Please contact your Trouw Nutrition Swine Specialist about our LifeStart Swine platform.
LifeStart From Conception to Birth
Swine
The urge to produce healthy protein for a growing global population is challenging farmers to reinvent their business to do more with less while factoring in animal welfare and profitability. But two things have stayed as true as ever in this fast-paced industry 1) science can help you make the best decisions and 2) the earlier in your animals’ life phase you implement those decisions, the higher the potential to unlock lifelong results. With these industry conditions in mind, Trouw Nutrition has launch of their global LifeStart Swine brand, which is a progressive nutrition and farm management approach for early life in swine, serving as a source for reliable information for producers.
LifeStart Swine aims to share scientific insights with farmers, that, when used in practice, improves animal health, reduces antibiotic usage, and optimizes productivity. LifeStart Swine helps farmers to make better informed on-farm decisions from gilt rearing to conception to end of nursery, giving animals the opportunity to achieve their genetic potential. The LifeStart platform is supported by the Trouw Nutrition young animal programs and the expertise of our Swine Nutrition Advisors.
The Lifestart Swine program has identified critical elements that have a major impact on the performance of sows and young piglets:
Check the diet during pregnancy
- Apply a customized feeding program from beginning to end of gestation
- Offer several meals / day at the end of gestation
Manage the farrowing process
- Do not induce too early
- Intervene at the right time, with the right sow
- Reduce the interval between birth and first feed
Maximize lactation feed consumption
- Stimulate sows at any time during lactation
- Minimize weight loss of sows
Maximize milk production
- Stimulate breast development in critical periods
- Use all functional teats among the gilts
Manage the first hours of life
- Provide a warm environment
- Maximize colostrum intake
Using creep feed
- Introduce the feed from 14 days
Maximize the age at weaning
- Age at weaning has a major impact on weaning-finishing performance
Maximize consumption in nursery from weaning
- The gain in the first weeks influences long term performance
- Use the right feeding plan at weaning
- Choosing the right program allows you to meet the specific needs of piglets
In the end, good early life nutrition can give you quite some benefit on market weight, on days to market but also on profit margin. There are two critical periods (farrowing and weaning) which actually are guiding maps within this early life period and the trick is to identify the real underlying need which is very complex and in the end finds the right solution.