New year, new goals, new opportunities.
As livestock farmers look to take advantage of the latest technology to help them improve results and benefits from feed, for 2022 and beyond, one of the most promising areas of advancement is represented by a brand new category of feed science – “Bio-Catalyst” technology.
This new area of science-fuelled innovation represents the future of feed enzymes – more powerful and comprehensive than ever before, explains Rob Patterson of CBS Bio Platforms, a key feed technology innovation source for Sioux Nation Ag Center.
“New times call for new solutions,” he says. “With the tight margins and highly competitive conditions today, it has never been more important for farmers to make sure they are doing all they can to get the most value possible out of their feed.
“At the same time, solutions need to be highly efficient, sustainable and well accepted by all components of the marketplace. This complete package is what Bio-Catalyst technology delivers.”
Maximizing feed value
Bio-Catalyst technology, when used optimally, provides farmers with a go-to option for ensuring the highest nutritional value is always extracted from their feed, while conferring additional advantages based on the specific type used.
“It provides a comprehensive platform for maximizing the capability of feed enzymes to unlock value and unique advantages from a full range of production systems.”
This includes capability for addressing top challenges such as keeping feed costs low, utilizing alternative and ‘opportunity’ ingredients, protecting health, reducing environmental impact, minimizing antibiotic use and dramatically enhancing overall efficiency and profitability.
Putting the best science to work
Compared to previous generation enzyme approaches, all advantages are amplified to a higher degree than ever before due to the dramatically increased precision, sophistication and synergy inherent to the new platform.
“The science underlying this technology leverages what we have learned over more than 40 years of research and development, tailored specifically to provide today’s livestock producers with the best tools for the success of their operations.”
Top Bio-Catalyst options
The Bio-Catalyst technology platform encompasses several layers of feed enzyme technology.
Featured components include Multi-Carbohydrase technology, phytase and protease. There is also a strong focus on crossover components such as enzyme-enhanced Yeast Bioactives technology as well as breakthrough new protein sparing, energy sparing and prebiotic activity boosting options anticipated from the research and development pipeline later this year
Multi-Carbohydrase technology – utilizing multiple unique enzyme sources that express multiple activities – is designed to enable maximal usable energy and nutritional extraction from a wide range of animal diets. Tailored Multi-Carbohydrase formulations offer ingredient-specific activities tailored to address different types of diets and ensure total feed breakdown of hard-to-digest NSP (non starch polysaccharide) components.
“The Multi-Carbohydrase approach involves combining several unique enzyme strains that between them express multiple activities and can therefore break down a larger proportion of the undigested fraction,” explains Patterson.
“In a typical swine or poultry diet containing corn and soybean meal, there is approximately 7-10% NSP. Of this percentage, only 40% are substrates for enzyme products containing xylanase. The multiple activities in a top Multi-Carbohydrase option address 100% of the different NSP complexes and work together to ensure these indigestible compounds are broken down - this complete coverage is what allows for significant improvements in daily gain and FCR.”
In this way, Multi-Carbohydrase technology can deliver higher nutritional extraction from a range of animal feeds, including corn, soybean meal, wheat, barley, oats, canola meal, flax, peas and distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS).
Performance advantages have been borne out in swine and poultry trials, such as those carried out in association with theUniversity of Manitoba, which found Multi-Carbohydrase to be particularly effective with young animals.
Swine trial data results showed an 11% improvement in average daily gain and a 15% improvement in FCR for newly weaned pigs for feeds supplemented with Multi-Carbohydrase versus feeds without enzymes. In poultry trials,a 2.7% improvement in body weight gain and a 3.2% improvement in FCR were observed in birds given Multi-Carbohydrase.
The leading Multi-Carbohydrase options allow for flexible dosing, however the most common commercial format is based on a dose of 250ppm. Data tools are available to help farmers choose the best Bio-Catalyst technology options to maximize dietary utilization based on the specific diets they are feeding.
Phytase innovations include options that offer industry leading nutritional absorption and enhancement, conferring dramatic growth and productivity advantages.
Protease advancements include solutions that offer unique functionality to optimize breakdown, digestion and nutrition capture of protein sources. This allows producers to get a much higher feed conversion ratio and average daily gain from the same amount of protein or conversely to meet nutritional requirements without needing to use as much protein. This enzyme technology also greatly expands the options for obtaining protein for different types of feedstuffs.
Boosting new Yeast Bioactives
Bio-Catalyst solutions also play an essential role in new Yeast Bioactives technology, which stems from the discovery of a novel approach for enzymatically treating yeast cell wall fractions to dramatically transform consistency, reliability and value as a feed ingredient.
Yeast Bioactives technology has shown properties and activities that help to mitigate a number of potential threats that can undermine feed quality, animal performance, animal health and food safety, notes Patterson. It has also shown a high level of prebiotic activity that further supports an optimal environment for animal wellness, performance and related productivity.
“The best options among all of these examples all have high Bio-Catalyst activity – they are highly active as natural catalysts driving the biological processes that result in positive change,” says Patterson. “The bottom line for farmers is the toolbox is now expanded offering a number of excellent fits for every farm, across species, feedstuffs and production regions.”
Moving agriculture forward
With Bio-Catalyst technology and other areas of technological innovation, farmers have never been better positioned to produce high-quality products in the most efficient manner possible, he observes. “Producers can improve processes and profitability at the same time.”
