European organic regulations call for 100% organic feed with 20% produced on-farm for monogastric animals. Feeding directly impacts productivity and therefore, profitability, the health of the animals and product quality.

Producing or purchasing feed usually accounts for more than 50 % of costs in organic monogastric production. Growing and manufacturing on-farm feedstuffs can therefore be an important way to reduce costs for farmers. The ration design of organic feed not only takes economic criteria into account, but also ecological and ethical criteria. It therefore differs from the conventional approach and must be specially designed for organic conditions.

To produce an appropriate feed, farmers need to:

• Know the nutritional value of organic feedstuffs
• Know the animals' requirements
• Calculate the nutritional balance between feedstuffs to provide a diet that meets the needs of the animals

Database and calculation tools can provide very important information and services to help the farmers achieve this.

On this page, you find such tools to help determine species-appropriate feeding strategies.