Improved lifetime performance, reaching slaughter 4 days earlier or 4kgs heavier, reduced pre-weaning mortality and improved uniformity at weaning are all claimed as benefits delivered by a newly launched ‘accelerator’ product.
Unveiled by AB Neo, part of AB Agri Ltd, the new product is called Axcelera-P. Tested at Leeds University and Harper Adams University, and in commercial trials, the product is being marketed in line with its ability to “switch on lifetime performance in neonates”.
“Over the past 20 years the feed industry has made continuous improvements in post-weaning diets or starter feeds,” said AB Neo’s technical director for swine, Paul Toplis. “It’s amazing to see the progress we have made when we compare the performance of a leading starter feed from 20 years ago with a current leading starter feed formulation.
“However, when considering the progress of pre-weaning or neonate diets over the same period, the industry has experienced limited success in delivering significant performance improvements.”
By being obsessed with just feed intake, he added, it was possible to say “we’ve been looking in the wrong place for 20 years”.
“After many years of trying to research ways of exploiting compensatory or catch up growth we have realised that it just cannot be done predictably in a commercial situation,” he said. “That’s when we discovered accelerators that work in a completely different way, a discovery which confirms the most profitable way of producing farm animals is through fast growth throughout their whole life.
“It’s about switching on and preparing the gut, which is the animal delivery organ for feed efficiency and for a lean, fast growing animal, with accelerators acting by turning on the delivery system.”