Nutrients for an Ingredient

{Invitation to edit}} This page is part of the Setup, one of three main sections of Tower Grove Feed. The other two are the Workshop and the Workbench. For an overview of the Setup go to Setup overview.

Overview

The Nutrients for an Ingredient page allows you to specify the nutrient quantities supplied by a single ingredient.

Heading - changing attributes of the ingredient

In the page heading, you can specify the following fields for the ingredient:

Name

The name is the primary way to identify objects in Tower Grove Feed. No two objects of the same type in the same hierarchy can have the same name, no matter what the language. The same object can have different names in different languages. The name can be changed only by the owner of the object, but any user can make the first translation of a name into another language. Objects of different types may have the same name. For example, 'salt' can be the name of both a nutrient and an ingredient. (This is only an example, and, as this is not usually a good practice, Tower Grove Feed has not used the name 'salt' this way at the system level.) You can change the name only if the your current control level owns the ingredient.

Code

An arbitrary short name, abbreviation, or other ID that can be used as an alternative identifier of objects. The code can be used to group objects. By default, ingredients are sorted by code. For formulas and ingredients supplied by the system, Tower Grove Feed provides a systematic coding.

Cost

Ingredient cost is for a specified amount of the ingredient. The amount is specified as the cost unit. Typically the cost is the cost per ton (1000 kg or 2000 lb). To learn how to override the cost unit click here.

Cost Unit

The ingredient cost units is the number of units in the cost specified for the ingredient. The unit is typically the The unit of measure indicates the type of measurement to record weights. The choice is almost always between 'pounds - lb' and 'kilograms - kg'. The unit of measure applies to the batch weight, the weights of ingredients in the formula solution, and to ingredient cost units. You could also select 'tons' or 'metric tons' but these are not typically used. Pound (lb) usually refers to an avoirdupois pound.

The unit of measure is specified on the Formula defaults page in the Workshop.

Currently the unit of measure designation is for information only. If you change the unit of measure, Tower Grove Feed does not recalculate ingredient costs or reset batch weight or costs automatically. If, for example, you change from kilograms to pounds, the most common thing to do is to set change the Formula defaults batch weight to 2000 and also set the Control level defaults cost units to 2000. for the control level. The cost units can be any number, but usually is a commonly used quantity in the English or metric system such as 1000 kg, 2000 lb, 100 kg or 100 lb.

The cost units are usually specified at the control level on the [Update Formula Defaults]] page, but they can be overridden for any particular ingredient. The cost units for the control level generally should match the Unit of Measure for the level. For example, if the unit of measure for the level is kilograms (kg), the cost units would typically be 1000. But an expensive ingredient, might more be more easily managed as a cost per 100 kilograms (100), per kilogram (1), or even per gram (.001).

Type

Ingredient Type is a descriptor used to classify and separate ingredients by kind.

Besides the Name, it has a Code and a Sort Sequence. Our standard Ingredient Types are Bulk with a code of "B", Micro with "M", Hand add with "H", and Liquid with "L".

The Batch report uses the Ingredient Type to sort, separate and subtotal the ingredients in the formula solution.

Users can add new Ingredient Types and change the Sort Sequence of the standard types, but deleting the standard Types or changing their Codes is not a good idea because future modifications to the Batch Report may use the standard Types and Codes in special, predefined ways.

Selection choices: Has Quantity, All

For the nutrient list, this page has two selection choices: "All" and "Has Quantity." "Has quantity" lists only those nutrients for which a quantity has been specified. "Has quantity" is the default if at least one nutrient has a quantity. "All" is the only option if no nutrients have a quantity.

Adding an nutrient

If "Has quantity" is the selection and you wish to specify a quantity for an nutrient not shown, change the setting from "Has quantity" to "All", find the nutrient (you can use the "Contains" box to search for all or part of an nutrient name or code), enter a quantity for the nutrient, and click save.

Overriding, zeroing, and blanking out quantities

You can override a quantity specified at a higher level (where the background is yellow). When you save the new quantity, the background will become white. If you blank out a quantity of a nutrient not owned by your current level, the quantity will revert to the inherited quantity. If you specify zero in place of an inherited quantity, the zero will appear with a white background as the overridden quantity. If you specify zero for a nutrient that your current level owns, the nutrient will disappear from the list when you click save. The same will happen if you blank out the quantity for an nutrient that your current level owns.

Overriding other nutrient attributes

You can also change the code for an ingredient at your current level. Blanking out the code will not cause the ingredient to disappear from the list. If your current level owns the nutrient, you can change the following fields:

Unit

The units in which the quantity of the nutrient is specified. The unit is usually a ratio consisting of one fundamental or a derived unit divided by another. Examples of compound units are: mg/kg or mcal/kg. Percentage, which is the ratio of the specified nutrient to the whole result is the most commonly used unit.

Specifying a nutrient's value as a percentage, however, does not mean the the nutrient's percentage of the whole is ever calculated. The solution is reached by combining the quantities found in each ingredient in the solution. So if corn has 10% protein and the formula calls for at least 20%, then corn (if it is to end up in the solution) must be combined with other ingredients having more than 20% protein, so that the average percentage of protein in the solution is at least 20%.

Nutrients that have their units specified as a percentage can easily total more than 100% in the solution, because nutrients (unlike ingredients) can overlap each other. Protein, for example, overlaps the individual amino acids.

The units of one nutrient have nothing to do with the units of another nutrient (as far as the program is concerned). The units of the nutrients in the solution do not have to add up to anything. In contrast, the percentages of the ingredients minimums in the formula cannot exceed 100% and, when the status of the solution is Optimal Solution Reached, the actual percentages always add up to 100%.

A nutrient minimum of, say, 1800 mg/kg of choline, can be thought of as order for that much choline. A feasible solution must provide at 1800 mg/kg choline, regardless of what other nutrients are specified.

Some units specify kilogram (kg) as the denominator (e.g., mcal/kg). To allow you to use pound based units, Tower Grove Feed provides alternative set of nutrients (with "- lb" as a suffix) that use pound-based rather than kilogram-based units.

Name

You can change the name in the "New Name" column.

Finding Ingredients for a Nutrient

If you click on the name of a nutrient, you will go to the Ingredients for a Nutrient page.