pig performance

Soybean meal contains functional bioactive molecules that can help mitigate swine respiratory disease (SRD) effects on pig growth and development. Feeding elevated soybean levels can be especially cost-effective during winter/spring seasons, when barns are closed tight and SRD is more typically a challenge for veterinarians and producers to overcome. 

In this episode, Feedstuffs' Ann Hess talks with Dr. R.Dean Boyd, Dr. Paul Yeske and Dr. Amy Petry about how soybean meal is both a nutritional and prescriptive ingredient.  

Listeners can learn more about how soybean meal can be an easy-to-implement management tool to enhance profitability in health-challenged pig flows. Content brought to you by U.S. Soy.

View a Feedstuffs article on this topic: https://informamarkets.turtl.co/story/feedstuffs-october-2023/page/2

California’s Proposition 12, which restricts gestation crate usage and requires 24 square feet of space per sow, has been a hot topic of conversation in swine circles since the Supreme Court upheld the law earlier this year. While some producers swear they won’t make the change on their farms, other states are following in California’s steps. A similar law approved by Massachusetts voters in 2016 will finally go into effect this year, and recently New Jersey unanimously passed a similar law, making it the 11th state to implement such regulations.

The new laws ultimately force producers to expand the physical size of their barns or reduce the number of sows in their herd to accommodate the square footage required by law.

Regardless of what producers do to follow these rules, sow productivity, and piglet uniformity and livability are more important than ever. 

Joining Feedstuffs in Focus host Sarah Muirhead is Novus Technical Service Manager Alex Hintz and Novus Sales Manager Andrew Howerton. Hintz is a veterinarian focused on maximizing lifetime sow productivity and profitability as well as nursery and growing pig performance. Howerton is a seventh-generation pig farmer who served as a production manager for a 5,600-sow unit prior to joining Novus.

Understanding the challenge producers are facing, intelligent nutrition company Novus International is sharing ways to support sows and the people who raise them. For more information, visit www.Novusint.com

Accurate detection of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae infection in live pigs is critical for timely disease control, but it is challenging. New, practical tools that improve upon or complement existing diagnostics can make a difference. 

Our guest is Dr. Maria Pieters, a faculty member with the Veterinary Population Medicine Department and the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Minnesota. A veterinarian by training, she has dedicated more than 15 years of research efforts to defining and developing areas of diagnostics, epidemiology, and control of swine Mycoplasma species, with a special interest in disease elimination. She is the principal investigator of the UMN Mycoplasma Research Laboratory and an active member of the International Organization for Mycoplasmology. 

The podcast is brought to you by Pharmgate Animal Health.

Activated medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) support feed biosecurity as they can weaken some viruses lurking in feed before they even enter the pigs' system.

According to Stacie Crowder, monogastric product manager with PMI Nutrition, a good place to start is with a tool that does more than one job such as medium-chain fatty acids. Multifaceted, MCFAs work in more than one way to protect pigs from bacteria and viruses and support pig performance. 

Feedstuffs editor Sarah Muirhead caught up recently with Crowder to talk about how MCFAs serve multiple roles when incorporated into swine rations. Among other things, Crowder explained that, activated MCFAs can work in feed to weaken pathogens before they reach the pig. They also work inside the pig to support immune activity, gut health and pig performance.

In this episode you'll also find out how you as a producer or feed company can choose the right MCFA for your operation. 

For more information on this and other stories, visit  Feedstuffs online.

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