Mixed Feed

feed mixtures made up according to scientifically based formulas for feeding farm animals.

Three types of mixed feed are produced: full-value feeds, concentrates, and protein-vitamin-mineral supplements. Full-value mixed feeds contain predetermined ratios of all the nutrients animals need. The feeds are used without any other supplements. Concentrated mixed feeds are used to compensate for deficiencies of basic nutrients in the animal diet. Their nutritional value depends on the quality and ratio of the components. Protein-vitamin-mineral supplements are used by the kolkhozes and sovkhozes with their own forage to make mixed feeds. There are mixed feeds for all types of animals. Special mixed feeds are produced for each age group of animal and management category (such as calves, milk cows, and feedlot livestock).

Mixed feeds are produced at state and interkolkhoz mixed feed plants or at the feed shops right on the farms. The state mixed feed plants manufacture mixed feeds according to formulas approved by the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR. Mixed feeds are produced in the form of meal, chunks, granules, and briquets. Feed grains, industrial waste products, animal feeds and coarse feeds, grass and pine meal, and products from the chemical and microbiological industries are used as raw materials. The vitamins, microelements, antibiotics, amino acids, and other biologically active substances are put in the mixed feeds in the form of premixes.

Mixed feeds are used most extensively in the United States, Great Britain, and Japan. The production of mixed feeds is growing rapidly in France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Rumania, and Bulgaria.