The productive demands placed on the modern hypo-prolific sow are increasing with more producers now achieving 28-30 piglets per sow per year, even in outdoor systems. The NOVA concept covers a variety of genotypes and performance standards to provide a tailor made regime to fit the individual needs of the farmer from simple two diet programmes to more sophisticated approaches. The six nutritional innovations, designed by the ForFarmers Nutritional Innovation Centre (NIC), deliver nutritional benefits across the full NOVA Range. These include key features such as course cereals along with structural and microbial fibres to support gut health and digestive efficiency as well as satiety. Furthermore, ForFarmers have also tailored the levels of net energy in the diets to support specific periods in the sows lifecycle.
The product range has been designed to be easy to apply on both outdoor and indoor production systems and is supported by innovative tools to ensure the right diets and feed schedules are applied on farm.
Diets dedicated to gilt rearing ensure an optimal development of the gilt, supporting performance in the early parities. In addition, the NOVA Gilt diet supports the gilt’s physiology and reproductive system to ensure good early productivity and longevity.
NOVA also includes a specific flush diet to feed the sow in the period from weaning to oestrus and a range of gestation diets, including a gilt specific diet. Moreover, a full range of lactation diets have been designed to provide the sow with the nutrition support to maintain condition and supply quality colostrum and high milk yields to support heavier litters.
NOVA PreLac/PreLacto is a key feature of the diet range designed to support the sow throughout the stressful farrowing process. It provides correct mix of fast and slow release energy sources and vitamin levels to support the sow through this period.
Delivering on customers’ needs
Through extensive trials on commercial farms, working together with its customers, ForFarmers has identified 3 critical areas of focus to ensure farmers get the very best from their herds and businesses: 1) Lactational Excellence, 2) Sow Longevity, 3) Outstanding Performance.
“By addressing these critical areas, producers can be confident that the new NOVA diets will support the development of the reproductive organs and mammary tissue and ensure good embryonic development. The outcome is not only more healthy live born piglets but also increased numbers weaned and litter weights as a result of improved milk yield and quality colostrum which provides an excellent starting point for improved finisher performance” comments Andrew Knowles, Pig Marketing Director of ForFarmers .
The results of improved lactation has been proven by heavier litter weights and more weaned piglets per sow per year. Furthermore, the inclusion of the unique mix of vitamins and energy sources supports the sows’ productive lifecycle for longer.
A tried and proven range – unprecedented trials
NOVA is underpinned by extensive field trials in North West Europe over an 18 month period, across 40 farms. Data was collected on over 40,000 piglets covering a range of sow genotypes. The trials - to prove improved lactation, longevity and performance - demonstrated that NOVA diets and feed programmes deliver 0.25 more piglets weaned, a 165g improvement in weaning weight, and maintenance of sow body condition to extend the sows reproductive life. Additionally, the trial diets demonstrated a shift towards heavier and larger litters. Besides introducing NOVA diets, no other changes were made to herd management during the trials highlighting their ease of use and application.
“The performance we have seen and measured from NOVA in real world commercial trials is unprecedented. We are committed to delivering optimal solutions. The rigour and scale of how we develop and trial our nutrition is evidence to this. We are very excited at the evolution in breeding herd performance that NOVA will bring to our customers. We have combined sophisticated nutrition with easy to apply feeding programmes to suit the needs of the customers genetics, production system and objectives. ” comments Andrew Knowles.