APOLLO: RATION FORMULATION AND ANALYSIS PROGRAMS FOR SWINE

Transcription

1 APOLLO: RATION FORMULATION AND ANALYSIS PROGRAMS FOR SWINE A. Ahmadi, J. R. Dunbar and H. A. Johnson* ABSTRACT APOLLO, a computer program for formulating or analyzing rations for swine, has been developed based on the National Research Council Bulletin, Nutrient Requirements of Swine, Ninth Revised Edition, APOLLO runs on IBM PC compatible computers with 512K of memory. APOLLO incorporates state of the art microcomputer software, including full screen editing for input, pop up help message windows, pop up multiple choice list windows, and extensive error checking. PROGRAM DESIGN The main menu of Apollo consists of six programs. Figure 1 illustrates these programs. Figure 1. Main Menu of the Apollo program. To formulate a ration the user inputs data in five forms. Figure 2 shows a list of these forms. The animal information and feed list data forms are required; all other are optional. Figure 2. List of input screens. To illustrate the capabilities of the Apollo program, an example for growing 20 kg gilts and barrows is presented in this paper * Animal Science Department, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA Apollo: Ration Formulation And Analysis Programs For Swine 1

2 Animal Information Form Figure 3 shows the animal information to be entered into the program. Filling out the form is easy. The user can press the arrow keys to move from one field to another. Function key 1 is used to pop up a context sensitive help window on the screen. Function key 2 is used to pop up a list of possible choices for that field in a scrollable window on the screen. For example, pressing the function key 2 for the breed field pops a window on the screen with a list of breeds (Duroc, Hampshire, Yorkshire, Poland China, Spotted, Landrace, Crossbred, and Other). The user can choose one of these breeds by using the arrow keys. Note that the unit of measure can be either English (lb) or Metric (Kg). The program converts all values according to the selected system. Figure 3. Animal Information Form. Feed List Form Figure 4 shows the feed list form. The feeds are selected from the standard library which includes 110 feeds with their nutrient analysis. Figure 4. Feed list form. Apollo: Ration Formulation And Analysis Programs For Swine 2

3 Function key 2 is used to pop up a scrollable window on the screen which lists the numbers and names of all feeds in the library. The user can choose one of these feeds by moving the light bar to the desired feed and pressing the Enter key. The user can view or edit the nutrient analysis of each feed by entering a 'Y' in the Edit Feed column of feed list form. Figure 5 illustrates the nutrient analysis of feed number 3, Barley Pacific Coast. Figure 5. Nutrient Analysis Subform. Figure 6. Nutrient Constraints Form Group List Form The user can force a given amount of feed group to be included in the ration by entering a minimum constraint. The program will then include at least this amount and possibly more when formulating the ration. The user can limit the amount of a feed group in the ration by entering a maximum constraint on that group. Apollo: Ration Formulation And Analysis Programs For Swine 3

4 Ratio List Form In this form the user can define ratio constraints to be used for ration formulation, or the user can simply specify a set of ratios to automatically be calculated by the program when displaying the contents of the ration. Ratio types are for nutrient ratios, feed ratios, and feed-group ratios. Nutrient Constraints Form Equations for estimating nutrient requirements are based on the 1988 edition of the National Research Council (NRC) Bulletin, Nutrient Requirements of Swine. The mineral requirements built into the programs are for calcium, phosphorus, and their ratio. Specified requirements can be entered to override the estimated levels calculated internally by the program (Figure 6). OUTPUT After the user has completed the input forms, the program is ready to formulate ration using the linear programming primal dual algorithm. This algorithm is efficient in time and space because it does not require additional columns and rows for artificial variables. During the ration formulation process, Apollo automatically appends a set of "diagnostic feeds" to the feed list. These are "fake" feeds which Apollo will use to avoid getting an infeasible solution when it cannot fulfill the nutrient requirements with the available feed ingredients. The output consists of five parts: cost and performance, ration composition, price ranges, nutrient analysis of the ration, and nutrient analysis of feeds in the ration which, in turn, consists of eight parts (Figure 7). Figure 7. List of output forms. Figures 8, 9, and 10 show the ration composition, price ranges and feeds not used, and nutrient analysis of the ration. Apollo: Ration Formulation And Analysis Programs For Swine 4

5 Figure 8. Ration Composition. Figure 9. Price ranges and feeds not used. Apollo: Ration Formulation And Analysis Programs For Swine 5

6 6 Figure 10. Nutrient analysis of ration. REFERENCE National Research Council Nutrient Requirements of Swine, Ninth Revised Edition. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. Apollo: Ration Formulation And Analysis Programs For Swine 6