Animal feed is food given to domestic animals, especially livestock, in the course of animal husbandry. There are two basic types: fodder and forage. Used alone, the word feed more often refers to fodder.

feed, food grown or developed for livestock and poultry. Modern feeds are produced by carefully selecting and blending ingredients to provide highly nutritional diets that both maintain the health of the animals and increase the quality of such end products as meat, milk, or eggs.

The purpose of providing animals with animal feed is to ensure that they are getting compensated for the required nutrients that are absent in their natural diet. Animal feed is commonly divided into those that come from traditional sources and those that are a mixture of additives and other raw materials.

Animal feeds are classified as follows: (1) concentrates, high in energy value, including fat, cereal grains and their by-products (barley, corn, oats, rye, wheat), high-protein oil meals or cakes (soybean, canola, cottonseed, peanut [groundnut]), and by-products from processing of sugar beets, sugarcane, animals, and fish, and (2) roughages, including pasture grasses, hays, silage, root crops, straw, and stover (cornstalks).

Nutritionists – the dieticians of the animal food world – formulate animal food to provide animals with the necessary, balanced nutrients for proper growth, development and maintenance. Animal food is designed to compensate for nutrients and supplements that may be absent from an animal’s natural diets.