[Increasing the value of food resources: the adaptation of feeding systems to the needs of sheep production in the Alentejo [Portugal]]
1997
Ventura-Lucas, M.R. | Martins, M.B.C.F. (Evora Univ. (Portugal))
The evaluation of a food's nutritive value, defined as the production answer to its ingestion (Pardo and Garcia. 1983), as well as the evaluation of animals needs, are fundamental factors to quantify in economic terms the animal production systems. In this kind of works, it is usual to quantify the animals needs based upon anglo-saxonic feeding tables. Nevertheless, the ingestion behaviour is the animal answer to changes on internal and external environment (Fraser, 1985) and Van Soest (1982) states that different animals adaptates in different ways to feeding desiquilibriums. In Alentejo, the variability of environmental conditions leads to important changes, both quantitative as qualitative, of the available feeds, and Bento (1990) refers that the animals can answer to eventual qualitative deficits by the mobilization of body reserves, that are restored in the abundance periods. These are the motives that justified the present study, wich objective is to contribute to enlarge the adherence of mathematical programming models to Alentejo reality, trying to adequate animals needs to production conditions on the region. The results prove that this adequation leads to a better adjustement of economic models to real conditions of animal production in Alentejo, namely in what concerns feeding resources evaluation
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