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| Vitamins can replace what is locked up in feed crops |
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ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Livestock producers need not memorize every vitamin their animals require – though doing so certainly wouldn’t hurt – but livestock feed manufacturers should be familiar with these nutrients.
Several hours at the Feed Industry Institute in St. Louis were dedicated to learning more about vitamins and minerals (see related article on minerals). The institute is aimed at educating employees handling and selling animal feed about what is in – and, more importantly – what should be in their products.
More than 80 years ago, science discovered the concept of vitamins, according to Dr. Bart Cousins, manager of Technical Services for BASF animal nutrition. Needed by humans and animals, their bodies cannot usually synthesize vitamins.
Also, just because a vitamin is in a feedstuff, it doesn’t follow that bodies can get at it – wheat contains biotin, which works as an enzyme in digestion requiring the addition of carbon dioxide, but livestock digestion cannot “break” it out of the wheat to use.
“For the most part, natural vitamins, except for choline, should be ignored in feed formulation,” Cousins said, explaining others are also affected by losses in feed storage, processing and crop conditions. “The industry must rely on commercial sources to meet the vitamin requirements of livestock and poultry.”
There are two basic types of vitamins: water-soluble, which are rapidly excreted through urine, and fat-soluble, which can be stored long-term in the body. Water-solubles are variant forms of vitamin B – such as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, choline and folic acid – and vitamin C. Fat-soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K.
Most vitamins come from vegetables and fruits, explained Dr. Mamduh Sifri, director of Poultry and Specialty Marketing for ADM animal nutrition. Vitamin D also permeates the skin from exposure to sunlight, stimulating production in the body of the vitamin, using cholesterol.
“It’s not easy to institute a vitamin D deficiency,” Sifri said, adding it helps maintain teeth and bones.
Vitamin E helps with heart health by acting as an antioxidant, while vitamin K aids as a coagulant to keep a body from hemorrhaging if something starts bleeding.
Nearly everything depends on vitamin A: skin, teeth, eyes, mucus membranes and reproduction are all functions for which it is critical.
Sifri said a body absorbs vitamins through the small intestine. Supplements are usually given with food, since they are designed to remain stable until they reach the stomach; the body breaking down digesting food also breaks them down for use.
Too much of a vitamin can be toxic, just as too little doesn’t do any good. Often, if an animal is showing signs of vitamin overdose, the toxicity can be balanced out by feeding a different nutrient, he said. As a general rule, ruminants have a higher tolerance for this excess than do non-ruminants.
Cousins advised feed manufacturers to turn over their vitamin stocks for premix once a month, if not more frequently.
“Don’t buy a nine-month supply just because vitamin prices are low,” he said, adding prices have largely stayed the same or come down from 10 years ago, and vitamin prices are only about 1-3 percent of feed costs. |
| 7/21/2010 |
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