New harvest – new challenges

Many farmers have already started on feeding the crops from the new harvest 2022. As always it is exciting to learn about the content of nutrients and other details about the crops.

One of the recurring topics is: Are my crops contaminated with mycotoxins?

Mycotoxins are one of the natural things in biological growth of plants and is a result of attacks from fungi on plants. The defense mechanism of plants is ongoing for the full growth season. A lot of different factors influence the final level of mycotoxin contamination: Heat, draught, heavy rain etc.

These factors were all present in the summer of 2022. Very high temperatures combined with draught have stressed the plants a lot. In other regions there has been periods of heavy rain. Problems with occurrences of mycotoxins in the crops are therefore expected this year.

A varied content of mycotoxins is stored together with the crops. More can occur during the feeding season in different levels over time and in different crops.

These mycotoxins might cause serious problems in all species of animals – and we see many different symptoms when herds are suffering from mycotoxins.

Using an approved mycotoxin deactivator all the time in the feed is highly recommended to help the energy levels of the animals and secure the desired results. Many farmers already use a mycotoxin deactivator all year around as an insurance and report back on a more stable production.

The recommendation from Vilomix is to use one of the products in our mycotoxin deactivator range called X-Bond.

New in vitro tests document the unique deactivating powers of X-Bond

In the X-Bond series enzymes transform mycotoxins into non-toxic metabolites. In vitro tests were made to test the deactivation powers of X-Bond Premium towards DON and FUM. DON and FUM can be particularly severe for sows at high levels. DON is also the most common mycotoxin found in feed analyzes.