Zinc is an important trace element for poultry. To maintain the performance of our poultry flocks, it is necessary to supplement it via premixes.

In this episode of our MIAVIT Feed Scout, we give an overview of the importance of this mineral, the main functions of zinc in the organism of poultry and the different sources of zinc available on the market.

Don´t ‘zinc’ it over, listen to our new episode!

Oxidation is “chemical burning” where vitamins and other nutrients are destroyed including energy lost. It also develops in negative health effects from degradation products. In order to prevent oxidation processes, the use of antioxidants is commonly spread.

Dr. Jan Lippe, MIAVIT chemist and technical support, supervises different production processes inside MIAVIT group and researches new MIAVIT solutions to the challenges of the feed industry.

Is oxidation only a problem for fats and oils? How do antioxidants work? What is better natural and synthetic antioxidants? Is there any perfect antioxidant? Join our podcast to learn about this and other oxidation and antioxidants issues.

Aquaculture is the farming of species in water. People often use Aquaculture interchangeably with fish farming, which isn’t always correct. Aquaculture of course includes fish farming, but aquaculture includes so much more than just fish.

Rebecca Heavyside, R&D Manager from Arctic Feed Ingredients is our guest in this interview. She is a quite experienced scientific, mainly focused in the feed industry as a microingridients researcher, developing new solutions for the constant challenges in the fish and shrimp sector.

Although it remains smaller than land animal farming, since the 1980’s aquaculture has grown exponentially and is still growing all around the world and is continuing to do so. Join our podcast to learn how aquaculture sector is, how aquaculture feeds look like and its current and future challenges.

Despite of the fact that lame cows can be found in every dairy herd and prevalence is extremely high in many farms, lameness is hardly ever recognized as an actual disease. However, the economic losses caused by lameness should not be underestimated.

While the detection and treatment of typical fresh cow diseases is well established in many dairy farms, the knowledge about lameness seems to be incomplete. Therefore we have dedicated one whole episode on this topic.

Starting with the question how do we judge if cows are lame or not and when is a good time to do the scoring? How can we differentiate between the different claw diseases and what does it tell us about our management? What are indicator cows?

These and many more questions will be discussed and answered from a very practical point of view by Dr. Astrid Brandl, specialized dairy veterinarian and dairy farm owner.

Zinc plays a major role in pig nutrition. The use of ZnO as a veterinary medicinal product was banned in June this year. The limit of 150 ppm total Zn now applies in all EU member states.

Prof. Dr. med. vet. Jürgen Zentek, from the Free University of Berlin, is our guest for this interview.

Prof. Zentek is an internationally recognized scientist in animal nutrition. His main interest is understanding how nutritional factors affect gut function, including the gut microbiome in livestock. Due to its great importance, zinc has played a major role in scientific research during the last couple of years.

Learn how people became aware of zinc deficiency in the past. Find out about typical negative effects of overdosing zinc, as well as recent alternative solutions and strategies to improve the health of piglets!

In the second episode with Dr. Joachim Lübbo Kleen, we talk about young stock management and what potential farmers around the world can exploit. Among other things, he explains which three simple management practices can improve calf health.

Our interview partner, Dr. Joachim Lübbo Kleen, is a real expert on this topic, as he is a veterinarian specialist in bovine health management. He works as an independent consultant for dairy farmers and is the author of numerous publications in the field of ruminant nutrition and herd management.

Before the next lactation starts, there are several decisions to be made: how many days before calving should we dry off the cows? Are there differences between primiparous and multiparous cows? What are the PROs and CONs of one-phase or two-phase dry cow rations? When we get closer to calving, we have to think about how can we achieve a smooth transition from dry to fresh cow feed. Which are the key check points for freshly calved cows? These and many more questions will be discussed and answered from a very practical point of view by Dr. Astrid Brandl, specialized dairy veterinarian and dairy farm owner.

In this episode, we talk about the topic of subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) in dairy cows and what farmers can do to positively influence rumen fermentation.

Our interview partner, Dr. Joachim Lübbo Kleen, is a real expert on this topic, as he is a veterinarian specialist in bovine health management. He works as an independent consultant for dairy farmers and is the author of numerous publications in the field of ruminant nutrition and herd management.

In the previous episode, we highlighted the genetic aspects and the importance of good pullet quality to achieve optimum, top quality eggs. In addition to the rearing period, various nutritional aspects also need to be taken into account.

Which feed compositions and components are important? What aspects of feed management need to be considered? What is needed for extended laying cycles? Learn about the impact of the liver on egg quality and what we can do to support a healthy liver.

In this episode, Estella Leentfaar, from Hendrix Genetics Layers, explains what nutritional aspects are important for good persistency.

Hendrix Genetics is the breeding company behind many laying chicken breeds, such as the ISA brown & Dekalb White. Estella is employed as nutritionist. After her Master’s in animal nutrition in Wageningen, she worked for Nutreco as poultry project manager and nutritionist and joined Hendrix Genetics in 2019, providing technical support to customers all over the world.

The aim of every egg producer is to achieve optimum, top quality eggs.

But what do you need to consider in order to reach the genetic potential?

The rearing period, in particular, is often underestimated. Learn which aspects are most important for good persistency. Why is it important to flatten the egg weight curve? What improvements in genetics have been developed over the last century?

In this episode, Teun van de Braak, from Hendrix Genetics Layers, will give us deeper insights in the world of layer genetics. Hendrix Genetics is the breeding company behind many laying chicken breeds, such as the ISA brown & Dekalb White.

After his Master’s in Animal Breeding and Genetics in Wageningen, he worked as a geneticist for 8 years and, for the last 4 years, he has been a product manager. He will give us deeper knowledge about chicken breeding and layer genetics.