This article is about the what are amino acids , what are their uses, why are they needed as animal feed, and list the two main benefits of feeding animals amino acids to add to our understanding of amino acids in animal feed.
The following knowledge points are listed below:
Why are amino acids needed for animal feed
Benefit one: Natural protein conservation, Effective use of farmland
Benefit two:Solving environmental problems
1. Why are amino acids needed for animal feed
Protein is an essential compound for all animals and consists of 20 different amino acids. Some essential amino acids must be extracted from the feed because the animal's body cannot synthesize enough amino acids. There are about ten different essential amino acids according to the species of animals and the growth stage. Adding amino acids to feed can reduce feed cost, improve feed efficiency and promote animal growth. lysine, methionine, threonine, tryptophan and valine are commonly used in feed because natural feed often not contain all of these essential amino acids.
2. Benefit one: Natural protein conservation, Effective use of farmland
Feed-use amino acids contribute to the conservation of natural protein sources and effective use of farmland.
Generally, soybean meal in feed can be partially replaced with corn and Lysine using the following formula:
50kg soybean meal = 48.5kg corn + 1.5kg Lysine
This means that using one metric ton of lysine can save about 33 metric tons of soybean meal. With the expansion of feed production and the progress of lysine use, the global usage of feed lysine is increasing every year. For example, if 1.2 million tons of lysine were used, that would mean 38.8 million tons of corn and lysine could replace about 40 million tons of soybean meal. From the point of view of the total area of the required farmland, the potential decline in soybean meal production is due to the fact that the yield per hectare of corn is much higher than that of soybean, so the reduction in the amount of soybean meal used in feed may lead to a reduction of approximately 14 million hectares of land required. In other words, the land must be planted to ensure the amount of soybean needed to produce diet free of lysine.
3. Benefit two:Solving environmental problems
Feed formulations are usually calculated by computer, using a linear program to determine the minimum cost, while using available feed ingredients to meet nutritional requirements. According to barrel theory, the addition of restricted amino acids (such as lysine) can improve amino acid balance and feed efficiency. this reduces the number of required plant protein sources.
Without the addition of restrictive amino acids, it is difficult to achieve an ideal dietary amino acid balance using only plant proteins, which can lead to excessive supply of protein and unnecessary amino acids in the feed. these excess amino acids are not utilized by animals and excreted as nitrogen compounds. Ammonia produced by excreted nitrogen compounds produces odors. In addition, excessive nitrogen excretion leads to soil contamination as well as surface and groundwater contamination. This nitrogen pollution to the environment is a major problem in livestock production.
on the other hand, the addition of lysine can effectively reduce the lc (life cycle)-co2(total amount of carbon dioxide from raw material production to production) of the formula feed. (It is estimated that each addition of 1 kg of lysine reduces LC-CO2 production from 1 ton of feed in 2.4 kg of formula feed) the use of limited amino acids in feed in this way reduces excess intake of other amino acids and proteins. As a result, they help to solve the environmental problem of reducing the discharge of nitrogen and LC-CO2 into the environment.
So with so many benefits, amino acids has become very popular in the animal feeding field and they are now replaceable.