red flash to confirm the copy, and you can then paste the data into another program, such as Excel. The printer icon allows you to print the report, either to a file or directly to your printer. Each of the five tables in this report will be included in the output.
Next, let’s move to Results on One Day. This report shows all simulation results for a single day. In this example, we’re viewing day 4, but you can select any day within the 122-day simulation period.
Here, you’ll see detailed calf information, including all of the animal characteristics used in the calculations. Most of these variables are self-explanatory, and additional explanations are available in the Help menu if needed.
Below that, we see results for liquids, concentrates, forages, dry feed, and total dry matter. Values may be expressed as percent of dry matter, percent of crude protein for amino acids, or as intake values. Again, variables ending in “I” represent intake.
Moving on to Calf Data Values, this section allows you to examine specific animal variables, including nutrient requirements. For example, if we select average daily gain, we can view the calculated gain for each day of the simulation. As before, you can adjust decimal places and copy the data to the clipboard by double-clicking within the table.
The Protein Report provides a clear comparison of protein requirements and supply. Requirements are shown in the table on the left, while supply is shown on the right. For any selected day, you can see the maintenance requirement, the requirement for growth, the total net protein requirement, and the protein supplied from rumen undegradable protein and microbial protein, both by feed and in total.
The Daily Energy Report follows a similar structure. On the left, you’ll see energy requirements. In the center, the flow of energy through the system is shown, including metabolizable energy and net energy. On the right, you’ll find the coefficients used in the calculations. All abbreviations used here are explained in the Abbreviations section of the knowledge base.
Finally, let’s look at Output All Data. When you select this option, the program will ask whether you’d like to generate a file containing all simulation data. If you choose yes, NASCalf will create an Excel file containing every variable for every day of the simulation, saved to the local NASCalf directory. This provides full access to all simulation results for further analysis.
Those are the diagnostic tools available in NASCalf. I hope you find them useful as you explore and analyze your simulations. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.
