Nutritional Design: effective weaning is a critical sucess factor
Because you can never make up for lost time!
The first feed a young animal eats has a direct impact on the development of its digestive system, both as regards its efficacy, through developing enzyme activity, and as regards protection, through developing intestinal flora.
1 – The pre-weaning period
Feeding a piglet prior to weaning is an essential step needed to build up its enzyme array for weaning at 21 or 28 days. Enzymes are not naturally present in the gut, but develop during this critical stage between 3 and 4 weeks.
ARC's unique value proposition:
- Offering creep feed based on highly palatable formulas developed by farmers for farmers and validated in numerous farm tests, with flavours tailored to young nursing piglets.
2 – Boosting Intake
Enthusiastic intake of feed by young animals is clearly an essential prerequisite. What sets ARC apart is the effort it invests in making its feed highly palatable, selecting raw materials specifically for this purpose.
ARC's unique value proposition:
- Use of animal proteins – fishmeal and blood derivatives – with recognised benefits for feed palatability, leading to a better Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) among very young piglets.
- Use of specific co-products from the agri-food industry (biscuits, breakfast cereals, fermented ingredients, dairy co-products) a key factor in enhancing palatability and providing energy content that can be directly assimilated by the body.
3 – Feed digestibility
Like you, we consider the nutritional properties of the raw materials used in prestarter or starter formulas to be crucial.
Immediately after weaning, our challenge is to provide a highly digestible feed that allows nutrients to be rapidly absorbed. If properly nourished, the intestinal villi (and therefore the intestinal wall) will be protected. With this in mind, we reduce quantities of raw materials with anti-nutritional factors (trypsin, anti-mycotoxins) and select highly digestible raw materials.
ARC's unique value proposition:
- Varied sources of hydrolysed proteins, ensuring maximum bioavailability and balanced amino acid intake!
4 – Secure digestion - Nourishing and protecting native flora and inhibiting pathogens
Promoting native flora is facilitated by choosing diverse raw material sources: prebiotics and probiotics, fibre, medium-chain fatty acids, etc. Safety is further improved by using natural ingredients to inhibit pathogens.
To achieve these goals, ARC has chosen premium-quality raw materials and a blend of several additional ingredients to prepare its DIETO range.
ARC's unique value proposition:
- The DIETO range is formulated specifically to ensure safe digestion.
5 – Benefits for the immune system
Piglets have very little protection against different pathogens when they are born. Their mother’s colostrum is their first shield: it plays a vital role in triggering their immune system defences.
Their immune defences then continue developing until they reach maturity at 8 weeks old.
At the weaning stage, piglets' natural defence system is still not fully fledged!
Various pieces of research have also shown that by reducing inflammatory processes in piglets, their metabolism can focus more on growth and, as a result, performance. Modulation of the inflammatory process is a key factor.
ARC's unique value proposition:
- The STIMULO range is enriched with blood plasma, helping to strengthen your piglets’ immune systems and limit inflammatory processes!
We also use a range of additives that promote immune response, including plant extracts, essential oils, organic acids, antioxidants, prebiotics and probiotics.