Page 10 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Phone: 02 9609 7922 Bill Steinborner Mobile: 0499 009 293 Fax: 02 9609 7923
For all your livestock needs
admin@nationalfeedsolutions.com.au
www.nationalfeedsolutions.com.au
PO Box 6370 Wetherill Park BC NSW 2164
Provides high quality products, Delivered on time, At competitive pricing, Supported by the best available technical service in animal and livestock nutrition.
Ph: 02 9609 7922 Fax: 02 9609 7923
Kym 0439 066 054 kym@nationalfeedsolutions.com.au
Luke 0439 066 006 luke@nationalfeedsolutions.com.au
Bill 0499 009 293 bill@nationalfeedsolutions.com.au
Suppliers of Elite nutrition and solutions
www.nationalfeedsolutions.com.au
Suppliers of Elite nutrition and solutio
Kym Miller Mobile: 0439 066 054 Luke Steinborner Mobile: 0439 066 00
Live yeast for sows and piglets
Microscopic yeast,
macroscopic effects !
LEVUCELL SB improves sows’digestive comfort and stimulates feed intake during lactation, even under heat stress conditions. Sows fed LEVUCELL SB quickly establish lactation and better use their body reserves, which, in turn, helps enhance the growth and survival rate of litters at weaning.
LALLEMAND ANIMAL NUTRITION SPECIFIC FOR YOUR SUCCESS
T: (07) 5451 0125 | E: LAN-Aus@lallemand.com www.lallemandanimalnutrition.com
ns
6
Pumping iron leads to heavier weights
Photo: Christopher Carson
Iron, a mineral that is found naturally in abun- dance in soil, is unavail- able to pigs raised in far- rowing crates.
Photo: Greg Ortega
Milk provides roughly 1mg of iron per day, which only accounts for about 15 percent of the pig’s daily requirement of 7mg per day.
WITH porker and ba- coner prices on the rise, all producers are primed on how to produce not only more pigs, but heavier kilo pigs at wean.
It goes unsaid that the more robust and healthier a pig is at weaning, the less mortality and medica- tion cost a producer should expect to invest, until time to market.
It’s the implementation process where variation, and thus opportunity, lies.
in can be used by your body.
Whether prices are above or below market standard, at the end of the day it all comes down to how to produce pork in the safest and most efficient manner possible.
Here are the basics.
Iron also has the added benefit of being critical for the immune system, brain function and muscle strength.
The past decade has seen an enhanced focus on pre- ventative medicine.
This traditionally hasn’t been a problem, as inject- able iron is both econom- ical and easy to administer.
Supplementary iron is typically provided either orally or as an injection within the first week of life.
The good producers are keeping their finger on the pulse of what the industry is doing, and the best pro- ducers are then taking it a step further to see how they can set the pace.
Pigs are a unique species in that they are born with very low iron levels.
Iron is available in both 100mg/ml and 200mg/ml concentrations.
Administering supple- mentary iron is a perfect example.
Studies will estimate that they are born with roughly 50mg of iron, mostly in the form of haemoglobin.
Day of administration, as well as route, could po- tentially be costing your piggery both in terms of weaning weights as well as feed conversion in the nursery.
The data is out there, telling us that pigs raised indoors will become anaemic early on without the administration of sup- plementary iron.
This is critical to under- stand because iron is the key component that holds oxygen to red blood cells and makes sure that what your lungs are breathing
Sow milk is a poor sub- stitute for soil when it comes to iron supplemen- tation.
What’s more, a pig dou- bles in size in the first week of life.
This requires a tremen- dous increase in iron both for its oxygen carrying ability as well as muscle – and thus weight – gain.
Studies in 2015 and 2017 in Danish, US and Cana- dian systems demonstrated severe gaps in iron admin- istration protocols that re- sult both in anaemia and subsequently decreased average daily gain.
By measuring haemo- globin at weaning, it was determined that 19 out of 20 farms assessed had anaemic pigs at weaning.
Several factors could be contributing to these pigs having subpar iron levels, but at the end of the day almost every farm was affected and the effects on their weaning weights were consistent.
Each report recorded that the largest piglets in the litter were at the highest risk of developing iron de- ficiency at weaning.
Thus, our inability to provide adequate iron could then be implicated in holding these heavy weight pigs back from maximising their full growth potential.
Consequently, pigs with higher haemoglobin levels at weaning, showed marked average daily gain advantages over their anaemic counterparts, even three weeks post- weaning.
If you are concerned your pigs may be at risk for anaemia, reach out to your Apiam pig veteri- narian today and request an on-farm assessment.
Page 10 – Australian Pork Newspaper, August 2020
Step one is to identify if the problem exists, step two is to collaborate with your veterinarian regarding your farm-spe- cific data to develop an in- tervention strategy or new protocol, and step three is to reap the benefits of heavier weaning weights and improved average daily gain.
www.porknews.com.au