Performance And Profitability With The Nurture Program
The weaning state is an immensely challenging phase of young pig development. The transition to a solid diet combined with being placed in a new environment adds a level of stress that can inhibit a young pig's growth performance once placed in the nursery. Placing an emphasis on nutrition during this time cab be one of the most important decisions a producer makes.
Denny and Julie Russchers and their three sons, Jeff, Jeremy and Louis, are operators of Precision Pork in Zeeland, Michigan. They own 2,800 sows and roughly market 90,000 pigs per year and have used Cargill's Nurture line since it was released nearly four years ago.
Cargill's Nurture program is designed to be flexible and fit to the specifications of your business. With five standard program offerings, two Nurture Boost products for health challenged pigs, and a variety of advanced nutrition technologies that can elevate your herd's performance, we are sure that our dedicated team at Cargill can offer you a nutrition package like none other.
Jeff and Denny explained that they have consistently weaned heavier, more uniform piglets utilizing the Nurture line and their overall operation has benefited from it. "Heavier piglets create exponential growth throughout their lives, yielding a better performing finisher pig at market," Denny says.
With 20 million US pigs being fed Cargill's Nurture™ program per year, we are continually researching and innovating new ways to create the best nutrition program for the young animals while still providing nutritious pork products for billions of people around the globe - all while protecting the producer's bottom line.
When compared to other feeding programs in a compilation of trials, pigs coming out of the nursery that were fed Nurture showed an improvement in many growth factors:
- 3.1% increase in average daily gain
- 2.2% greater feed conversion
- 1.2-pound heavier coming out of the nursery
- $1.43 return over feed cost
We take pride in knowing that our young animal nutrition program helps producers maximize performance in the nursery and set pigs up better for the finishing phase. We know how important the bottom line is to your business' success and helping build your best pork system is our main goal at Cargill.
For more information about Cargill's Nurture program, Contact Us to have a Cargill representative follow up with you.
Download our Nurture brochure for more information on the full Nurture line of swine products.