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Category: Swine

European Protein | Cleaning the Show

Your cleaning skills may be superb, but sometimes even excellence doesn’t quite cut it. The reason is that the sow carries pathogenic bacteria in her gut. The sow stores bacteria like E. coli and Clostridium perfringens. If you have problems with diarrhoea in the farrowing section, you are probably quite familiar with these by now.

All pigs have a combination of potentially harmful and beneficial bacteria in the gut (and all sorts of bacteria in between). As a rule of thumb, a healthy gut flora consists of both good and bad bacteria (no rule without exceptions).

Your problems begin when pathogens take over and start to dominate the gut microflora. Changing the sow feed can help restrain those pathogens from dominating. Fermented feed balances the gut microflora by promoting beneficial bacteria and reducing pathogens.

A healthy gut is not a quick-fix. It takes time. On the positive side, an improvement in gut health increases your profit.

Source: European Protein

Berno Hambrock’s (KZN) Testimonial on Tonisity’s Benefits for his Piglets

Berno Hambrock, Managing Director of Pinecone Forestry & Piggery, a 600-sow unit situated in the Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal. Berno is a German Speaking South African who is passionate about genetics, animal breeding, and animal husbandry.

Berno says when he enters the piggery, his daily procedure begins with counting everything he can, to get a quick overview of the piggery, asking himself many questions: How many sows are starting to cycle? How many have been served? How many piglets were born alive and dead? How many sows still have to farrow? How many milk-able teats are there compared to the number of piglets? How many piglets will we be able to wean? How many pigs are ready to be marketed? How many sick pigs are there?

Second, he starts analyzing the figures to see where Pinecone Forestry & Piggery can improve on their efficiencies, like the FCR (feed conversion ratio) and makes improvements or adjustments. 

Third, Berno makes sure that all the systems are running as they are supposed to. Every employee has to give a full report on all the activities they are managing. Every activity in a piggery must happen on a specific date. Berno needs to ensure that the correct activity has happened on the correct date.

“My goal is to be efficient,” says Berno. “I want to give the pigs everything they need and to maximize their production without compromising their welfare. Health-wise, less medication versus more supplements (acids, probiotics and Production-wise), quality water, feed, housing, management equals optimum results. The pig’s behavior and body condition will tell ‘at one glance’ if something is not right.”

Says Berno, “Genetics, breeding pigs and analyzing the figures are what keeps me motivated every day, aside from my craving for bacon, spareribs and pork schnitzel! Progress in a piggery can be measured and monitored over a fairly short period of time compared to other animals. This is very exciting and it keeps me entertained.”

Tonisity Benefits for Pigs

Berno says that he loves many things about the industry, but especially how quickly the technology is changing and improving. He says many things have been simplified due to the improved application of technology. With incorporating Tonisity into the pigs’ diets, pigs are growing faster; feed conversion rations keep improving, and sow performance is gradually increasing. Technological improvements have been achieved in all areas of pork production: housing, vaccines, medication, bio-security, health, automation of ventilation, feeding, and waste water management.

Based on Berno’s case study, Tonisity’s benefits include the following:

  • Tonsitiy is an easy product to mix and feed to piglets.
  • Tonisity does not get sour and does not attract flies.
  • Piglets that drink Tonisity are much stronger with better immunity.
  • Mortality rates decreased from 14% to 9%, which leads to a 35% total improvement.

Other Facts of Pigs

In addition, Berno shares these fascinating pig facts:
I. A pig can produce the most kilograms of meat per year of all farm animals (1 sow = 2.4 litter x11 weaned, sold at 85kg carcass = 2,244kg meat per sow per year).
II. The breeding cycle of a pig is 20 or 21 weeks, so your progress is very fast.
III. There are so many different products/dishes that you can make with pork meat.

Source: Benchmark 2019 | Spring Edition. Published by PIGCHAMP. A FARMS.COM COMPANY

Watch Berno Hambrock’s testimonial on the benefits of using Tonisity for his piglets.

WATCH TESTIMONIAL VIDEO

The influence of gut bacteria on milk yield

Your feeding strategy and focus on gut health affects the sows udder formation, productivity and ability to produce milk. Composition and types of bacteria in the gut microflora co-determines how much milk the sow produces, and how many antibodies she passes on to the suckling piglets. Primiparous sows typically pass on less passive immunity to their suckling, and as a result wean fewer and less resilient piglets. The poor performance of primiparous sows can be improved by adding the fermented feed to the diet. The number of antibodies is enhanced by 40% for primiparous sows and you can expect up to 25% improvement for multiparous sows.
– Grela et al., 2019

European Protein uses Solid-state fermentation (SSF) to produce their range of products. This is defined as the fermentation process in which micro-organisms grow on solid materials without the presence of free liquid. The concept of using solid substrates is probably the oldest method of utilising micro-organisms for human benefit. Fermented feed has proved to be a worthy alternative to antibiotics.

In recent years, SSF has shown much promise in the development of several bioprocesses and products, and European Protein used this process to create their own new patented production method to produce unique fermented products.

EP199 is one of the unique complementary feeds produced by SSF for swine and poultry. In the production process, co-products from rapeseed, wheat, seaweed and sugar beets are used, as well as specific lactic acid producing bacteria. It has a protein content of 34% and the protein is highly digestible with a low number of anti-nutritional factors. It provides added value by:

• Increasing the absorption of nutrients and minerals and reduces the excretion of N and P (EP199 balances the gut flora and promotes lactic acid bacteria while repressing pathogens)

• Supports the development of resilient animal through a fully functional immune response

• Supports milk production and boosts antibodies in the animal colostrum

• Supports zinc-free and antibiotic-free production

• Contains anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory compounds

We hope you will find the following article and video testimonials of much interest and benefit.

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