Feeding Standards

Feeding standards provide description of one or more nutrients needed by the animal for various functions of body. Feeding standards are of three types: comparative type feeding standards; digestible nutrient feeding standards; and productive type feeding standards. Feeding standards gives the idea about total feed and nutrient requirement of energy specific for physiological functions. It is useful in planning the experiments and interpreting the results depending upon nature and objective of the investigation. The standards are also useful for calculation of total requirement of herd and thus helps in planning of feeding schedule for future. Being flexible, feeding standards can be modified as per demands, availability and cost of feesdstuffs. Feeding standards cannot give exact needs of individual animals. It may not be useful under the situations where palatability and physical nature of feed alters its voluntary intake and thus its requirement. Factors such as biological value, amino acid composition, available minerals and vitamins etc., are not taken into account.