Land-Grant Universities Create Animal Feed Database
URBANA, ILL.
Twenty-one land-grant institutions, including the University of Illinois, as well as partner organizations are collaborating to provide researchers, Extension professionals, regulators, feed industries, and producers with up-to-date, research-based information on the nutrient needs of agricultural animals.
Since forming in 2010, the National Animal Nutrition Program has created a database of animal feed ingredients. The database is a vital tool to inform cost-effective production decisions, animal welfare policies and procedures, and to guarantee the safety and nutritional value of consumers’ food.
Ryan Dilger, an associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at University of Illinois serves on the project committee.
Activities conducted by the program aid in the development of feeding strategies and research to enhance animal health, which allows for better productivity and lowered costs. Consumers will also benefit from safer, more nutritious meat, dairy, and eggs.
So far, the program has collected and sorted 1.5 million feed ingredient records to create a reliable database that is used by organizations in over 30 countries, including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
The National Animal Nutrition Program is a National Research Support Project supported by the Agricultural Experiment Stations with funds administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The feed database is only one of many accomplishments of the NANP since its inception in 2010.
For a list of the participating land-grant universities and to read more about the database, go to http://agisamerica.org/twenty-one-land-grant-universities-create-animal-feed-database/. For more information about the NANP, visit https://nanp-nrsp-9.org/. ∆