Regular updates on our achievements, ambitions and worldwide presence at exhibitions, fairs and scientific congresses.
Since March 1st Johan Verhaart joined Nuscience as new sales manager for the business unit Functional Feed Ingredients. Johan was previously Sales Manager Feed for Codrico in Rotterdam and has over 20 years’ experience in the sector. He worked for AVEBE, Loders Croklaan BV and IMCOPA in technical sales positions and studied Animal Sciences at the Agricultural University of Wageningen.
Preconex, a daughter company of Nuscience Group, has ceased production at Willebroek, Belgium, as a consequence of a production optimisation project in the Benelux. Its production of protein concentrates has been transferred to the Nuscience Netherlands factory in Utrecht.
Streptococcus is a much discussed topic in the pig stable. Streptococcus suis is a confrontational problem for pig farmers: lame piglets, piglets in the aisle, high mortality rate and a source of continuous worry. ‘Streptococcus’ is a bacteria with many aspects of infection, both in terms of the number of types of S. suis, the number of virulence factors, the mode of entry into the body, the symptoms and measures that have to be taken simultaneously to counteract problems.
An important point within livestock farming is the lowering of feed costs. To that end the addition of enzymes is a tried and tested means. Endogenous digestive enzymes are responsible for the breakdown of feed in the gastrointestinal tract: amylase (for the digestion of starch), protease (protein) and lipase (fat). Grains and plant-derived feedstocks, however, contain elements that are not digested by endogenous enzymes: NSPs (non-starch polysaccharides) such as xylans, glucans, pectin, cellulose, hemicellulose).
The price of lysine for immediate delivery has increased substantially in the last two months of last year. This was due on the one hand to an increase in the use of lysine worldwide as a result of high protein prices. On the other hand, shipments from Asia were delayed, which resulted in a huge demand at that time.
Nuscience Group announces strong business results for the year 2012. Specifically, Nuscience grew its revenues 25% year over year and has as such a very strong growth in operational result. The growth was driven by the success in the emerging markets China and Ukraine, positive evolutions in the Benelux and the introduction of innovative products.
BEC Feed Solutions has been appointed as the exclusive distributor for the Nuscience Functional Feed Ingredients division in Australia & New Zealand. Nuscience and BEC Feed Solutions will work closely together to introduce and sell the Aromabiotic® product range in the pig, poultry and cattle market.
Nuscience on 9 October 2012 organised a well-attended afternoon livestock study session under this header.
The session dealt in further depth with the possibility of improving udder health and the health of dairy cattle in general using Mervit Mineral Mixes.
The concentration of tryptophan in piglet feeds and meat pig feeds was much higher than normal by mid-2012 due to the high cost of proteins. Other parts of the world beyond Europe also became aware of tryptophan’s attractiveness at that time. The increased consumption drove up the price of tryptophan. In addition, when a producer ran into production problems a serious shortage arose.
A lot is expected from sows in group housing: recovery from the previous round, durable pregnancy in the interim and preparation for the production of colostrum and milk in the next round. In addition, sows must not drop out due to injuries and lameness caused by having to fight for their pecking order.
Nuscience Group will invest in the coming three years in Drongen (Belgium) and Utrecht (the Netherlands) to build new state-of-the-art production facilities. These investments are part of a re-organisation of the production set-up in the Benelux to increase cost-efficiency and to specialize the factories at the same time.
Today, Nuscience has held a Grand Opening Ceremony for the second production line in Suzhou, China. Over 400 customers attended the ceremony. With this new line, the capacity is doubled and also specialty products will be produced locally.
Nutreco announces today, 12 October, that it has reached an agreement for the sale of Trouw Nutrition Környe Kft’s business to Nuscience Group, the premix and specialty division of the Dutch cooperative Royal Agrifirm Group. Környe operates in the premix, concentrates and young animal feed market for pigs and ruminants in Hungary.
Nuscience Group & FDL announce Nuscience’s participation as Chain Partner of the Feed Design Lab (FDL) in the Netherlands. With this sponsorship Nuscience becomes a partner of the Lab for the next five years.
Positive results have been obtained with Babimel in actual practice in recent months. As a follow-up to the familiar tasty Babito candy feed, a liquid variant has now been added to Nuscience’s pre-starter assortment: the all-in Babimel porridge.
By providing this liquid feed as a supplement to sow’s milk, the piglets clearly become more uniform and heavier.
Biotine is regularly added to mixed feeds for dairy cattle. Biotine has positive effects on dairy cattle in terms of milk yield as well as claw health. Biotine’s best known effect is its positive effect on claw health. Its effect on milk yield is probably less well known, but is definitely very interesting as well. During trials with highly productive cows, an average increase in milk production of 1.3 kg of milk per cow per day was measured.
Effective 1 September 2012, our bulk transporter ‘Bontje’ transferred its transportation business to a new owner. A search for a new partner, who would be a good fit for all involved parties, was conducted in collaboration with Nuscience. The transportation company ‘Ecotrans’ in Vorden was finally selected.
Taste; this was the subject of the symposium organised by Nuscience on 12 June 2012. Peter de Kok of NIZO explained that there is a whole world hidden behind taste; much of it invisible. Carola van der Peet explained that it is very important for piglets to eat as much solid food as possible before they are weaned.
Copper is an important nutrient that fulfils a range of functions within the body. The common copper source in Mervit premixes and mineral mixes is copper sulphate. A new copper source, dicopper chloride trihydroxide, was recently registered in the EU as a feed additive for all animal species.
The Symposium ‘Copper and Zinc in Pig Farming’ presented by the Product Board Animal Feed (PDV) dealt with the opportunities available for reducing copper and zinc in pig feeds.
The technical results for poultry can be adversely affected during warm periods due to heat stress. Adverse effects of heat stress can be limited by using Mervit HITTEMIX 2602.
Due to their high milk production, dairy cattle are very active metabolically. At high temperatures they experience difficulty eliminating their heat resulting in heat stress which in turn causes feed intake and milk production to decline. A number of years ago we developed Mervit BUFFER+ as an antidote for this purpose.
As you probably already know we have created a separate department for the resale of raw materials to our customers. We want to improve the service provided to our customers this way. This “Resales Feed Ingredients" department will be intensively involved in the purchase and sale of feed ingredients.
Nuscience Group operates since 1997 in China. As the business is growing steadily, Nuscience decides to invest in extra production capacity in Suzhou and Tianjin. At finalisation Nuscience will be able to produce significantly more premixes, concentrates and piglet feed for the Chinese mainland.
Nuscience Belgium organised their first ‘Piglet feed deluxe event’ on Thursday May 10th close to Bruges. Nutritionists of key feed mills were invited for a seminar on ‘Taste’ in relation with the optimal feeding of piglets. The event was the kick off for a European campaign to promote the Nuscience piglet feed product range.
From January 2012 onward, Vitamex Group will be rebranded as Nuscience. Vitamex Group, including the Pricor, Vitamex, Preconex, Cehave Korm, Pre-Mervo and Lusai companies, has grown significantly in recent years. Through the merger of their parent companies into the Agrifirm Group, all companies are joining forces and are becoming the Nuscience Group. The resulting synergy will bring a wider portfolio and a broader technical service to the global market.