System for and method of customizing an animal feed based on nucleic acid material content

• US 6,658,308 B1
• Filed: 06/19/2002
• Issued: 12/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Can Technologies, Inc. (Cargill Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Can Technologies, Inc. (Cargill Incorporated)
• Inventors: Craig, W. Michael, Cook, David A., Newcomb, Mark D., van de Ligt, Christiaan P. A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Picard, Leo
• Assistant Examiner(s): SWINDELL, WALTER R
• Application Number:
  US10/175,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20030233984A1
• Time in Patent Office: 531 Days
• Field of Search: 700/90-92, 700/106, 119/51.01, 119/51.02, 119/53, 702/2, 702/22, 702/179
• US Class Current: 700/90
• CPC Class Codes: A23K 20/153 Nucleic acids; Hydrolysis products or derivatives thereof

Abstract

A system for and method of determining a formulation for an animal feed having a customized nucleic acid material content. The system can include an animal profile, an animal nutrient requirement profile, an evaluation criteria, and/or ingredient nutrient content profiles. The information contained in the profiles and criteria can be used to calculate a formulation having a desirable nucleic acid material content. The optimized nucleic acid material content can be used to maximize satisfaction of an evaluation criteria.

Claims

1. A system for determining customized feed for at least one animal, the system comprising:

a first memory portion configured to store animal data representative of the characteristics of the animal;

a second memory portion configured to store feed data representative of feed ingredients; and

a data processing circuit in communication with the first and second memory portions and configured to generate a nutritional profile including a desirable nucleic acid material content for the animal based upon the animal data, the data processing circuit being further configured to generate formulation data representative of a combination of feed ingredients, the formulation data being generated by the data processing circuit based upon at least one of the nutritional profile data and the feed data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the animal data is representative of at least one of a beginning weight of the animal, a desired weight of the animal, an environment of the animal, a production state of the animal, a health state of the animal, a feed form, and an actual or desired production level of the animal, and a relationship of animal muscle to fat of the animal.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the health state of the animal includes at least one of a healthy state, a weaning state, an illness state, and a challenged state.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the feed ingredients include at least one of a grain source, a protein source, a vitamin source, a mineral source, a fat source and a nucleic acid material source.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the evaluation criteria includes at least one of animal production rate, cost of feed per unit animal weight gain, and feed weight per unit animal weight gain.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the evaluation data is representative of at least two evaluation criteria.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a third memory portion in communication with the data processing circuit, the third memory portion being configured to store optimization weighting data representative of the effect a respective evaluation data has on the generation of the formulation data, the data processing circuit further generating the formulation data based upon the optimization weighting data.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the optimization weighting data may be selected to cause one of the evaluation criteria to have no effect on the generation of the formulation data.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory portions are portions of a digital memory and a parallel data bus in coupled between the digital memory and the data processing circuit to facilitate communication.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory portions are portions of a plurality of digital memories and a network couples the digital memories to the data processing circuit to facilitate communication.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the nutritional profile data is representative of at least two nutrient components, and the system further includes a fourth memory portion in communication with the digital processor, the fourth memory portion storing variation data representative of a range for the nutrient components of the nutritional profile and the digital processor generates a set of formulation data based upon the variation data.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the nutrient components includes at least the nucleic acid material content.

13. A system for determining customized feed for at least one animal, the system comprising:

a first memory portion configured to store animal data representative of the characteristics of the animal;

a second memory portion configured to store feed data representative of feed ingredients;

a third memory portion configured to store evaluation data representative of at least one evaluation criteria; and

a data processing circuit in communication with the first, second and third memory portions and configured to generate a nutritional profile including a desirable nucleic acid material content for the animal based upon the animal data, the data processing circuit being further configured to generate formulation data representative of a combination of feed ingredients, the formulation data being generated by the data processing circuit based upon at least one of the nutritional profile data, the feed data, and the evaluation data.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the animal data is representative of at least one of a beginning weight of the animal, a desired weight of the animal, an environment of the animal, a production state of the animal, a health state of the animal, a feed form, and an actual or desired production level of the animal, and a relationship of animal muscle to fat of the animal.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the health state of the animal includes at least one of a healthy state, a weaning state, an illness state, and a challenged state.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the feed ingredients include at least one of a grain source, a protein source, a vitamin source, a mineral source, a fat source and a nucleic acid material source.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the evaluation criteria includes at least one of animal production rate, cost of feed per unit animal weight gain, and feed weight per unit animal weight gain.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the evaluation data is representative of at least two evaluation criteria.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising a fourth memory portion in communication with the data processing circuit, the fourth memory portion being configured to store optimization weighting data representative of the effect a respective evaluation data has on the generation of the formulation data, the data processing circuit further generating the formulation data based upon the optimization weighting data.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the optimization weighting data may be selected to cause one of the evaluation criteria to have no effect on the generation of the formulation data.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory portions are portions of a digital memory and a parallel data bus in coupled between the digital memory and the data processing circuit to facilitate communication.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the memory portions are portions of a plurality of digital memories and a network couples the digital memories to the data processing circuit to facilitate communication.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein the nutritional profile data is representative of at least two nutrient components, and the system further includes a fifth memory portion in communication with the digital processor, the fifth memory portion storing variation data representative of a range for the nutrient components of the nutritional profile and the digital processor generates a set of formulation data based upon the variation data.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the nutrient components includes at least the nucleic acid material content.

25. A system for determining customized feed for at least one animal, the system comprising:

first memory means for storing animal data representative of the characteristics of the animal;

second memory means for storing feed data representative of feed ingredients;

third memory means for storing evaluation data representative of at least one evaluation criteria; and

processing means for generating a nutritional profile including a desirable nucleic acid material content for the animal based upon the animal data, the processing means generating formulation data representative of a combination of feed ingredients, the formulation data being generated based upon the nutritional profile data, the feed data and the evaluation data.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein animal data is representative of at least one of a beginning weight of the animal, a desired weight of the animal, an environment of the animal, a health state of the animal, a feed form, and an actual or desired production level of the animal.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the health state of the animal includes selection of at least one of a healthy state, a stressed state and a challenged state.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the feed ingredients include at least one of a grain source, a protein source, a vitamin source, a mineral source, a fat source and a nucleic acid material source.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the evaluation criteria includes at least one of animal production rate, cost of feed per unit animal weight gain and feed weight per unit animal weight gain.

30. The system of claim 25, further comprising a fourth memory portion in communication with the data processing circuit, the fourth memory portion being configured to store optimization weighting data representative of the effect a respective evaluation criteria has on the generation of formulation data, the data processing circuit further generation the formulation data based on the optimization weighting data.

31. The system of claim 25, wherein the nutritional profile is representative of at least two nutrient components, and the system further including a fifth memory portion in communication with the digital processor, the fifth memory portion storing variation data representative of a range for at least one nutrient component of the nutritional profile and the digital processor generates a set of formulation data based upon the variation data.