Trouw Nutrition launches piglet training bar for feed transition
Trouw Nutrition's Milkiwean ActiBar helps support piglets through growth cycles and the weaning phase
10 June 2026
3 minute read
By: Trouw Nutrition, Nutreco’s livestock feed and animal nutrition business, is announcing the launch of Milkiwean® ActiBar, a first‑of‑its‑kind piglet training bar designed to activate pre‑weaning feed intake and support a smoother transition to solid feed.
Its patent-pending shape and composition tap into piglets’ natural instincts to root, chew and explore, encouraging earlier interaction with creep feed. By promoting early feeding behaviour and supporting gut development, Milkiwean ActiBar helps piglets arrive at weaning better prepared to eat, grow and maintain performance.
Weaning is one of the most stressful transitions in a piglet’s life, particularly when piglets are not prepared to consume solid feed. This abrupt dietary shift can disrupt gut stability, reduce feed intake and trigger inflammation, diarrhoea and weight loss. These early challenges can impair gut development, limit growth performance and affect productivity well beyond the immediate post-weaning period.
Creep feed is commonly used to introduce piglets to solid nutrition, but many piglets consume little or none of it before weaning. Passive exposure alone does not ensure feeding behaviour. Piglets must first learn to explore and consume solid feed. Without that behavioural activation, piglets often arrive at weaning physiologically and behaviourally unprepared, increasing the risk of post-weaning stress and performance setbacks.
Young piglets are naturally curious and motivated to root, chew and explore their environment. Milkiwean ActiBar is uniquely designed to activate these instinctive behaviours, encouraging piglets to interact with solid feed earlier. This early engagement helps stimulate feed intake and supports gut development, preparing piglets for a smoother transition at weaning.
Milkiwean ActiBar reinforces early feeding behaviour by directing piglets toward creep feed and helping them build confidence at the feeder. By activating feeding behaviour before weaning, Milkiwean ActiBar supports digestive stability and helps piglets maintain growth momentum through the transition to solid nutrition. It complements existing creep feed programmes by ensuring piglets are both physiologically and behaviourally prepared to consume solid feed.
Trials conducted under European production conditions demonstrated that piglets receiving Milkiwean ActiBar had up to 53% higher pre-weaning feed intake than creep feed alone. Furthermore, Milkiwean ActiBar may help reduce watery diarrhoea by up to 50% during the first week post‑weaning. The high-fibre composition supports microbiota development, lowers stomach pH and promotes gut maturation, resulting in improved faecal consistency and more resilient piglets.
Early-life nutrition plays a critical role in long-term performance. Research shows that up to 70% of a pig’s final weight is determined by its bodyweight at six weeks of age. By encouraging earlier feed intake and supporting gut development, Milkiwean ActiBar helps establish feeding behaviour and physiological readiness, contributing to improved growth consistency, feed efficiency and lifetime productivity.
“With Milkiwean ActiBar, we are introducing a completely new way to prepare piglets for weaning,” says Rick van Oort, Global Strategic Marketing Manager Swine at Trouw Nutrition. “It is a unique solution designed specifically to activate pre-weaning feeding behaviour. We are incredibly proud to bring this innovation to the swine industry and to offer producers a practical, science-based tool that helps piglets transition more smoothly and perform better from the very start.”
Milkiwean ActiBar expands Trouw Nutrition’s Milkiwean platform, a comprehensive range of piglet nutrition solutions designed to support early-life development and enhance lifetime performance. Built on LifeStart research and more than six decades of piglet physiology and nutrition expertise, the Milkiwean portfolio helps producers improve gut health, feeding behaviour and growth consistency during this critical developmental stage.
Milkiwean ActiBar represents the latest advancement in Trouw Nutrition’s commitment to helping producers improve piglet resilience, performance and production efficiency from the very start. It helps put piglets on the right nutritional track, supporting both animal performance and producer success.
Milkiwean ActiBar is now available through Trouw Nutrition’s global network of swine nutrition specialists. Producers interested in strengthening early feed intake and supporting piglet development can contact their local Trouw Nutrition representative or visit Trouw Nutrition's website to learn more.
