The number of nutrients a company guarantees on a feed label can give the consumer information about the company and the product. State regulatory agencies will only test specific nutrient levels that are guaranteed on the label. There are two basic methods for listing ingredients on feed labels, generic and specific. Generic listings include ingredient categories, such as grain products, plant protein products, forage products, grain by-products and so forth. Specific listings must list the actual ingredient, such as oats or barley, soybean meal or cottonseed meal.
Some states require that feed companies use specific listings on their labels.
A feed company that uses generic listings, where allowed, usually does so it can enable it to least-cost formulate the product. Generic listings allow a much broader ability to substitute ingredients into and out of a particular product. For example, barley could be substituted for oats, or cottonseed meal could be substituted for soybean meal. Feeding directions can be simple or detailed. They should provide enough information to achieve desired results.