John C. Rea (Department of Animal Husbandry, College of Agriculture)Revised 3/80/10

Rea, John C.

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University of Missouri: MOspace

u M C Seie11tt 111111 "Ceelt1111/11111 GUIDE P11/Jlillted /Jt tlte U11ivmilt 11/ ,Mi111111ri - C11l11•/Ji11 Bxte111/1111 1Jlvil/1111 R O 8 19 Evaluating Vitamin Premixes for Swine John C. Rea, Department of Animal Husbandry, College of Agriculture Feed represents a major portion of total costs of swine production in Missouri. Particularly in years of short feed supplies and high prices, producers become interested in on-farm ration formulation and mixing. Producers willing to spend sufficient time in learning the nutrient requirements for various weights and classes of hogs and applying information available on nutrient levels in feeds can formulate and mix swine rations that will result in performance comparable with those commercially available. On-farm mixing is not for all producers. It does demand accuracy, attention to detail, additional equipment, in some cases , and a good job of mixing. Supplying vitamins has been a problem in some areas of Missouri for those interesied in on-farm ration formula-tion. Several sources of vitamins are available for pro-ducers . These vary rather widely in price, number of vita-mins contained, concentration of vitamins in the mix, and other nutrients or additives present. Sources of Vitamins for Swine There are many variations, but vitamin supplementation in broad terms is available to Missouri producers in three forms. These might be called: complete supplements, min-eral-vitamin premixes, and vitamin premixes. Complete supplements. These commonly include all nutrients required other than the energy source or grain . They can include protein, major minerals , trace minerals, vitamins, and antibiotics or other drug ingredients. In most cases , these supplements do a good job of meeting vitamin requirements if purchased from reliable companies and fed according to recommendations . Disadvantages may be in less flexibility in purchasing ingredients of protein , calcium, phosphorus, and antibiotics. In general, prices will be higher in this form than where the producer purchases and mixes these ingredients separately. However, many times, there is some service included in addition to feedstuffs . Protein , calcium, and phosphorus levels in the complete ration should be checked using company recommendations and average figures on these nutrients and in the grain you are feeding. In most cases it is not possible to evaluate vita-min and trace mineral levels since they usually are not listed by amounts on the company's feed tag. The producer as-sumes that amounts of these nutrients are adequate. His evaluation of a particular company's feed then is based pri-marily on price and past experience with his pigs' per-formance using their supplement. Particular attention needs to be paid to kinds and amounts of antibiotics present in evaluating commercial sup-plements. Many times this is the major difference in cost between the products of two companies. Feed tags must list actual amounts of antibiotics in the supplement. (Caution: Be sure to evaluate antibiotics and other drug ingredients on amounts per ton of complete mixed feed, taking into con-sideration additive concentration in the supplement and the company's recommendations on amounts to add per ton of complete feed.) Mineral-vitamin premixes. Commercial mineral-vita-min premixes have some of the same limitations as com-plete supplements for producers set up to do their own ration mixing. The major minerals of calcium, phosphorus, and salt are nearly always included as well as oftentimes trace minerals. Mineral-vitamin premixes do permit the swine pro-ducer to purchase his protein needs separately . They may or may not be medicated. They may or may not include on the tag actual amounts of vitamins present. Where actual ingredient amounts are not listed the pro-ducer again must depend on the reliability of the company, his past experience with this product, and the current cost compared to other sources . Where vitamins are listed and concentrations given, an evaluation of amounts present can be checked against the requirements of the pig to see if re-quirements are met. Where producers are willing to do ration calculations and have equipment for on-farm mixing, this source of sup-plementation in general will be a slightly more expensive way to provide vitamins and considerably more expensive to provide calcium and phosphorus compared to actual ingre-dient costs bought and mixed . Again , some of the detail of formulating and mixing these ingredients has been done for the producer and this may have some value. ~, Vitamin premixes. Several companies market vitamin premixes in Missouri. The most common variations in these are in concentrations, amounts recommended to mix per ton of feed, levels of antibiotics or medications present, and price. The cost that vitamins add to a ton of swine feed can vary significantly depending on these variations. In a series ofleast-cost computer ration formulation meetings conducted by University of Missouri-Columbia personnel, the addition of vitamins from commercial companies varied from $2 to over $10 per ton of complete mixed feed. 2351 TABLE I VITAMIN REQUIREMENT OF SWINE (Percent or amount per pound of diet) Growing and Finishing Swine Breeding Swine Bred Gilts Lactation Gilts Class (lbs.) 10-25 25-45 45-75 Vitamin A I.U . 1,000 795 591 Vitamin D I.U . 100 91 91 Vitamin E I.U . 5.0 5.0 5.0 Vitamin K mg. .9 .9 .9 Thiamine mg. .6 .5 .5 Riboflavin mg. 1.4 1.4 1.2 Niacin mg . 10.0 8.2 6 .4 Pantothenic Acid mg. 6 .0 5.0 5.0 Vitamin Bs mg. .7 .7 .5 Choline mg. 500 409 318 Vitamin B2 mcg. 10.0 7.0 5.0 How To Evaluate Vitamin Premixes The basic goal of producers should be to meet the vita-min requirements of different weights and classes of swine. This is essential for top production . The second goal, of course, would be to meet these needs as economically as possible . Table I lists the vitamin requirements of swine. This table, taken from 1973 National Research Council Recommendations, should be used as a basis for formu-lating rations . For a more complete discussion of vitamin requirements see UMC Guide 2321, "Vitamin Require-ments of Swine." Because of the variability of vitamins in natural swine feedstuffs and the relatively low cost of commercial vita-mins, it is recommended that producers provide the follow-ing vitamins completely from the vitamin premix and dis-regard amounts in the feed . These are vitamin A D E K riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, and B12. ' Thia~in'. vitamin B. , and choline requirements should be met in adequate amounts in normal swine feeds. With these requirements in mind the first step in decid-ing which vitamin supplement to buy would be to select a reliable company . Second, carefully study the feed tag. Thi rd, determine ingredients present other than vitamins and determine their value to you. Fourth , check vitamin levels using the vitamin supplement check sheet in Table 3 to determine if requirements are met. Fifth, compare price . 2351 75-135 135-220 and Sows 591 591 1,818 68 57 140 5.0 5.0 4.5 .9 .9 .9 .5 .5 .45 1.0 1.0 1.3 5.5 4.5 4.5 5.0 5.0 5.4 .5 .5 .5 250 182 568 5.0 5.0 6.8 TABLE 2 SWINE GROWER VITAMIN PREMIX Vitamin Guarantees per Pound Vitamin A, LU. Vitamin D, I.U . Vitamin B,2, mg. Vitamin E , I.U. Menadione Sodium Bisulfite, mcg. Riboflavin, mg. Niacin, mg . d-Pantothenic acid, mg . Choline Chloride, mg. Thiamine, mcg. Pyridoxine, mcg. Ascorbic Acid, mg. Inositol, mcg. Biotin, mcg . Folic Acid, mcg. Para. Amino Benzoic Acid, mcg. Vitamin K, mg. and Sows 909 90 4 .5 .9 .45 1.3 4.5 5.4 .5 568 6.8 600,000 170,000 2.6 1,200 750 670 4,000 1,350 13,500 199 75 1.33 75 19 75 525 250 Grower Ration 8 pounds per ton ----TABLE 3 CALCULATING VITAMIN REQUIREMENT Column I 2 3 4 Lbs. Total Units Premix Units per lb. per per Vitamin Premix Ton Ton Vitamin A (I. U .) 600,000 8 4,800,000 Vitamin D (I. U .) 170,000 8 1,360,000 Vitamin E (1.U.) 1,300 8 10,400 Vitamin K (mg) 250 8 2,000 Riboflavin (mg) 670 8 5,360 Niacin (mg) 4,000 8 32 ,000 Pantothenic (mg) 1,350 8 10,800 812 (mg) 2.6 8 20.8 Example-Checking Vitamin Premixes Most vitamin premixes contain a list of vitamins present and units of each vitamin per pound of premix. They then recommend how many pounds of premix to mix in a ton of complete feed. A simple way to see if your premix meets the vitamin requirements of the pig is to check vitamin levels on a ton of complete feed basis . Follow the example in Tables 2 and 3. If you are offered the grower premix in Table 2, will it meet the needs of 60-pound pigs? Remember, we plan to check for only eight vitamins. Looking down the list find on the premix tag that there are 600,000 units of vitamin A per pound of premix. This is entered under column 2, "Units per pound of premix," in Table 3. Multiplying units per pound by pounds premix per ton gives the total units per ton for vitamin A of 4,800,000 I. U. This figure is in col-umn 4, Table 3. The requirement for 60-pound pigs is 1,180,000 units (column 6, Table 3). Vitamin A is more than adequate. This same procedure is followed for vitamins D, E and K, riboflavin , niacin, pantothenic acid , and B12. Using this company's recommendation all eight of these vitamins are supplied in adequate amounts in the premix for growing pigs. Once you are satisfied that vitamin levels are adequate, then consider the other nutrients in the premix which have been mentioned. You need to have some idea of their value on a ton of feed basis. Many Missouri producers can purchase ingredients to meet calcium, phosphorus and salt requirements for $3.50 or less per ton of complete mixed feed. The value of antibiotics will vary greatly. Keep in mind an upper figure of around $10.00 per ton of com-plete feed for antibiotics. Some producers are buying a mixed antibiotic at a level of approximately 250 grams per ton of feed in this price range. If your premix contains only minimum levels of anti-biotics , its value would be considerably less than this. The value of protein in premixes can be estimated by comparing with current prices for soybean oil meal and other supple-ments on a cost per pound of protein present. 5 25-50 1,600,000 180,000 10,000 1,800 2,800 16,400 10,000 14.0 2351 6 7 8 Units Required/Ton Ration Pig Weight 50-75 75-225 Breeding Swine 1,180,000 1,180,000 3,636,000 180,000 114,000 280,000 10,000 10,000 9,000 1,800 1,800 1,800 2,400 2,000 2,600 12,600 9,100 9,000 10,000 10,000 10,800 10.0 10.0 13 .6 See back page for worksheet Column 1 Vitamin Vitamin A (LU.) Vitamin D (LU.) Vitamin E (LU.) Vitamin K (mg) Riboflavin (mg) Niacin (mg) Pantothenic (mg) B12 (mg) 2 Units per lb. Premix Check Your Vitamin Premix Use this worksheet and follow the procedure used in the example in this Guide to evaluate your source of vitamins. Worksheet CALCULATING VITAMIN REQUIREMENT Using Your Premix 3 4 5 6 Lbs. Total 7 Premix Units Units Required/fon Ration per per Pig Weight Ton Ton 25-50 50-75 75-225 1,600,000 1,180,000 1,180,000 180,000 180,000 114,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 1,800 1,800 1,800 2,800 2,400 2,000 16,400 12,600 9,100 10,000 10,000 10,000 14.0 10.0 10.0 8 Breeding Swine 3,636,000 280,000 9,000 1,800 2,600 9,000 10,800 13.6 ■ Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension Work Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914 in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture. Leonard C. Douglas, Acting Director, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Missouri and Lincoln University, Columbia, Missouri 65211 . ■ An equal opportunity institution. 2351 Revised 3/80/IOM ---

Evaluating vitamin premixes for swine

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Evaluating vitamin premixes for swine

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