WUFF-DA Rabbit Instruction for use page 1

WUFFDA

This workbook is a teaching and research tool.The nutrient requirement lists are
not to be regarded as more than a rough guide. The feed analyses information
likewise is not comprehensive, and may not be representative of the ingredients
that you are using!

There are 7 functional spreadsheets in this workbook: Ingredients, Nutrients, Formulate,

Feed Specification (Feed Spec.), Mixing Sheet, and Graphs. There are several additional
spreadsheets containing ingredient composition data from several sources (such EGRAN
feedstuffs tables: Maertens L., Perez J.M., Villamide M., Cervera C., Gidenne T., Xiccato G., 2002. Nutritive
value of raw materials for rabbits: EGRAN tables 2002. World Rabbit Sci., 10, 157-166; and publications
about nutrient requirements for the rabbit). This data must be copied to the active matrix of the
Ingredient spreadsheet to be used in formulating feeds.

These instructions have six sections: Setup, Formulation, Output, Fine-tuning Display,
Additional Information, Acknowledgements and Contact. This workbook requires
Excel7/97 or later.

Setup: Entering a Problem for WUFFDA to Solve

The heart of the workbook is a spreadsheet called Ingredients that contains the
ingredient/nutrient matrices. At the top of the Ingredients spreadsheet page is the Active
Ingredient Composition Matrix. It will be used in formulating solutions to feed mix
problems. At the bottom of the Ingredients spreadsheet page is the Storage Ingredient
Composition Matrix. To include ingredients in the active or current formulation problem,
copy the desired ingredients from the Storage to the Active matrices.

Select the "Ingredients" spreadsheet tab at the bottom of the Excel workbook window.
Choose the ingredients you wish to use from the Storage Ingredients Composition
Matrix, taking care to block the complete record. Copy and Paste ingredient data into the
Active Ingredients Composition Matrix Box (up to 25 ingredients in this box). Clear any
unwanted or unavailable ingredients from the box before proceeding. Changes to
ingredient minimums and maximums should be made on this spreadsheet; they will be
automatically transferred to the Formulate spreadsheet.

Lists of nutritional requirements for different classes of animals are found on the
Nutrients spreadsheet. The desired nutritional requirement list may be copied into the
cells marked Current Specification, or a new set of nutritional requirements may be
created.

Select the "Nutrients" spreadsheet tab. This sheet contains the Current Specification
Box on the left and the Nutrient Requirement Lists to the right. First select the
appropriate Nutrient Requirement List complete with the header. Then Copy it and Paste it
into the Current Specification Box. Changes to nutrient minimums and maximums
should be made on this spreadsheet; they will be automatically transferred to the
Formulate spreadsheet.
 WUFF-DA Rabbit Instruction for use page 2

Formulation: Solving the Problem

Click on the Formulation spreadsheet tab. Block the "Amounts" cells of the Feed
Formulation Box and Clear them. Enter a name for your formulation in the box provided.

A. Simple (Stochastic) Method

Enter your "best guess" amounts for each ingredient in the "Amount" column. You must
make sure that the Total is 100. Inspect the Feed Composition Table on the right of the
spreadsheet. Note if some of the nutrients supplied are in bold red font. This indicates
that they do not meet the minimum amounts required. Modify your ingredient quantities
and again inspect the Feed Composition Table. Repeat until a suitable diet is generated.
You might now wish to further modify the diet to reduce the cost/tonne while maintaining
the nutritional quality of the diet. The Graphs (on the "Graphs" spreadsheet) may also be
useful as a visual aid in determining the adequacy of the diet: oftentimes the lowest % is
likely to be the first nutritional limitation on the performance of your stock.

B. Least-Cost Formulation

Excel has an excellent linear programming capability. Before you begin you need to check
that the Solver is installed. Select "Tools" on the Menu bar and look for the Solver option.
If it is not present, select Add-Ins on the same menu and check the Solver box. The
source disks for Excel/Office may be required to install this option. Unprotect the sheet
("Tools", 'Protection'). Once Solver has been installed continue as follows:

The WUFFDA workbook comes with minimums and maximums already specified for each
ingredient and nutrient. To least-cost formulate from the specifications entered on the
Ingredients and Nutrients spreadsheets, simply click on the Tools Menu, then choose
Solver and click the "Solve" button. If the problem has been entered correctly, the "Solver
Results" dialogue box will appear with: "Solver Found a Solution". Click on the: "OK"
button and the solution will be displayed on the Formulate spreadsheet.

Limits Reports may be activated from the "Solver Results" dialogue box. If no solution has
been reached, investigate the constraints to locate the problem. The Sensitivity Report is
particularly useful, as it gives the change in price necessary to include or exclude the
different ingredients (Opportunity costs, etc.). NOTE: when using the Solver, reset the
values in the 'Amount' column of the Feed Formulation Box to 0 before beginning. Delete
the extra Report sheets before saving, or use the Save As option and rename the modified
workbook.

Results

The formulated diet is well described in the Feed Composition Table on the Formulate
spreadsheet. Another perspective of the formulation may be seen in the two graphs seen
on the "Graphs" spreadsheet (click on the Graphs tab). They represent the nutrient
content of the diet as formulated as a percentage of the Requirement. The "Feed Spec"
spreadsheet is a summary of the "Formulate" sheet formatted for a single 8.5x 11" page
printout.
 WUFF-DA Rabbit Instruction for use page 3

Mixing Sheet

The Mixing Sheet spreadsheet produces a printed output sheet for taking to the feed mill.
It is formatted for printing on an 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper. After each formulation, the user
must press the "Ctrl" and "m" keys together to transfer data from the Formulate
spreadsheet to the Mixing Sheet, and sort it. The user inputs the number of units of feed
that they need to mix in the "Amount to Mix" box and the units that they are using (grams,
kilograms, pounds, etc.). The spreadsheet then calculates the amount of each ingredient.

Fine-tuning the Display

Set the 'Zoom' for each window to obtain the optimum view. For example, I always set the
view for "UNEform" sheet to show 26 rows, and "Nutrients" to show 30 rows and
"Ingredients" to display the full width of the Active Ingredient Box. The optimum setting will
vary with the size of the monitor, etc. The colours are great on a 32-bit setting, but if your
computer is capable of displaying only 256 colours or less the results are dismal! Either
reset the colours in the spreadsheet or update your colour display - the first is cheaper but
the latter is more aesthetically pleasing.

Additional Information

This spreadsheet has been developed primarily as a teaching tool, so the list of nutrients
and ingredient tables are by no means comprehensive. They can however be modified
and added to. Users are encouraged to use up to date prices and to modify the ingredient
tables and the nutrient requirement lists with more accurate information. The spreadsheet
is usually presented with the sheets protected to prevent accidental modification of
formulae and information. However, this is not protected by password, and more
advanced users of spreadsheets should feel free to explore changes and improvements.
PLEASE, contact me with any comments, suggestions and, especially, any errors you find!

Acknowledgements

The following are sources of data used in this spreadsheet, for rabbit feed formulation :

Maertens L., Perez J.M., Villamide M., Cervera C., Gidenne T., Xiccato G., 2002. Nutritive value of
raw materials for rabbits: EGRAN tables 2002. World Rabbit Sci., 10, 157-166.

Contacts

For the WUFFDA software

Evan Thomson
Senior Technical Officer
Animal Science
School of Rural Science and Natural Resource
 WUFF-DA Rabbit Instruction for use page 4

University of New England

Armidale NSW 2350
Australia
Ph: +61 02 6773 3024 Fax: +61 02 6773 3275 Email: [email protected]

Gene M. Pesti
Professor
Department of Poultry Science
University of Georgia
Athens GA 30602-2772
USA
706/542-1351 (Voice)
706/542-1827 (FAX)
Email: [email protected]

For adaptation to the rabbit feed formulation

Dr. Thierry GIDENNE // (PhD, HDR, INRA research director)
INRA Toulouse Research Centre, France
UMR 1289: TANDEM
BP 52627, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan // FRANCE
E.mail : [email protected] //
Phone, from abroad: +33 5 61285103 (direct) ; Fax : +33 5 61285319
Direct link to the unit : http://www.inra.fr/compact/nav/externe/fr/unites/ecrans/1289
Web site of INRA Toulouse: http://www.toulouse.inra.fr/