DTM Recipe Scheduler: Plan Ration Changes Over Time

Plan today how your feeding program will evolve tomorrow

DTM Recipe Scheduler is a new feed management feature that allows farmers and nutritionists to plan ration changes in advance and manage how recipes evolve over time.

Instead of defining only what animals should eat today, DTM users can now decide how a recipe will evolve tomorrow, next week or over a specific period of time.

Users can schedule ingredient additions or removals for a specific date and gradually increase or decrease quantities until they reach a predefined target.

Recipe Scheduler turns ration changes into a structured part of the feeding plan.

Why plan ration changes in advance?

Feeding is not static.

Rations evolve according to animal requirements, production goals, forage availability, ingredient changes and the nutritional strategy for each group.

Even when farmers and nutritionists know these changes in advance, someone still needs to update the recipe at the right time.

A gradual transition may require several recipe adjustments over consecutive days.

With Recipe Scheduler in DTM, users can schedule these changes in advance. DTM then updates the feeding program according to the strategy defined by the nutritionist.

What can you do with DTM Recipe Scheduler?

Starting from the current recipe, DTM allows you to schedule when and how individual ingredients should change.

You can:

• add an ingredient to a recipe on a specific date;
• remove an ingredient on a specific date;
• gradually increase an ingredient until it reaches a target quantity;
• gradually decrease an ingredient until it reaches a target quantity;
• define how many days the transition should take.

For example, imagine an ingredient currently included at 5 kg/cow/day that needs to reach 8 kg/cow/day over six days.

The nutritionist can define both the target quantity and the transition period in advance. DTM then progressively adjusts the recipe according to that schedule.

The same principle works in reverse. Users can gradually reduce an ingredient to a lower target or progressively decrease it before removing it completely.

Why can gradual ration changes be important?

Not every ration adjustment needs to happen overnight.

The rumen is a dynamic microbial ecosystem. When the composition of the diet changes, the microorganisms responsible for digesting fibre, starch and other nutrients need time to adapt to the new nutrient supply.

This becomes particularly relevant when ration changes involve forages, concentrates, by-products, starch or other rapidly fermentable carbohydrates.

For example, a rapid increase in fermentable carbohydrates can increase acid production in the rumen. Depending on the overall ration, feed intake and effective fibre supply, this may lower rumen pH and create a less stable rumen environment.

A progressive dietary transition gives the rumen microbial population more time to adapt and helps the nutritionist manage significant ration changes in a more controlled way.

However, gradual does not automatically mean better.

The nutritional effect of changing an ingredient depends on the complete ration, including forage quality and digestibility, physically effective fibre, starch and sugar concentration, dry matter intake, particle size, sorting behaviour and the requirements of the animal group.

For this reason, Recipe Scheduler does not decide how quickly a ration should change.

The nutritionist determines whether a transition is appropriate and defines the target quantities and duration. DTM provides the digital tool to put that feeding strategy into practice.

From nutritional strategy to daily feeding

The final ration does not always tell the whole story.

In some situations, how animals reach that ration also matters.

For example, a nutritionist may choose to gradually introduce a new by-product, progressively increase concentrate after a forage change, reduce an ingredient before removing it completely or move from one forage source to another over several days.

Without a structured ration management system, the nutritionist must communicate these intermediate changes to the farm, while the feeding team must apply them day after day.

Recipe Scheduler simplifies this process by allowing users to define the complete progression in advance.

The farm therefore receives more than just the final recipe: the transition itself becomes part of the feeding plan.

This approach can reduce the risk of introducing an ingredient too quickly, delaying a planned adjustment, missing an intermediate step or applying quantities differently from the original nutritional strategy.

Less manual work for farmers and feeding managers

Recipe Scheduler also simplifies everyday feed management.

A ration change planned for next Monday no longer depends on someone remembering to modify the recipe on Monday morning.

And a seven-day transition no longer requires seven separate manual adjustments.

By scheduling changes in advance, farmers and feeding managers can reduce repetitive recipe modifications, better organize future feeding activities and follow the nutritionist’s feeding strategy more consistently.

The result is a feeding process that is more structured, predictable and easier to manage.

Greater control for nutritionists

For nutritionists, DTM Recipe Scheduler makes it possible to define not only the target ration but also how and when that target should be reached.

It creates a practical bridge between ration formulation and ration implementation.

Instead of providing only the final formulation and relying on repeated instructions during the transition period, the nutritionist can define the progression in advance.

This supports a more consistent implementation of nutritional recommendations while making it easier for the farm team to follow the intended feeding strategy.

Recipe Scheduler remains an implementation and ration management tool. It does not replace nutritional expertise, animal monitoring or ration evaluation.

One recipe. A complete feeding plan over time.

With Recipe Scheduler, time becomes another dimension of recipe management in DTM.

• What should change?
• When should it change?
• How gradually should it change?
• What is the final target?

These decisions can now be planned directly within the feeding management software.

For farmers, this means fewer manual operations and better organization.

For nutritionists, it means greater control over how nutritional strategies are translated into everyday feeding.

For the overall feeding process, it means greater consistency between what is planned and what is actually implemented over time.

Frequently Asked Questions about DTM Recipe Scheduler

Plan the ration today. Define how it evolves tomorrow.

With the new DTM Recipe Scheduler, ration changes become a structured part of the feeding plan.

The nutritionist defines the strategy. The farmer manages the feeding process. DTM helps make sure planned changes are implemented at the intended time and pace.

Because precision feeding is not only about formulating the right ration.

It is also about managing the transition towards it.