Feed Dry Matter Conversions

When converting nutritional profiles and feed weights, it is important to always evaluate the question or problem. Should the final answer have a larger or smaller number? As a rule of thumb, when converting from an as-fed to dry matter basis, nutrient concentrations will increase, but weight will decrease. When converting from a dry matter to as-fed basis, water is added so nutrient concentrations will be diluted or decrease, but weight will increase. Then, it’s a matter of arithmetic. Multiplication by a percentage less than 100 expressed as a decimal will yield a smaller number, whereas division by a percentage less than 100 expressed as a decimal will generate a larger number. The decimal is always the dry matter percentage of the feed.