By Tracy Meyer, nutritionist, Advit

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word non-nutritive as “not relating to or providing nutrition”. In other words, these are additives included in pig diets that are not providing a nutritive benefit but otherwise aiding in the growth of the animal.

There are numerous products on the market and one can get overwhelmed with choice. In this article I will highlight the more common additives and provide a basic description of each so as to help make an educated decision when choosing additional feed additives.

Continue Reading →

In recent years, it has been established that a healthy gut is the single most important precondition for transforming nutrients into performance. Feed additives such as acidifiers, probiotics and phytogenics do influence gut health and performance. Optimising gut health is key to improving animal performance. Animals need support so as to develop and maintain healthy microflora in their intestinal tract. What is gut performance?

Continue Reading →

By Tracy Meyer-Wilson, nutritionist, Advit

Vitamin E is an effective anti-oxidant that helps to protect against disease. Due to the bioavailability being limited, it is one of the more expensive components in the diet. Polyphenols have been shown to not only partially replace vitamin E in the diet, but to potentially boost anti-oxidative defences beyond the capacity of vitamin E alone. Free radicals caused by oxidative stress are a natural result of daily metabolism.

Continue Reading →

By Willem Steyn, MSc, MScBA Swine Nutritionist, Topigs Norsvin International BV

A new online assistant gives you a visual guide
As a nutritionist with a major pig breeding company, one of the questions I am asked most often is how to feed genetically prolific sows so they perform to the top of their ability. This question has just become easier to answer, thanks to the launch of a new way of assessing a herd in terms of the body condition of its sows. Top performance comes from having sows in the right condition physically throughout their productive life, which means that they conform to the optimal weight, back-fat and body condition score at farrowing and weaning as defined by the research and experience of the genetic supplier. The optimum will vary according to the parity of the sow and it also depends on her genetic line.

Continue Reading →

In the last article I discussed the fat soluble vitamins, namely vitamin A,D,E and K.  This article will cover all the B vitamins and well as vitamin C.  These fall into the water soluble group of vitamins.  Again I will not be making recommendations on feeding levels, but rather have given a basic summary of each vitamin and the role it plays in the animal body.  I have used the Nutrient Requirements of Swine (2012) as a reference. Continue Reading →

Tracy Meyer, Nutritionist, Advit

This will be the beginning of a series of articles highlighting the importance of vitamins and minerals in pig nutrition.  I will not be making recommendations but will rather be giving a brief overview of the function of each vitamin and mineral in the animal and why it is important to include a premix in your feed.  Most vitamin and mineral premix packs make up approximately 0.4% of the total ration.  This is a small percentage but without the premix, growth and production can be affected. In this article the importance of Vitamin A, D, E and K will be noted.  This group of vitamins are commonly referred to as the fat-soluble vitamins. Continue Reading →