Eurofins Agro offers American nutritional value classification
To meet the international demand for nutritional knowledge, Eurofins Agro has invested in implementing the NRC and CNCPS methodologies. The intention is to provide international clients both in Europe and abroad, with the nutritional specifications they need. All the major groups of forages can now be characterised in accordance with the Cornell system.
The nutritional classifications of the National Research Council (NRC) and Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS) are used in many countries to characterise raw and concentrated feeds. In the Netherlands we use mainly the VEM/DVE system. Eurofins Agro already provides American feed values for grass and maize silage, including grass bales and grass/clover silage. This is now possible for more forages. From now on the feed values will also be reported for Lucerne, hayledge and various whole crop silages such as barley, oats, wheat and rye.
European interest
Europe now operates not just in accordance with national nutritional value standards. There is a growing demand for nutritional value comparison between countries, which was previously difficult because each country used its own national system.
The introduction of the NRS and CNCPS characteristics, alongside the usual national nutritional value classifications, serves customers better both in the Netherlands and abroad.
Notable improvements
Within the CNCPS system, the breaking down of a.o. cell walls and proteins is modelled in the rumen in time, to achieve the best possible calculation of what is actually broken down and when at the rumen level. Eurofins Agro can measure these digestion characteristics in various forages, including grass silage and maize. This provides an improved estimate of the actual digestion over time. This allows the forage digestion to be determined with more precision; fully understanding the forage digestion makes it easier to compose rations optimally and reliably, a huge step forwards!