August 24, 2011

Hendrix unveils feeding simulation programme for pigs

Watson 2.0, a feed simulation programme for pigs, has been established by Hendrix, to predict consequences of management strategy changes on herd productivity in several markets in Northern Europe, including Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

The programme will be available for the above-mentioned markets covered by Hendrix UTD, Hendrix Haeck and Hendrix Illesch.

Introduced in the Canadian market in 2006 by Nutreco Canada, the swine integrated growth model has proven its worth as a decision making tool.

For questions pertaining to nutrient requirements, responses to different nutritional changes, novel technologies, management options or marketing strategies, the model facilitates the technical choices pork producers have to make, without neglecting the economic implications of these decisions.

In testing and in actual practice in Canada, the programme's predictions proved to be very close to the actual situation. Users have thus been able to eliminate costly and time-consuming trial and error experiments, and instead focus directly on what will make them more efficient farmers.

To adapt the feeding programme for northern Europe, however, was far more involved than just translating the programme into several other languages, said Jan Fledderus, manager innovation and nutrition pigs, Hendrix UTD.

Fledderus said, "A major change was the introduction of the possibility to feed the pigs by a feed schedule instead of ad-libitum (food available at all times)."

"In North-Western Europe, it is very common to have a fully automatic feeding system to grow finisher pigs. This system delivers a given portion of feed per pen that is related with the body weight, age and sex of the pigs. This was new for our Canadian colleagues and had to be introduced to Watson," he said.

Fledderus added that another serious change was the introduction of slaughterhouse conditions - grading grids - as applied by Dutch slaughterhouses. He said, "There are differences in the definition of a carcass, such as with or without parts of the legs, and equations to determine lean meat percentages."

Other changes involved the difference in feed evaluation between Nutreco Canada and the Hendrix companies and the fact that a major part of the companies' diets are complementary feeds that are combined with liquid feedstuffs at the farm.