Animal Husbandry: Feed Conversion Ratio Explained

Feed conversion ratio (FCR) is a measure of how efficient an animal converts feed mass to desired output. The desired output may be eggs for laying birds, milk for dairy cows and goat, meat for meat animals such as broilers, pigs, rabbits etc, wool for animals like sheep, goats, rabbits etc. FCR is the mass of feed eaten divided by the output over a given period of time.

FCR = Feed Eaten/Output

Farmers desire a low FCR because it means that more output is produced with less feed. Therefore a low FCR means lower feed cost. A FCR of 2 means that to produce 1kg output (live weight gain, milk), the animal will consume 2kg of feed.

Factors Affecting FCR Genetics: Some animals have the natural ability to produce more output from less feed than other animals of the same species. For example, dairy goat breeds can produce much more
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