Optimal Decisions

Producers and their nutritionist need to understand HOW feeds (and ingredients in those feeds) come together to provide the right nutrients at the right time to reach the calf’s growth goals at every stage of life.

Of course, the cost of feeds is the single largest input cost for raising calves from birth to calving.  The graph below is the total heifer raising expenses of farms in Wisconsin – we see that feed represents more than 50% of total costs for raising replacement animals in 2015.

Thus, it’s essential to formulate diets that provide the LOWEST COST formula.  Least cost formulation programs – like LPSolve – provide the best cost to meet the nutrient requirements in the formula (see red circle below).

LPSolve provides you with additional information – Lower and Upper prices, Shadow Prices and Shadow Price limits that tell when the formula should be recalculated to ensure lowest cost.