Technical Goals
To best serve our members, we believe our technical goals should be precise and obtainable while at the same time being all encompassing and futuristic.
- Establish reference methods for the analysis of all chemical components (including their digestibilities where relevant) and physical factors in feedstuffs that have relevant biological meaning.
- Obtain accurate and validated chemical, physical, and relevant digestibility data for all feedstuffs fed to animals in North America.
- Identify changes in feedstuff composition and characteristics as a result of genetics, processing methods, and the environment.
- Quantify relationships between the chemical composition of feeds and biologically derived estimates of digestion rates and intestinal digestibility coefficients.
- Evaluate and validate rapid methods of feed analysis (e.g., NIRS).
- Support the development and continued advancement of diet formulation and evaluation models for practical application in the field.
Communication Goals
To have effective, dynamic, and interactive communications among everyone involved in feed analysis, diet formulation, and suppliers of feed and feed additives.
Two current initiatives to enhance communication are:
- Consortium Website (www.feedac.org): The website serves as the focal point for day-today consortium communications. A forum has been established (restricted to consortium members) to facilitate interaction among members. In addition, separate restricted areas for each committee been set up. A prototype online library of procedures has been constructed (primarily based on NFTA approved procedures). Revisions/modifications to approved consortium procedures will be tracked using an audit trail mechanism, allowing incoming data to be tagged by specific procedure used. Algorithms and interface screens for basic summary analysis of the data have been developed, with further work planned once data starts rolling into the system.
- Annual Feed Analysis Conference: The conference is intended to promote "face-to-face" interaction among members, to share research results, and to provide a more formal venue to conduct business and report on consortium activities. It is expected that presentations at this conference will be made available via the website, and that the website would be used to maintain continuity between scheduled conferences.
