Riding the revolution to lead in quality calf nutrition
It all started with ruminants. “About ten years ago, there was a revolution, as scientists started to discover that feeding a calf better would lead to a healthier and more productive dairy cow,” said Dr. Javier Martín-Tereso, Manager of our Ruminant Research Centre. “We saw that as a big opportunity to improve calf nutrition, meriting all our research efforts. Instead of just lowering the cost of calf nutrition, we radically changed our focus to the healthy development of these future dairy cows. We wanted to lead on that, to be the best in the science to strengthen our leading brands.” To reach this goal, the team used the infant nutrition industry, with its very high standards of product quality and nutritional value, as their reference. Then their extensive, innovative research made it easier to connect with academia and build our reputation for leading the industry on early life nutrition.
“We built a team of experts and invested into our customised research facilities; academics know there are things we can do there that they can’t do elsewhere,” said Javier. For example, the facility has electronic feeding systems tailored-made for the team’s research that can feed calves multiple combinations of milks and feeding programs. “We also developed unique techniques to study the nutritional competence and metabolic development of calves. This capability, used in our strategic research programs, results in nutritional technologies that have made Sprayfo and Milkivit the global leading brands in heifer calf nutrition.”
These techniques also help with surplus calf research, which works to improve the healthy development of calves born to dairy cows. “It is now possible to produce beef from the secondary value streams of the dairy system,” said Javier. “These include these calves as well as the by-products of butter and cheese production, combined with our unique resource – fat concentrates for calf milk replacers made at our factory in Sloten, Friesland.” He said that the circular nature of milk replacer feeding helps us lower the environmental footprint of cattle and makes milk and beef more sustainable.
Integrating sow and piglet nutrition for better long-term health and productivity
Our swine team has also been working on early-life nutrition for more than a decade. Their more recent efforts are focused not only on the young piglet itself but on integrating sow and piglet nutrition so that one supports the other – a focus that alone differentiates our offering from the competition. “We see that the nutrition of the sow impacts the vitality of the piglets, all the way from the gestational period through to weaning,” said Dr. Hubért van Hees, Manager of our Swine Research Centre, “and we integrate this understanding into our Milkiwean and LifeStart Sow solutions.”
The swine research facility enables the team to work at various stages along the life cycle, from early conception, through piglet birth and lactation, into the nursery, and even up to slaughter. They can monitor individual feed and water intake directly after weaning – something most other companies can’t do. And the facility allows them to mimic different management conditions on the farm to study their effects. “We can, of course, create optimal management conditions, but we can also modify elements in the immediate environment – including heat, cold, or even pathogenic stress – to study how piglets react and how we can help them deal with these stressors through the right nutrition,” said Hubért.
Another aspect of the swine team’s research that is unique to our company is the way the team studied the feeding patterns and diet of pigs in the wild to both help inform their research and also realise new opportunities in young animal nutrition. “We try to link what nature tells us about optimal piglet development, especially in our vital start program, where we look at the healthy growth of piglets and how to stimulate the early development of their organs with the right nutrition.”
