Don’t let your chickens’ development be arrested

The challenge?

Creatine is a vital element in energy metabolism, particularly of muscle cells. More than 90% of the creatine pool is in the muscle tissue of the animal.

In the body, creatine is formed by de novo synthesis through methylation of guanidinoacetic acid, which itself is formed from the amino acids glycine and arginine. However, in fast-growing animals, it is estimated that only around two-thirds of the daily need for creatine is covered by the body’s own synthesis, while the rest must be supplied via addition to feed.

The solution?

Providing the creatine precursor guanidinoacetic acid, GuanAmino is the best supplemented creatine source due to its outstanding stability in feed processing and high bioavailability to the animal.

Adding GuanAmino to feed closes the gap in creatine supply, thereby increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of nutrition and optimising production costs of farm animals.

The benefits?

Scientific research has proven that GuanAmino does the following:

• It improves growth performance through effective nutrient utilisation.
• It improves meat yield.
• It serves as a precursor of creatine.
• It spares dietary energy.
• It spares dietary arginine.
• It improves margin over feed cost.

Using guanidinoacetic acid ‘on top’ of diet

There are 2 approaches to use GuanAmino in animal diets. The first is the supplementation ‘on top’ of the existing diet. To calculate profitability using this method, the producer can get the return on investment via improved FCR, body weight gain and increased breast meat yield.

For the effect of GuanAmino on FCR, scientific trials show an average improvement in FCR of 4.5 to 8.8 points. Evonik’s own customer field trials show an average of 5.3 points improvement.

With the bodyweight/breast meat emphasis, Evonik’s customer feed trials average an improvement of 56g body weight gain and a 15g breast meat yield.

The ‘on top’ approach, using 600 mg/kg feed of guanidinoacetic acid supplement, costing roughly 1.4 cents per bird, can lead to savings on feed per bird of 1 cent and an extra value on weight per bird of 4 cents. This means even using very conservative figures and average key performance indicators, the profit is 3.6 cents per bird which means an ROI of 3.6.

Optimise feed via GuanAmino

The second supplementation approach is to optimise the feed via the nutritional matrix of GuanAmino. Using this approach, the guanidinoacetic acid supplement is included in the diet based on its nutrient value, thereby reducing the amount of other high-cost ingredients (e.g., oils) in the diet. Scientific data proves that GAA supplementation can spare at least 50 kcal/kg of feed (at a dosage level of 600 mg/kg) and an energy sparing value of 83,000 kcal/kg). Typically, oil or other high energy density feeds can be reduced in the diet, leading to an overall feed cost decrease. Independent trial data shows that a sparing potential of up to 100 kcal/kg feed is realistic.

A feed cost simulation based on typical European diets (wheat-corn-SBM) with long-term average prices and GuanAmino at € 6/kg shows a potential feed cost saving of 0.86% per € /tonne (with GuanAmino 50 kcal sparing) and 3.17% (GuanAmino 100 kcal sparing) across the starter, grower and finisher stages. Evonik can consult on the least-cost formulation with GuanAmino, and customers can benefit from its analysis to ensure they use the supplement most favourably in their diets.

Superior characteristics

As GuanAmino is a granulated product, its handling characteristics are superior to the alternative powdered product form. It is virtually dust-free, free-flowing, stable in all feed processing stages and shows no caking tendency. Due to that, the handling in day-to-day usage is easy and safe.

Learn more, click here.