Patio Pondering: When “Just Hit F8” Isn’t Enough
It is hard to believe we are in the last full work week of the year. Indiana weather is once again being crazy; our temperatures will push 50 today, then fall into the teens by tomorrow morning. I am trying to enjoy my hot cup of coffee as I distill a few thoughts. Before I sit at my desk, I am reflecting on the changes and realities of feed formulation I have experienced over the past 35 years.
Yesterday, I started beta testing a new formulation program for my friend @Marcio Gonçalves. Over the years, I have used many formulation programs to design feeding programs and products for pigs. I first used PC Spartan in ANSC 221 after we learned the Pearson Square in Dr. Tip Cline’s Animal Nutrition class at Purdue. Even then, I ran into obstacles when ingredients or requirements did not easily match the expected outcome.
Since then, I have used a blend of PC-based and cloud-based programs, some intuitive, others not, to meet the nutritional needs of pigs. Sometimes making those feeds was easy; other times I was stymied by something in the formulation. That issue could have been a vitamin level, a ratio that could not be met, or simply running out of room for all the needed ingredients.
Fixing those issues was the art of feed formulation, and sometimes the solution took time to resolve.
Here is the problem I faced many times over my career: many people do not understand what it takes to make a feeding program. It is not always as simple as putting in numbers and hitting F8. Many times, there are decisions that must be made to fit a program to a customer.
To be fair, many days feed formulation really is that simple. The ingredients line up, the requirements fit, the costs behave, and hitting F8 delivers exactly what you expect. Those are good days, and they happen often enough that it is easy to assume they are the norm.
The challenge is that not every day looks like that. And when it does not, the work shifts from numbers to judgment.
Sometimes ration weight breaks do not align with nutrient recommendations.
Sometimes a ration requires special ingredients with incomplete nutrient profiles.
In times of tight margins, I had to meet a specific ration cost even when it meant falling short of ideal nutrient targets.
The harder part was that very few people understood the intricacies involved in getting everything to work so that, when you finally hit F8, it actually worked. They only saw the final outcome, not the mental gymnastics required to balance rations and budgets to match the needs of that farm.
When those tradeoffs are not visible or well communicated, the delay can be misread. What feels like careful judgment on my side can look like inaction on someone else’s.
As we become more adept at using AI, formulation programs will continue to improve. We will get ration updates at the speed of light. Still, there will be times when you hit a brick wall. Those are the moments when expertise and experience matter most—when knowledge breaks through like the Kool-Aid Pitcher crashing through that wall to get the pigs fed.
What are the challenges in your life that others assume are easy, but really are not?