Swine Resources - Nutrition

Wednesday 7 March 2018

Dietary supplementation of benzoic acid combined with essential oils does not affect sow and litter performance during lactation.

Weaning is often a challenge with considerable risk of enteric diseases caused by various bacteria. One alternatives to growth promoters under study is essential oils. Those are extracted from plants, or synthetically made and are known to sometimes have beneficial properties as flavoring, stimulation of enzyme secretion, antioxidant, and/or microbiome-altering activities.

Feb 23, 2017

For many years, an enzyme called phytase has been added to pig diets to help the pig utilize phytate-bound phosphorus — and it works very well.

In many plants, such as corn and soybean meal, much of the phosphorus is stored in a compound called phytate. Why is this important? There are three reasons. First, the pig cannot digest phytate-bound phosphorus, so it passes through the pig into the manure; this is good for producing nutrient-rich fertilizer to be applied to corn and soybean fields, but not so good for feeding pigs.

Plus, if there is too much phosphorus in the manure relative to crop needs, the excess phosphorus can have adverse effects on the environment.

Second, when the phytate-bound phosphorus is poorly utilized, a phosphorus supplement, such as monocalcium phosphate or dicalcium phosphate, must be added to the diet to prevent a phosphorus deficiency; this is expensive.

Thirdly, phytate not only ties up phosphorus, but it can also make minerals and possibly amino acids less unavailable, too. So, when it comes to feeding pigs, not much good can be said about phytate.

September 2017

Summary:

Objective: To compare performance and mortality of weaned pigs positive for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) provided either a feed regimen with spray-dried bovine plasma (SDBP) or a feed regimen with a combination of alternative proteins and additives (ALT).

Dec 28, 2016

Insufficient consumption of colostrum greatly increases the risk of preweaning mortality and reduces pig quality.

As litter sizes continue to increase, challenges with piglet quality persist. Hence management solutions are needed to mitigate preweaning mortality and enhance piglet weaning weights.

Sep 29, 2016

Recent research shows that an optimum level of vitamin D3 supplementation in the sow diet can measurably impact the performance of sows and their progeny.

Pork producers who want to get the most out of every ingredient in a sow diet can look to new research showing the value of supplementing vitamins at optimal levels. The most recent research, supported by DSM Nutritional Products and carried out at Kansas State University, shows that an optimum level of vitamin D3 supplementation in the sow diet can measurably impact the performance of sows and their progeny. Additionally, the research shows a higher level of vitamin D3 supplementation doesn’t always support more benefits. For some criteria, the sows and their progeny performed best when the sows were fed an “optimum” rather than a high level of vitamin D3.

Sep 22, 2016

Excerpted from National Hog Farmer:

Though the price of wheat may entice hog producers to add the small grain to swine diets, Kansas State’s Mike Tokach urges producers to tread carefully, heeding precautions.

Take precautions when feeding DON-contaminated wheat to pigs

Feeding pigs to get them to market is the main objective for hog producers. Doing it as economically and efficiently as possible is integral to managing that objective.