The downrange prospects of showring success are largely framed in the first 60 days of receiving into the show barn.  Identifying the body type, frame, ligament/tendon tie-in and muscle type is key to the first few days of setting feed.  Set the right feed at the right time and more of the pigs you start feeding stay on the team longer.  This is critical to give full opportunity to show deep into the season with each one and that's important in today's show dollars.  

The simplest principle early on is to feed less and fortify more.  High energy feeds combined with high protein typically encourages these speed freak growers to just grow more and potentially outgrow their supporting structure of ligament and tendon.  It's when these overwhelming growth spurts occur that typically results in swollen hocks, bowed legs, rolled hoof, swelling and metabolic stress.  The term slow rolling comes to mind or feed 'em sow feed for awhile.  Good advice that generally refers to limiting energy so as not to over stress the strength and connectivity of ligaments and tendons.  The challenge comes in that these same feeds are less fortified and that's a problem.  One solution is to feed Frameworx from Royal Grand.

Frameworx is a fortification powerhouse capable of raising the plane of nutrition for any showpig feed program.  Frameworx is a multi-layered fortifier that provides macro minerals calcium, phosphorus as well as magnesium.  Frameworx also offers trace minerals zinc, copper, manganese and cobalt and also iron.  Let dive into these minerals for a minute.  Calcium and Phosphorus are critical to any feed, not just that they are in proper ratio (+/-1.25:1 ca:p) but also that they are in adequate in total volume of grams per head per day.  When we feed less &/or cut with oats/barley we begin to impede on the total volume and potentially the ca:p ratio if cutting with oats/barley (oats and barley both are inverted ca:p ratio grains).  Frameworx balances these show rations by providing a good volume of actual calcium and phosphorus in a correct ratio.  This balance and volume is a must for healthy and strong ligaments and tendons as well as getting the most bone density and growth that your genetics will allow.  Frameworx also provides trace minerals that also add tensile strength to ligaments and tendons as well as their pliability and are uniquely available to also contribute to hoof health, strength.  These macro mineral and trace mineral combinations go the extra mile to strengthen pasterns and protect against soft pastern issues.  Frameworx also offers biotin a known and reliable contributor to hoof development, strength and repair.  But biotin is also the most critical nutritional contributor to healthy hair growth and clearly hairy show pigs are the on trend feature in today's show arena.  Probiotics and enzymes are also a real asset when it comes to feed availability and assimilation and Frameworx offers live probiotics and ezymes as well as a mananoligosaccharides to bring a full gut bug package to the feed bucket.  One of the included enzymes is phytase which is incredibly helpful in digestion of these grains in rations hence maximizing feed efficiencies and that's no small benefit with show feeds commanding a significant premium.  All these vital nutrients are blended into Frameworx in a base of dehydrated peanut butter, not a flavored base but rather real peanut butter so the palatability of this product is next level good and received very well in the feed bucket.  At the end of the day all the fortification in the world is only as good as it is consumed and this highly palatable nutritional powerhouse is readily consumed and quickly gets to work building your best show pig.

 

When it comes to first impressions out of the gate in the livestock show ring, it clearly is a head first entrance.  And, making that break from the gate with a positive first impression can be the difference between finding a pen for the re-rack or missing out on that second look from the judge.  It all starts with a fresh, trim, cleaned up jowl and throat latch area.  While some of that is genetics (berkshire, poland, chester, durocs, spots may be more susceptible) we can also manage that with the feeding program.  

Identifying the potential is the first step and the younger we can identify the higher the success rate of keeping a clean and toned jowl area.  Somewhere in that 50-75# range we will be able to ID the ones with the chub and it's important to differentiate the difference between jowl chub and throat excess skin.  Skin is not adipose tissue necessarily so it's not as influenced by nutrition.  At that age excess skin shouldn't be too concerning as simply growing will often mature and tone that skin.  What we refer to as chub is adipose tissue and can be fed and managed.  

Once we've ID'd potential chubby jowl candidates and if caught early let's focus on feeding in ways that will maintain growth and spread and also set the stage for rib without directly depositing chub.  The term Slow Rolling comes to mind as excess calories have their time and place to lay down rib but extra calories at this early stage aren't helpful in any capacity.  Feed the lower levels of recommended feeding rates for your favorite feeds.  Add in Royal Grand's Frameworx to ensure a high level of fortification which is necessary for proper ligament, tendon, pastern, hoof, hair and skeletal growth.  When considering add ins like barley, oats, pulp etc.  it may be beneficial to feed those as individual feedstuffs at this stage.  Many of the blended fiber type feeds also contain animal fat and that extra calorie from animal fat is hard to keep away from the front end of today's showpig.  

Now the question is should we consider a feed supplement that burns jowl chub and cleans throat latch.  That answer is yes for more than one reason.  Let's unpack the first reason and that is it's simply easier to get out in front of jowl chub and control it and burn it when they are young.  It's more effective and it costs less money when you use a reliable jowl burner like Kleen Kut at this early stage.  Typically at the lighter weights and younger ages we can feed one scoop of Kleen Kut each feeding with really good results.  And, typically we can feed it for a stretch and then come off of it for a stretch and then feed Kleen Kut again if we need to burn a little jowl at a later stage, but it should be easier having set the stage.  And we eluded to the second reason and that is it is simply cheaper to feed Kleen Kut at this earlier age and weight.  Feed it for a stretch early and it will take much less over the course of the show season to keep them fresh and clean up front.  

Now if you've just been introduced to Kleen Kut at a later stage in the feeding window that's no problem as Kleen Kut is a stand alone product that can burn jowl chub without adding in additional supplements to accomplish the task.  If your pig is pretty chubby you may consider starting with two scoops each feeding to move the needle fast as you approach your target show.  Kleen Kut is very effective at burning jowl chub yet we must also appreciate that we are burning adipose tissue so it takes a minute.  Supplements that claim to burn adipose tissue (fat) in just a few days are promising a metabolic experience that does not exist. 

In these later feeding window stages you're almost certainly trying to feed some rib too.  Consider ingredients or products that use coconut fat, pulp, barley, wheat bran, citrus pulp.....just try to avoid animal fats at this stage.  Plasma can enhance overall body fat burn, but just recall that it does not focus solely on jowl chub, it burns fat all over.  Protein displaces fat so plasma, aminos, whey protein isolate, soy isolate protein all will burn fat overall but won't contribute much to rib cover.  There are thermo-nutrients that help enhance the effects of jowl burning and Kleen Kut does contain these nutrients and are key to the success of elite feeding programs.

Kleen Kut is a viable solution early or later in the feeding window to burn jowl chub, enhance the look and elevate your showpig to an elite level look to compete in today's arena.

 

Joint support!  Why do these elite level genetics seem to be so fragile?  Simple, selection is almost exclusively phenotypical and the desired traits typically selected are muscle, frame and ease of fleshing.  It's difficult to evaluate what lies under the hide on these critters, but we certainly can evaluate when we see soundness issues arise.  While this blogger has considered mineral balance in previous posts, we want to tackle supplementing the animal that now has tracking issues.  Frameworx dry flowable supplemented in feed brings in highly valuable macro minerals and trace minerals to fully support ligament and tendon health.  Additionally Moverite joint support liquid is a real asset to any high powered feed program that needs soundness fortified.  We feed one pump of Moverite at each feeding simply to keep consistency in the feeding.  What powers Moverite to lead the pack in the joint soundness market?  Ideal nutrients, derived from the most highly absorbable sources at the optimum levels all locked into an emulsion to provide a consistent delivery from first to last serving.  MSM, Glucosamine, Natural Vitamin E (all natural derived), Hyaluronic Acid, Curcumin and Bioperine all team together to hydrate, rejuvenate and provide anti-inflammatory support to growing and working joints, ligaments/tendons.  The highly valued extract of Turmeric is Curcumin.  While Turmeric is fantastic....it is indeed fantastic simply because it delivers curcumin, but you've got to feed quite a load of turmeric to really receive the benefits that curcumin has to offer.  That is why we added actual curcumin to the Moverite formula.  And, we took it to a new level of performance as we use a curcumin metabolite to deliver an even higher level of potency of this unique anti-inflammatory.  This curcumin combined with the incredible hydrating properties of hyaluronic acid really does set Moverite apart, and yet we nested these powerhouses into a base of MSM, Glucosamines and Vit E.  Those three ingredients could've made their own product, but it just made sense to pile on the good into one formula to support soundness.