FCR Calculator — Feed Conversion Ratio

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How this is calculated

The Feed Conversion Ratio is the most widely used efficiency metric in animal production. It simply divides the total weight of feed consumed by the total live weight gained over the same period. A broiler chicken that eats 4 kg of feed to grow from 40 g to 2,040 g (2 kg gain) has an FCR of 2.0: it converted 2 kg of feed into every 1 kg of body weight. Lower FCR always means better feed efficiency — more animal protein or growth per unit of feed cost.

Typical FCR benchmarks vary enormously across species. Modern broiler chickens commonly achieve 1.5–2.0; Atlantic salmon 1.1–1.5 (partly because fish are ectothermic and expend no energy on thermoregulation); pigs 2.5–3.5; and beef cattle 6–8 because ruminants must ferment fibrous feeds before absorbing nutrients, a much less efficient process. Feed quality, housing temperature, disease pressure, genetics, and management all influence the achieved FCR substantially.

Feed cost per kilogram of gain is FCR multiplied by the feed price per kilogram — a direct bridge from biological efficiency to economic performance. Because feed typically represents 60–80% of variable production costs in intensive animal agriculture, even a 0.1 improvement in FCR has significant economic impact at scale.