Ruminations Blog

Our blog is a collaborative effort. Some of the voices are AMTS principals, some are experts who have contracted with us to help clients utilize our products; some are nutritionists from around the world, helping us acquire a global perspective; and some are educators and pioneers in the field.

Starch Values in Cooked Ingredients

Starch Values in Cooked Ingredients

Research has suggested the WSC method of starch analysis is best suited for capturing all the sugars pertinent to ruminants. Digging deeper on results specifically in cooked ingredients (like bakery by-products, puffed grains) shows this not to be the case. Tom provides insight on why you SHOULD be using ESC values for these products.

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GOT MILK?

GOT MILK?

We have been getting emails and calls from nutritionists whose clients have to dump their milk and are seeking to use it, instead, as a feed ingredient. Dr Tom Tylutki gives some advice on how to do this.

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On-The-Mark-Support

On-The-Mark-Support

COVID-19 Corona Virus has forced many to change how they live and do business. AMTS is here with enhanced remote support and resources to help you keep feeding cattle and small ruminants in this challenging time.

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Feed Pricing Analysis Tool

Feed Pricing Analysis Tool

Some posts are worth repeating! The Feed Pricing Analysis tool will be a great help as you deal with fluxes in feed prices and respond to market changes in milk price. There is a lot of uncertainty out there--use everything you can to give your clients an edge in this...

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New Feedbank Release: Italian Feedbank

New Feedbank Release: Italian Feedbank

“The new feed library has been translated in the Italian language in order to help AMTS Italian customers in their daily work as nutritionists. The forages chosen to populate the Italian Feedbank come from the AMTS EU feeds, closer to the Italian forages for the analysis on components and fiber digestibility. In addiction, the concentrate were selected based upon composition and 7h starch digestibility.

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Meet Vivian

Meet Vivian

AMTS is excited to welcome Ziwei (Vivian) Wu to our company. She joined the team in May, hired for her excellent abilities in programming, web-based languages, and all-around "we think she will fit" vibe. As Vivian explained to us, in her English language classes in...

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A Present for You! The New Mixes Screen!

A Present for You! The New Mixes Screen!

The latest release of AMTS.Cattle.Pro features a completely re-vised way of dealing with mixes. The first change was to stop calling compilations of separate ingredients composites and just call them mixes. The reason they have been called composites for years in AMTS...

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Software update for Mac users

Software update for Mac users

AMTS.Cattle.Pro is a windows based program that must be run on a virtual PC for our Mac users. Tom and Lynn both run the program on Macs. Tom recently updated to  VMWare Fusion released v10 and experienced an issue with his license. Parallels released a new version...

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Features of latest Updates

Features of latest Updates

Shortly, you will receive notice on program opening that there is a new version of .Pro available and asked if you would like to update. It is always a good idea to say “yes” to that question. Two reasons: 1). Sometimes the update fixes a bug. You can save yourself...

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Advanced Optimizer Free Trial

Advanced Optimizer Free Trial

Depending on where you are, Your clients are either busy planting or busy harvesting. Maybe this is the perfect time for you to give the Advanced Optimizer a spin... During the month of May, AMTS.Cattle.Pro users can try out a free month of the Advanced Optimizer! We...

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DCAD Calculation in AMTS.Cattle.Pro

DCAD Calculation in AMTS.Cattle.Pro

By Sam Fessenden, AMTS Occasionally we receive questions regarding how the dietary anion-cation difference (DCAD) is calculated within the program. Users will see DCAD outputs displayed on the Min/Vit tab and the Ration Output tab. The calculations are fairly simple,...

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AMTS Hosted VFD Webinar

AMTS Hosted VFD Webinar

AMTS is facilitating a WebEx webinar with Dr. Melanie Hemenway, DVM, the coordinator of New York State Cattle Health Assurance Program (NYSCHAP), about the Veterinary Feed Directive that went into full effect throughout the United States as of January 1, 2017. Dr...

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Rock River in Europe

Rock River in Europe

A key component of any model based on the CNCPS is the ability to use feed analyses that correlate to the critical feed measurements used in model equations. We have been working with Christiane Brandes and Nils Landwehr of Rock River Laboratory--Europe to facilitate...

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Advanced Optimization

Advanced Optimization

Advanced Optimization in AMTS.Cattle.Professional Author: Samuel Fessenden, PhD Overview The advanced optimizer in AMTS.Cattle.Pro uses a genetic algorithm to create, evaluate, and evolve rations that are more cost effective at meeting the nutrient requirements....

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AMTS.Cattle.Pro version 4.7 Release

AMTS.Cattle.Pro version 4.7 Release

We are especially excited to release the latest version of AMTS.Cattle. This release, officially version 4.7 has a number of functionality improvements. As always, we have created a pdf that opens at program start--make sure you attend to it. You will find that it...

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Upcoming Release

Upcoming Release

Next Tuesday AMTS will release an update to AMTS.Cattle.Pro that we are all quite excited about. This is the first major update since we switched to the on-line registration system last Fall. We are all very excited; some of the changes are VERY big and some are a...

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AMTS Distributors

AMTS Distributors

AMTS is pleased to be a global leader in providing nutrition balancing software. We could not do this without the help of our distributors in various parts of the world. Distributors are responsible as the first line of support within their country. On becoming a...

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Guest Post: Dr Buzz Burhans

Guest Post: Dr Buzz Burhans

When we conceived the Ruminations blog it was intended to be a place where we could further information about ruminant nutrition is addition to articles specifically about our platform AMTS.Cattle.Pro. To that effort we have featured guest posts from The Miner...

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Tips and Tricks–How to handle Recipes

Tips and Tricks–How to handle Recipes

It seems like some questions about screen functionality keep recurring. When doing a training, we take pains to explain the Manage Recipes  button on the Recipes screen. Invariably, this still provides some consternation. Lynn wrote the following blog to address this...

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AMTS at Penn State Academic Initiative

AMTS at Penn State Academic Initiative

  Mariann took a trip to State College, Pennsylvania to assist two groups using AMTS.Cattle.Pro academically. It was beautiful weather for the drive and she spent an enjoyable time on campus teaching the program.   Mariann first met with Dr. Alex Hristov’s...

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Introducing Astrid Steed-Hughes

Introducing Astrid Steed-Hughes

Many of you may have already had some contact with Astrid Steed-Hughes, who serves as Administrative Assistant and is responsible for the day to day office operations at our headquarters.  Astrid began at AMTS in late March. If you felt the world was just a little...

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Lynn and Caroline take Minnesota by Storm!

Lynn and Caroline take Minnesota by Storm!

by Caroline Rasmussen   Lynn and I attended the AFIA (American Feed Industry Association) Feed Industry Institute in Minneapolis MN last week.  My brain is just recovering from being stuffed past capacity with a wide variety of information about the feed...

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New Feature: Milk Steps

New Feature: Milk Steps

In March AMTS issued an updated version of AMTS.Cattle™.Pro that made some functionality changes, incorporated the CNCPS v 6.5.5 biology, and introduced a new report feature. We routinely do two big update a year. These updates are implementations of user requests,...

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Version 4.5 has been released 3/21/16

Version 4.5 has been released 3/21/16

We've been working very hard the last few months to improve your modeling experience and we're happy to release version 4.5.02. In this version you will find the CNCPS 6.5.5 biology updates, updated reports, the updated CNCPS feedbank, and an  announcement page. This...

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Diet Forensics—Body Weight

Diet Forensics—Body Weight

When we do trainings or teach groups about the biology behind the program we always emphasize the importance of getting accurate bodyweights. Almost every equation in the model uses the number that you enter for either Mean Full Body Weight (FBW) or Mean Shrunk Body...

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A Biology Change is Coming…

In our next release, there will be a biology change that will impact every diet. Over time, questions have been asked about the energy values (both of feeds and of recipes) predicted by CNCPS 6.1 and 6.5. The general consensus has been that they have been low. This...

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Feed Analysis

We get asked on a pretty regular basis what do we recommend for feed analysis; especially when people want to add new feeds to the library. So to answer that question, we've put together this posting. This is not a simple question to answer as it depends upon: feed...

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Calves in AMTS.Cattle.Pro

Calves in AMTS.Cattle.Pro

There has been a hidden gem in AMTS.Cattle.Pro for the past 15-18 months. We have been keeping it quiet while some evaluations were conducted. This is a system for feeding milk fed calves. It represents a combination of the 2001 Dairy NRC Calf Model, publications from...

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AMTS.Cattle™.Pro Feedbank Update

The AMTS Feed Library has been updated based upon updates from Cornell. When you open the program, if you are connected to the internet, you will get a message stating there is an update to the feed library; we recommend that you do so. Will become a routine process...

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AMTS software and Windows 10

Hello everyone. AMTS Software runs very nicely on Windows 10. We have been testing it for several months using the beta of Win 10 to ensure compatibility and it performed very nicely. So if you desire to upgrade to Windows 10, from an AMTS standpoint, all will work!...

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AMTS.Cattle™.Pro v 4.0:  General Release

AMTS.Cattle™.Pro v 4.0: General Release

For several months we have had AMTS.Cattle™.Pro v 4.0 available to users as a voluntary download. This update is the implementation of a tremendous change in the CNCPS biology which is the culmination of several years of focused model research and testing especially...

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Importing Feed Analysis

With the release of version 4, AMTS has adopted a new method for importing feed analysis from labs. This method was initially based upon the .amts_fa file format and then greatly expanded by DairyOne, DairyLand and CVAS. It has also been adopted by Rock River. It is...

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CNCPS 6.5 Changes: aNDFom

CNCPS 6.5 Changes: aNDFom

The new release of AMTS.Cattle™.Pro is an implementation of the CNCPS v 6.5 biology which enacts changes to equations reflective of the most current research on various inputs in the model. The primary changes are in the way we handle fiber digestion and nitrogen. The...

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CNCPS v 6.5 changes: uNDF

CNCPS v 6.5 changes: uNDF

The second area of fiber digestion we will discuss is uNDF. Fiber digestibility is very important to building dairy rations. We use it to classify forages; it is critical for determining DMI. Fiber levels of feed help us know rumen fill, rumination needs, and animal...

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The Van Soest Lab Manual

The Van Soest Lab Manual

A task of many years and long in coming, Cornell Publishing Services has made available through the Cornell Store The Detergent System for Analysis of Foods and Feeds by Peter J. Van Soest, editors: M.E. Van Amburgh, P Uden, and P Robinson. You can order your copy by...

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AMTS.Cattle™.Pro v 4.0 Release

AMTS.Cattle™.Pro v 4.0 Release

  We are offering a voluntary release of AMTS.Cattle™.Pro v 4.0. To access the download link, you need to register on our blog site To help users understand the CNCPS biology changes and perform the tasks necessary for converting farm files as they update to the...

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California CNCPS 6.5 Road trip Report

California CNCPS 6.5 Road trip Report

Th The first quarter Biology road show continues to go well. The last week in January Mariann went to Visalia, CA to conduct a few meetings. She flew out of 15°F, windy conditions and ahead of the predicted blizzard to arrive in San Jose in balmy 60° temps. Her...

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The Nutritionist Webinar Series

The Nutritionist Webinar Series

We are pleased to announce an exciting series of webinars focused on dairy cattle nutrition with presentations by some of the leading educators and researchers in the field of ruminant nutrition. These monthly webinars are intended to provide access to technical...

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Road Show Meetings–Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Road Show Meetings–Guelph, Ontario, Canada

This past week we held the first of our Winter Meetings focusing on the new CNCPS 6.5 biology on a cold day in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Our partners at this meeting were DairyLand Labs and Adisseo. A group of nutritionists and industry professional attended the...

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The CNCPS v 6.5 Roadshow–Winter 2015

The CNCPS v 6.5 Roadshow–Winter 2015

A couple of things from our website: The AMTS mission is to provide and promote integrated solutions that enhance the economic and environmental sustainability of animal agriculture and allied industries. AND At AMTS, our goal is to be the global, independent, expert...

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CNCPS v 6.5 in AMTS.Cattle™.Pro

CNCPS v 6.5 in AMTS.Cattle™.Pro

There has been a hubbub in the industry regarding the pending release of the CNCPS v 6.5. Nutritionists who are users of the model have been both anticipatory and concerned—"How will the changes affect my numbers?", "What do I need to do differently?", "How should I...

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Looking Forward CNCPS v 6.5

Looking Forward CNCPS v 6.5

Since the last major revision of the CNCPS in 2010, further refinements of the model have been researched and validated in the effort to more closely predict animal responses to nutrient and management inputs. Several adjustments to the model biology will be...

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AMTS Announces Academic Initiative

AMTS Announces Academic Initiative

Here in the Northeast part of the United Sates where most of the AMTS team lives, we experienced a cold, snowy, and, seemingly, very long winter. There is much that can be debated about Global Climate Change and whether it actually was unusual or whether the last...

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Download the Latest Version of the Software

Download the Latest Version of the Software

We all like Bright Shiny Objects! When we release a new version, sometimes it acts just as a patch. In that case you click on the link and it patches the updates into the existing program. Sometimes the overhaul is so extensive that a new installation of the program...

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A Bit of a Tease

A Bit of a Tease

I recognize that it has been a little while since we have had any new stories up here on the blog site. Everyone has been very busy this winter, so busy that other projects—all of which are coming to a critical point at once—have been taking most of our time. You will...

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Who moved my Feeds?

Who moved my Feeds?

Do you ever have one of those days? Maybe you woke up late, maybe the coffee was gone when you went to pour your second cup, maybe your favorite team lost the big game the day before… So you sit down at your computer to just run a few quick diets, you open your...

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Guest Post: Danny G. Fox: On the History of CNCPS

We are very fortunate, here at AMTS, to have had special insight into the development of the CNCPS model and to have been on the development team. Danny G. Fox, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University, has served as mentor and colleague to several on our team. He can...

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Guest Post Danny G Fox–AMTS: About the Founders

Guest Post Danny G Fox–AMTS: About the Founders

This is the second posting from Dr. Danny Fox about the early days on CNCPS and some background on the founders of AMTS. The last one focused on the development of the model; this post focuses on the people. AMTS is a CNCPS (Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein...

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Check the Agri-Nutrition Blog

Check the Agri-Nutrition Blog

Recently Lynn was asked to write an article for the Agri-Nutrition Blog. Her post appears here. Thanks to Connie Eibergen for posting Lynn's contribution and to Scott Bascom for the idea. 5 Reasons Why Profit Minded Farmers Need to Take Advantage of Rumen Modeling...

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Working with Adifo

Working with Adifo

In October AMTS and Belgium-Based Adifo joined forces to allow AMTS to distribute Adifo's BESTMIX line of products to North, Central, and South America. This collaboration will join CNCPS biology with the cloud based FaaS (Formulation as a Service) to better serve the...

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McDonalds Thanks Farmers

McDonalds Thanks Farmers

Here in the US, we have a very small part of the population feeding the majority of the people very cheaply. Decades of  government promulgated farm policy has ensured that consumers continue to pay a very small percentage of their paycheck for food, especially when...

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31 Days of Tips and Tricks–Day 11: Travels

31 Days of Tips and Tricks–Day 11: Travels

This is not so much a Tip or a Trick but a necessary announcement. AMTS people are always on the move. Well, actually Tom and Lynn are always on the move. Caroline does a fair bit of getting out there but Vijay, Fred, and I, the computer people, so to speak, rarely...

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31 Days of Tips and Tricks–Day 10: Go Bold!

31 Days of Tips and Tricks–Day 10: Go Bold!

AMTS.Pro is a complex and detailed program based on CNCPS 6.1 biology. When fully utilized it very accurately predicts animal performance, both in terms of productive output (milk, growth) and excretions. When you first begin modeling a new farm there is A LOT of...

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31 Days of Tips and Tricks—Day 9: Notes

31 Days of Tips and Tricks—Day 9: Notes

There are a couple of places in .Pro where you can key in notes about the farm so that you can see them when you are working in the Farm. Notes on the Farm window are not printed anywhere.  They are just there for you or anyone you send the file to. The other place to...

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Changing Digestibility Rates

Changing Digestibility Rates

One of the features available with AMTS.Pro, and; indeed, any of the CNCPS biology based modeling programs, is the user's ability to change the digestibility rates of any feed. This is part of the license offered by Cornell when they grant a license to a nutrition...

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Follow-up for the Denver Conference

Follow-up for the Denver Conference

Here at AMTS, we rely on maintaining close contact with our users through newsletters, industry meetings, our blog--Ruminations, and teaching seminars. Recently, in mid August, we recently held one such meeting in Denver, Colorado. This was our first real "away"...

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Drilling Down in Denver

Drilling Down in Denver

Next week the AMTS crew will be headed off to Denver, home of bison, columbines, and the most micro breweries in the United States, for a training session. After holding meetings for several years in eastern United States, we decided to give our western customers a...

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AMTS Training Course and Update

AMTS Training Course and Update

Just before the weekend, AMTS released an updated version of .Cattle.Professional. Most of the changes were behind the scenes: fixes to a few things that generated error messages, minor changes to certain screens, an up-dated manual, and additions to the feedbank. If...

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Farming in Brazil

Farming in Brazil

Brazil has become a world leader in Agriculture production and exports, transforming itself from an importer of agricultural goods to a leading exporter over the past 30 years. This 2010 story in The Economist outlines some of the causes of this successful...

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New Feature: Group Data Import

Using the Evaluation Matrix

My experience working with AMTS is a little of a coming home story. I attended Cornell University in the early 1980's. I went there because I grew up on a small Jersey farm and wanted to be a large animal veterinarian. A few semesters into pre-vet classes I realized I...

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March 19- National Ag Day

March 19- National Ag Day

In the United States March 19th is celebrated as National Ag Day. Our country has  strong agrarian roots; farming methods and knowledge has evolved to the point where less than 2 percent of the population works to feed the other 98%. Fewer and fewer people have a...

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Western Dairy Management Conference

Western Dairy Management Conference

Tom will be attending the Western Dairy Management Conference in Reno, Nevada March 6-8. If you would like to set up an appointment to meet, contact him at support@agmodelsystems.com or call him +1.607.423.3327. Be sure to have him explain the new AMTS.Cloud platform...

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Western Canadian Dairy Seminar

Western Canadian Dairy Seminar

Lynn will be heading off to Canada to attend the Western Canadian Dairy Seminar on March 5-8 in Red Deer, Alberta. She will be available to meet with you if you have any questions. Ask Lynn to show you some of the new features in the latest AMTS.Cattle.Pro release and...

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New .Pro Release!

New .Pro Release!

Ag Modeling and Training Systems is pleased to announce the release of an updated version of AMTS.Cattle.Pro. If you are presently running version 3.4.3.6 you can download a patch from within the program. If you have an earlier version (you will be able to tell this...

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