Regional Energy Savings, Summary Comments. The analysis of feed rations 

 fed to livestock and poultry in the six regions considered reveals that substantial 

 energy savings could be achieved if energy minimizing rations were utilized. In 

 total an estimated 3 7.2 trillion BTU could be conserved annually. This would 

 represent an energy savings of about 18 percent and be comparable to saving 

 nearly 298 million gallons of gasoline. (It could be noted that this quantity of 

 gasoline is roughly the amount consumed by New Hampshire automobile drivers 

 in a year.) 



The greatest potential for energy conservation lies in the Pacific States where 

 the fossil fuel energy embodied in feed rations could be reduced by 25 percent, 

 and a total of nearly 98 million gallons of gasoline equivalent could be saved 

 annually. Likewise, more than 57 million gallons of gasoline could be saved in 

 the Northeast. 



As to energy savings by species, for the regions considered, nearly 78 million 

 gallons of gasoline could be saved in feeding least energy rations to dairy cattle, 

 about 41 million in feeding beef cattle, 104 million in feeding layers, nearly 42 

 million in feeding broilers, 16 million in feeding turkeys and nearly 18 million in 

 feeding energy minimizing rations to swine. However, the relative cost of 

 achieving these savings varies from species to species. Whereas it would cost 

 $0.93 per 100,000 BTU saved to utilize the least energy rations for dairy cattle, 

 feeding the least energy rations to turkeys would cost $2.33 per 100,000 BTU 

 saved. For the other species considered, the relative costs are $1.44 for beef 

 cattle, $1.16 for layers, $2.10 for broilers and $0.93 for swine. 



Considering all of the species and regions analyzed, the least cost feed ration 

 has an energy content of 270,165 BTU per hundredweight and an associated 

 cost of $5.73. The least energy ration, by comparison, has 221, 315 BTU and a 

 cost of $6.38 per hundredweight. In other words, the least energy ration 

 contains about 18 percent less embodied energy but costs 11 percent more than 

 the weighted least cost feed ration. This energy savings could be achieved at a 

 cost of $1.32 per 100,000 BTU saved. 



It should again be mentioned that the energy savings cited above reflect only 

 the current potential for conservation. The model employed is constrained by 

 the historic availability of feed ingredients in the regions considered. If these 

 historic constraints could be relaxed, if the supply of certain low energy 

 ingredients could be expanded, greater energy savings could be realized. These 

 adjustments would entail long run changes in crop production and marketing 

 facilities associated with the production and manufacture of feed ingredients. 



Implications of the Analysis 



The analysis raises a number of significant policy issues in terms of the short 

 run adjustments that could be made to conserve energy. Moreover, there is a 

 need to further examine the implications of energy minimizing feed rations in 

 terms of both the short run and long run adjustments in livestock feeding. Some 

 of the implications of the study and possible directions for expanded research 

 follow. 



Feeds with High Energy Embodiments. It is necessary to fully examine the 

 economic implications of no longer feeding certain feedstuffs which have a high 



