Feed Balance

a comparison of feed requirements with their availability. Calculation of the feed balance is important for the creation of good feed resources on every farm and for efficient, adequate feeding of farm animals.

In the USSR, under conditions of socialist agriculture, the feed balance is included in the national economic plan and in the economic plans of the various republics, krais, oblasts, and raions. It is also part of the production and financial plan of every kolkhoz and sovkhoz. The feed balance consists of two parts: a plan of feed requirements and a plan for obtaining feeds. The plan of feed requirements is based on the planned number of animals, taking into account their productivity. The development plan for livestock raising must ensure not only the fulfillment of the state plan for purchases of livestock products but also the sale of these products to the state in excess of the plan. Feed requirements are calculated for two periods, from the harvest of the year covered by the plan until the harvest of the following year (the plan-order for feed production) and for the calendar year covered by the plan to determine feed expenditures according to animal type and group for the purpose of calculating the planned costs of livestock products. The first period includes the insurance funds for feed concentrates (8-10 percent of the annual requirements), coarse feeds (at least 15-20 percent), and succulent feeds (10-15 percent). The feed balance also takes into account the feed requirements of livestock belonging to kolkhoz workers and to the manual and office workers of sovkhozes.

Feed requirements are calculated for the planned average annual number of animals in each group based on annual or monthly (more accurate) herd turnover. Scientific annual feeding norms (both in terms of feed units and in terms of kind and amount of fodder) and requirements for digestible protein are established on the basis of the planned productivity and live-weight of the animals. The length of the winter (stall) and summer (grazing camp and pasture) periods are taken into account. Standards for the allocation of feed units per unit of product, as well as the structure of the annual feed rations, are partly determined by the experience of leading farms or by using model standards developed by the USSR Ministry of Agriculture for the various agricultural zones.

The plan for obtaining feeds requires maximum production of hay, silage, root crops, and grains, chiefly by increasing yield. It also calls for increased production of those feed crops that make it possible to obtain, under local conditions, the highest feed yield per unit of land area with the least outlay for labor and materials. Also taken into account are agricultural by-products (straw, tops of root crops, useful grain wastes) and industrial by-products (bagasse, malt residuum, oil cakes, oil-seed meal, bran, whey, mixed feeds). The plans anticipate the use of progressive methods of making and storing fodders, such as good ventilation and the preparation of haylage and vitamin-fortified grass meal. Other measures that are envisaged include creation of highly productive meadows and pastures, increased productivity of natural grasslands, and organization in kolkhozes and sovkhozes of the production of mixed feeds with the protein and vitamin supplements that are produced by state enterprises. The various feeds are to be produced on the farm except in the case of state poultry farms, fattening farms, and other farms that have little or no cropland.

Feed balances that are drawn up for an entire farm or for individual sections cover the whole year, whereas those compiled according to animal type or economic group cover particular periods, for example, the fattening period.