Raising piglets is considered a crucial stage for a hog farmer as this level becomes the foundation for the future of their business. Any slight change, especially in the animal's diet can be disastrous, without the proper piglet nutrition.

This has been the main focus of Cargill Animal Nutrition Philippines as they launched a new campaign called ">30@70: More than 30 kg. at 70 days".  "Usually, the standard weight is 25 to 28 kilos in 30 days. Now you can obtain 30 kilos, having an advantage of 3 to 5 kilos in seventy days using our new package of Pig Solutions", says Dr Aileen Joy Mercado, technology deployment manager of Cargill Animal Nutrition. By far, the 30-kilogram weight, she says, is the "highest" and the record level weight achieved for 70 days. This campaign includes a complete nutrition package for farmers, from pre-starter to booster feeds.

Before this technology was fully launched, a trial was done in a hog farm in Tanay, Rizal using 15 sows per treatment from November 2007 to February 2008. In other feed formulations, the highest weight achieved was 25.4 kilograms but Cargill's new Piug Solutions has elevated it to 30 kilograms within 43 to 70 days.

"These similar trials have been done in other countries such as in Canada, Korea and US. The average improvement that we see in and outside the Philippines, roughly there have been an additional 20 percent in average daily gain," tells Mercado.

Mercado says the performance during weaning or the early start of growth has a big impact in marketing your hogs. "The higher weaning weight, the faster it would be sold in the market, thus, faster growth rate is important. We at Cargill thought that its high time to launch a product like this because of high feed prices and at the same time, seizing the opportunity of increased demand for meat"

Cargill Philippines is the first and only HACCP-certified feedmill in the country and over the years has introduced pioneering work in net energy (1986), amino acids (1991) and Ideal Carbohydrateâ„¢ balance (2002).  Cargill Pig Solutions is a complete line of feeds for piglets formulated with selected and tested levels and sources of protein, energy, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and special additives specific to piglet's gut development and nutritional needs for healthier and more uniform piglets at phase feeding programme.