NexGen With Cibenza® and Mintrex® Copper Could Improve Profitability For Producers

Kent Nutrition Group strives continually to find new products and solutions for our customers. In some cases these solutions are evaluated extensively at our Product Development Center, in other situations, we work with customers to implement them immediately because we feel the data is compelling. Over the past two years we have worked with one of our suppliers using two new products with some customers in the Midwest. These customers had the ability to track growth performance, provide extensive barn closeouts, and mix feed with ultra-low inclusion ingredients. The products tested were CIBENZA® DP100 and MINTREX® Copper from Novus International.

CIBENZA® DP100 is a protease enzyme used to help break down the indigestible proteins in feed into amino acids to be utilized by the pig. The improved digestibility reduces the amount of soybean meal needed in a ration, thus reducing diet costs. The reduced amount of soybean meal coupled with slight improvements in energy release in the feed also either reduce the amount of fat needed in the feed or increase the amount of energy in feeds that contain no added fat.

MINTREX® Copper is a highly digestible source of copper that has been shown to improve growth in both nursery and growing-finishing pigs. It is a chelated molecule of Copper and MHA, a source of methionine. The combination of the two nutrients in one product provides an economical way to supplement growth-promoting levels of copper in pig rations.

We conducted a head-to-head evaluation in a customer’s grow-finish barn between the Kent NexGen program supplemented with CIBENZA® DP100 and MINTREX® Copper, and a competitor’s program. The comparison was conducted in the same building, with one half of the barn fed each of the programs for the entire growing-finishing period from May to September of 2015.

The close-out data revealed that the pigs fed the NexGen program supplemented with CIBENZA® DP100 and MINTREX® Copper had improved feed conversion and reduced total feed costs per pig sold. These reductions resulted in a feed savings of $4.36 per pig sold. This substantial improvement in feed costs resulted in more profit for the producer.

The NexGen program supplemented with CIBENZA® DP100 and MINTREX® Copper is a viable means to reduce feed costs and improve profitability for operations with the ability to mix feeds using ultra-low inclusion products.

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