9.1 Records of Feed Type
9.2 Records of Feed Use
9.3 How Do I Use the Records I Have Kept?
9.4 Statistics
The simple answer to this question, which will be elaborated in this section, is ADEQUATE RECORD KEEPING. The maintenance of good records is ESSENTIAL for all aspects of good farm management, not just feeding. Memory is not enough. Memory contributes to the 'gut feeling', or the instantaneous reaction to a situation which you have seen before, but memory is not a substitute for legibly written and carefully kept records. Only with the help of written records can you efficiently plan the management of your farm's next growing cycle. Records will help you to build up factual knowledge of the performance of YOUR animals on YOUR ponds fed on YOUR (or others') feeds. Others can give you guidance in all these topics but no-one else can build up information which is specific to your farm. Other people can help you interpret your data and plan for the future, if you need help, but they will be unable to give more than general advice based on experience elsewhere in similar conditions if you do not keep your own records.
Accurate records will enable you to compare the performance of different species or varieties on the same feed, different feeds fed to the same species, of feed performance differences between ponds or in different seasons and to assess your feeding efficiency in relation to that achieved by others, or by you in a previous growing cycle. They will enable you to plan for the future - to avoid over- or under-feeding and over- or under-ordering and storage of feed ingredients or compounds. In short, records are the key to keeping your feeding costs to a minimum and to using feed to obtain the highest production of market sized animals from your farm.
Two types of records will be dealt with here - those relating to feed type, and those relating to feed use.
Whether you buy in your compound feeds or whether you make them on your own farm, changes will occur in their composition and in their cost. Changes in the type or cost of feed used may be the result of your decision based on previous experience or the observation of others, or they may be the result of changes in the availability of ingredients or bought-in compounded feeds. For you to keep track of what feed you have used and to be able to follow the economic results of its use, you must clearly identify each feed you use and keep a record of when each batch arrived or was made, and what type it was.
If your feeding records simply record that, "on 13 November 1988 you started the new feed in pond No. 6", what use will this information be to you in 1989, 1990 or 1991? There may have been several more changes since 1988: will you (or less likely still, will your staff) remember WHICH 'new' feed it was? How could you attribute the success or failure of a specific crop to the feed used if you are not sure which one was used? This simple example is given to emphasize the need for clear concise records of feed type.
All feeds should be identifiable. If bought-in, the manufacturer's name, the product name and the date it was bought should be noted. Some manufacturers put a batch number on the bag or on the label sewn onto it. A record of this number, and its subsequent use in feeding records, would enable you to pin-point a problem arising from a poor quality feed batch. If you make your own feeds you should allot each feed formula a reference number which should be modified if the formula is amended. You should keep a record of each formula number and batch date so that this can be marked in your feeding records for each pond or tank or cage. For example, a carp growers feed might be numbered CG1. If you decided to completely change the formulation, the new feed should be given a new number - CG2, CG3, etc. If the formulation change is minor, the new diet might be referred to as CG1/1 meaning the first modification of the basic formula CG1. This type of number tends to confuse, however, and it is probably better to change the number completely to another - CG2, CG3, etc., each time any change is made. The date on which each batch is made should also be recorded.
You should then end up with the following records of feed type:
Bought-In Feed:
A file, which records, for each batch of feed delivered, the following information:
- Date delivered
- Manufacturer's name
- Product name
- Batch number from bags or label or invoice
- Amount delivered
- Cost per unit weight
- Notes - any special notes on condition of feed on receipt etc.
Feed made on Farm Site:
(i) A file, which records, in detail, all the formulae used in feed manufacture on your farm. Each formula has its own reference number.(ii) A file, which records details about each batch of feed made:
- Feed formulation number
- Date and time made (this identifies the batch)
- Name of foreman responsible for manufacture
- Source of each ingredient usedCompound feed containers should be clearly labelled with the feed number and the batch date.
(iii) A file which records changes in ingredient prices so that you can calculate the cost of the feeds you make on your farm at certain dates. Don't just rely on finding old invoices, or on your memory. Update the information on a chart as each batch comes in:
Example of feed price chart: Ingredient Cost (e.g. Indian Rupees/kg)
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50% Fish Meal |
Exp. Groundnut Cake |
Ext. Rice Bran |
Maize Meal |
Gingelly Cake |
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Analytical Information
Ideally, information on the chemical analysis of each batch of ingredients and each batch of feed made should also be maintained in farm feed records.
For those who construct their own feed formulations, the link between the records to be kept and improved formulation and feeds in the future should now be obvious.
Records of feed use are part of the general records which must be kept in the efficiently run farm. Some of the details about the management of each pond or tank or cage are specific to feed use; others are not (temperature, salinity, water exchange rate, etc.). Knowledge of the latter is however essential if the effect of a particular feeding programme is to be interpreted. For example, it would not be valid to compare the results of using two feeds in different ponds if the water exchange in one was twice that in the other, or if the stocking rates were different.
Two sets of records are therefore essential for monitoring the efficiency of your feeding programme. The first relates to general farm management; the second is specific to feed.
It is not appropriate in this manual, which concentrates on feeds and feeding, to deal with the whole question of farm records - why they are necessary, or how they should be kept. Thus the following list of parameters is incomplete but it aims to include those factors about which information is needed before the effects of your feeding programme can be judged. Records on the following topics should be available:
- Pond or cage or tank number (this identifies its position, depth, size, etc.)
- Water exchange rate
- Salinity records
- Water temperatures
- Dissolved oxygen data
- Weather conditions during growing cycle
- Species stocked
- Source of stock
- Date(s) stocked
- Number(s) stocked
- Size of animals stocked (length and/or weight)
- Any special events (e.g., pump failure; predation or mortalities observed; pond overflow; etc.)
- Date, type and amount of any chemicals used
The following details, which are specific to or mainly related to feeding practices, must be recorded:
- Type of fertilizers used (if any)
- Quantity of fertilizer(s) applied
- Date(s) of fertilizer application
- Type of feed(s) used (see section 9.1 for details required)
- Date(s) each feed type given (record all changes)
- Feeding frequency
- Feeding times
- Feed amount per feed and per day
- Growth rate (from regular sampling; see section 8.3)
- Survival rate (from previous experience, coupled with observation - detection of mortalities, etc.; or direct counting if possible)
- Quantity harvested
- Average weight of animals harvested
- Size distribution of harvested animals
- Dressed weights (or shrimp head/tail ratio)
- Any special events (animals refuse to feed; obvious feed wastage; etc.)
A lot of record keeping has been recommended; a lot of paper work, you may grumble: 'What am I going to do with it all?'
First of all, record keeping need not be difficult if it is efficiently organized. Well arranged record books and charts should be prepared and all relevant farm workers told exactly how to use them. Their use of them must be regularly monitored by the farm manager to ensure that vital data is not missing when the time comes for analysis.
Secondly, you must store the records carefully until you are able to use them. Keep the raw data as well as the results of your calculations for comparison in future years or growing cycles. Keep the records safe and dry. Illegible records are frustrating.
Thirdly, you should use the records to determine the efficiency of your feeding programme and to help you interprete the reasons why it was successful or not. There are many ways in which the efficiency of the feeding programme can be judged but, in the end, they all boil down to the answers to the following questions:
a) did your animals achieve market size in the fastest possible time, given the environmental conditions, and was the survival rate good?b) how much did it cost you, per kilogram of marketable product, to feed your animals?
When you have determined growth and survival rate to harvest time, you can answer question (a) above by comparison with your own experience with this pond or species or with others, or with the results achieved by other people. Obviously you will always seek to improve on previous achievements.
The answer to question (b) is a combination of unit feed cost, the apparent feed conversion ratio (AFCR), and the cost (manual or automatic) of feeding operations.
In seeking to explain the results which you have obtained, the other farm records play their vital part. Your conclusions help you to benefit from wise decisions of the past and to learn from your mistakes, with the intention of improving the productivity and economic viability of the rearing unit next time.
If your farm is large, or if you have many different batches of animals under culture you may need to employ statistical techniques to analyse your results. Additionally, should you decide it would be worthwhile and interesting to do some research and development work alongside your farm production, an understanding of statistics would help you to plan meaningful experiments. This subject is not dealt with here but you are recommended to consult the two small books by Parker and Heath listed under 'further reading'.
Further reading for section 9:
Parker (1979); Heath (1970); Jacob (1982); Kannan et al., (1981).
