Novus Highlights Profitability Programme

US - A special breakfast held during the World Pork Expo last week in Des Moines, Iowa, Novus presented three speakers who highlighted the nutrition challenges facing pork producers, writes Chris Wright for The Pig Site. Up to 60 per cent DDGS could be included with a good strategy and the right products.
calendar icon 15 June 2011
clock icon 4 minute read

Mark Bertram, a swine nutritionist from First Choice Livestock, said that feed costs and grain availability are the key challenges facing pork producers. Reducing feed costs is of utmost importance. He also said that market conditions are forcing producers to push the edges with their nutrition programmes.

Mr Bertram said that maintaining gut health through the finishing phase is a big challenge. The key is feed intake – keep the pigs eating! He mentioned the use of organic acids to maintain a low pathogenic load and increase amino acid utilisation.

He mentioned the effectiveness of Novus' Mintrex Copper in the nursery and the mid-grower phase, up to 120 pounds. He said that 50ppm of Mintrex Copper provides better performance than 150-200 ppm of copper sulphate. It is a good antimicrobial. He also noted that the price of copper is at its highest price ever and using Mintrex Copper reduces the cost versus copper sulphate.

Randy Anderson, Senior World Area Director for North America for Novus, said that Novus' biggest challenge is how to impact the customer's profitability. He said that high feed costs are now a long term situation. Novus is focusing on an alternative ingredient programme to try and change the cost proposition for the producers.

Mr Anderson echoed Mr Bertram's comments that maintaining intake is critical. If you keep the pigs eating, they will grow and be healthy. The alternative ingredient that Novus is most focusing on is DDGS, trying to get producers to use a higher percentage of it, and then use different Novus products to help the process along. Mr Anderson said that DDGS handling characteristics are causing issues in the feed mill: it does not work well with pellets. Novus is trying to come up with solutions for that issue.

Mr Anderson said that you cannot just tell the customers to use DDGS and then leave them alone. You need a holistic approach to help the customers deal with all phases of DDGS use.

Brad Lawrence, Technical Manager for Novus Pork. spoke about the 'Accelerating Finishing Profitability' programme, which is a customised approach to the customers' needs, objectives and limitations concerning pig gut health management and nutrition.

The main idea is to help the customers achieve their business goals.

Novus provides: organic acids, organic trace minerals, antioxidants and enzyme products. These can be used in customised programmes to help pork producers.

Customisation is very critical, and it must be done by company and region. For example, a company with pork operations in North Carolina, Minnesota and Iowa, would need different nutrition programmes for each area.

Mr Lawrence said that Novus has a long history of research, going back 50 years in the case of antioxidants.

Currently, the swine industry uses 20 to 30 per cent DDGS in the rations but Mr Lawrence said you can go up to 60 per cent, with a good strategy and the right products. He said that the use of antioxidants and organic acids are of great importance in a DDGS diet.

DDGS costs 85 per cent of the cost of corn, so greater use of DDGS can result in a significant savings.

Mr Lawrence mentioned that in the future, there will be more ingredient options available, and that the industry must change the paradigms that currently say, "You can only use X amount of this ingredient".

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