‘What if… young animals don’t get the right care?’ That question was key in a recent webinar by All About Feed and the Royal Agrifirm Group. The webinar is now available for reviewing for free.
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The webinar was organised for the occasion of the launch of Royal Agrifirm Group’s new young animal nutrition brand: Earlyfeed. To highlight the importance of the right care for young piglets, chicks and calves, the webinar aimed at answering the question what might happen if the animals would miss out on that essential care. To that end, 3 expert speakers endeavoured to answer the main question of the webinar from different angles.
The line-up of the webinar, with from left to right: Robert Hoste, WUR; Gudo klein Gebbink, Royal Agrifirm Group, Vincent ter Beek and Loek de Lange, Loek’s Feed. – Photo: Company Webcast
A nutritionist’s view on young animal care
Loek de Lange, private consultant poultry nutrition at Loek’s Feed, approached the issue from a nutritionist’s point of view. He summed up a series of consequences of a bad start, such as increased mortality, overgrowth of intestinal microbes, reduced animal performance for the total growing out period – and, obviously, less profit. He finished his presentation with recommendations for the formulation of feeds for young broilers and also included various recommendations for weaned piglet feed.
An economist’s view on young animal care
The 2nd speaker was Robert Hoste, who viewed the question from an economic perspective. He is senior pig production economist at Wageningen Economic Research, part of Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. He took an economic angle to answer the same question. Having started off with a comparison of young animal nutrition costs in various countries, he identified 4 essential aspects that make or break successful weaner pig production. He touched on birth weight, colostrum, supplemental feeding and appropriate management.
Young animal care transformed into a brand
After a long Q&A session, Gudo klein Gebbink, managing director EMEA at Royal Agrifirm Group, closed the webinar. He gave a detailed introduction of the company’s view on young animal care, in the light of the launch of the new brand. He touched on the solutions for weaner pigs, chicks and young calves and explained that besides nutritional solutions, Earlyfeed is also aimed at knowledge exchange and connecting, by setting up an Earlyfeed Academy.
