The poultry industry needs to improve production efficiency and profitability to meet growing demand. This involves optimizing feed for better growth and less waste, maintaining gut health to improve nutrient absorption, and helping to minimize the risk of diseases. Additionally, the industry is challenged to rely less on antibiotics as growth promoters.
Gut Health and Performance Poultry Category Lead
Cargill
The need to nourish a rapidly growing global population challenges the animal protein industry on many fronts. With poultry-derived protein predicted to account for 41% of all protein consumed from meat sources worldwide, it is essential for poultry farmers to ensure the health and productivity of their flocks by using the right nutrition at the right time. Feed additives and feed materials such as micro ingredients have been shown to be effective tools in helping poultry farmers address industry challenges, with Cargill’s Micronutrition and Health Solutions (MHS) right at the forefront of innovation. Read on to discover the power of these solutions and how Cargill MHS can hold the key for greater poultry performance.
TARGETED SOLUTIONS FOR PRODUCTION CHALLENGES
The poultry industry needs to improve production efficiency and profitability to meet growing demand. This involves optimizing feed for better growth and less waste, maintaining gut health to improve nutrient absorption, and helping minimize the risk of diseases. Additionally, the industry is challenged to rely less on antibiotics as growth promoters.
Using technology to fine-tune nutrition and manage supply chains can help achieve these goals, but it would not be possible without targeted and effective feed solutions.
WHY FEED ADDITIVES AND FEED MATERIALS?
Feed additives and feed materials can play a crucial role in poultry nutrition by enhancing the quality and digestibility of feed, supporting animal health and performance, and improving production outcomes. Each has a specific mode of action and can be part of a holistic strategy for efficient and sustainable production.
They help with:
• Improved nutrient absorption: Additives like enzymes break down complex nutrients, while essential oils increase the production of digestive juices, making the nutrients more accessible for absorption.
• Gut health support: Postbiotics and phytogenics support a healthy gut microbiome, which is essential for nutrient absorption and overall health.
• Enhancing growth and productivity: Feed solutions can improve feed conversion ratios, leading to higher productivity and a reduction in feed costs.
• Reducing environmental impact: Certain feed materials help in reducing noxious gas emissions, thus minimizing the environmental footprint of poultry farming.
Feed additives and feed materials help address several key challenges in the poultry industry, including:
• Feed cost and efficiency: They can make feed use more efficient and cost-effective.
• Nutrient optimization: They help in better utilization of nutrients, reducing waste and improving overall feed efficiency.
• Animal health: Feed products can support immune responses, helping natural defenses against disease. Feed materials like postbiotics can be part of good farm practices that help support animal health.
By integrating feed additives and feed materials into their nutrition strategies, poultry producers can support flock health, achieve higher productivity, and align with more sustainable farming practices.
SUPERCHARGED INGREDIENTS FOR SUPERCHARGED RESULTS
Two examples of how feed solutions can play a winning role in a poultry production’s success include:
Supporting Performance and Immunity: Certain feed additives and feed materials like postbiotics work in the gastrointestinal tract, helping with consistency and stability in flock performance.
This is important because the gut microbiome plays a key role in supporting animal performance. In well-performing birds, the gut microbiome has a higher abundance of lactic acid producers (beneficial bacteria) in early life, which are later replaced by butyrate producers. This pattern makes the gut microbiome more resilient to challenges and helps with health and performance. The right combination of ingredients speeds up this process of microbiome maturation, supporting beneficial bacteria and managing undesirable ones, contributing to better performance.
Reducing Feed Costs: Developed by Cargill, Proviox™50* is designed to reduce oxidative stress and support animals throughout their lifecycle, especially during challenging production phases. This is a unique formulation of high-quality plant polyphenols that not only supports the scavenging of free radicals (a cause of oxidative stress), but also helps regenerate vitamin E in the body, leading to a reduction in formulation costs while maintaining performance.
To the readers, if you are interested in learning more about the different feed solutions developed by Cargill MHS, and the range of support tools that are available, please visit the Cargill micronutrition page.
DIGITAL TOOLS SHARPEN THE EDGE
Digital solutions are revolutionizing poultry nutrition, helping producers with:
• Precision nutrition: Digital tools help tailor feed formulations to the specific needs of different poultry breeds and production stages, optimizing feed efficiency and reducing waste.
• Real-time monitoring: Technologies like AI and NIR spectrophotometry provide real-time data on feed quality and nutrient content, allowing for immediate adjustments.
• Supply chain management: Digital solutions enhance traceability and quality control, ensuring the consistent delivery of high-quality feed solutions.
For example, Cargill’s REVEAL™ Layers is a first-of-its-kind, non-invasive near-infrared (NIR) technology that monitors poultry body condition. This innovation helps to:
• Make real-time decisions: REVEAL™ Layers provides real-time data on body composition, enabling precise adjustments to diet composition based on flock insights. This can help improve performance and reduce costs.
• Support long-term egg production: Optimal body condition supports sustained egg production over the long term, ensuring that hens remain productive while supporting immunity.
• Reduce feed costs: By combining REVEAL™ Layers with Cargill’s nutritional expertise, producers can significantly reduce feed costs while maintaining high productivity.
PROVEN ANIMAL PERFORMANCE, WITH PURPOSE
The right nutrition at the right time is essential for modern poultry farming, enhancing health, productivity, and sustainability. Cargill MHS’ innovations demonstrate how targeted micro ingredients and feed materials can boost poultry performance and cost-efficiency.
To go beyond feed and make nutrition holistically work in solutions leading to proven animal performance with purpose, reach out to Cargill Micronutrition and Health Solutions (MHS) today.
*Proviox™ is only approved for use in certain geographies, end uses, and/or at certain usage levels. It is the customer’s responsibility to determine, for a particular geography, that (i) the product, its use and usage levels; (ii) the customer’s product and its use; and (iii) any claims made about the customer’s product, all comply with applicable laws and regulations. For more information on specific products in your location, please reach out to our local Cargill animal nutrition representatives.
About Yann Fournis
Yann Fournis is Additives Poultry Category lead for CAN, the animal nutrition division of Cargill. He started this position in January 2018. In his current role, he is responsible for the deployment of three additives portfolios within Cargill Animal Nutrition businesses, and contributes to the innovation with Cargill partners to find new solutions able to answer customers’ expectations.
Fournis graduated as a zootechnical engineer in 2011 from AgroCampus Ouest in France, with main focus on animal production. From 2011 to 2018, he worked as a Layer nutritionist in Cargill France, on its domestic and export markets. In 2016 he focused on layer nutrition and management, working with on-farm mixers and feed millers in France, Sub Saharian Africa and Latin America.
