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Swine Nutrition

Nursery Nutrition

A geometric, multicolored illustration of a pig, featuring various shades of pink, yellow, green, and blue in a faceted, low-poly art style. The pig is sitting and facing slightly to the left.

Start Strong, Finish Stronger.

The path to better finishing performance starts the moment pigs hit the nursery, and they only get one shot. Tactical Start™ delivers ultra-complex, highly digestible diets that drive early intake and protect gut health when it matters most. Because when pigs eat sooner and digest efficiently, they stay healthier, grow faster and finish stronger.

Tactical Start™

Proven Results in the Barn

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Tactical Start is Built Around Three Core Principles

Eat, Digest and Repeat

A piglet surrounded by a circular flow chart with arrows labeled: Smell and Taste, Intake, Digestibility, Gut Health, and Appetite, illustrating a cycle related to animal nutrition or health.

Intake is just the start. Pigs must eat, digest and repeat.

Until pigs start eating, they’re at risk of starvation and falling behind. Tactical Start uses sweet, highly palatable ingredients, precisely balanced with sugars and milk components, to jumpstart intake and keep pigs coming back to the feeder.

Feed for Digestive Capacity, Not Just Weight

Digestive enzyme development

We match diets to enzyme development, not a generic weight chart. Young pigs don’t have the enzyme systems to handle starch and complex proteins right after weaning. That’s why our early diets rely on milk-based ingredients and purified amino acids, nutrients pigs can actually digest. As their gut matures and enzymes like amylase and protease develop, we gradually phase in ingredients like corn and soybean meal to match their digestive capacity without causing setbacks.

Line graph showing enzyme activity over 7 weeks. Lactase (green, dashed) decreases; amylase & protease (blue, dotted) rises then plateaus; lipase (red, solid) increases throughout. Enzyme activity is on the y-axis, age in weeks on the x-axis.

Minimize Digestive Challenges

Visible damage from feeding corn and soybean meal too early.

Simple diets loaded with soybean meal and corn too early can damage gut integrity and trigger scours and disease. Tactical Start avoids these pitfalls with complex formulations that protect the intestinal lining and set pigs up for stronger performance across the nursery and beyond.

Microscopic image of healthy intestinal epithelium stained purple, showing tall, finger-like villi and a dense layer of epithelial cells. Text below reads “Healthy Intestinal Epithelium.”.
Microscopic image of intestinal epithelium showing tissue damage, with irregular structure, cell loss, and areas of red inflammation. The text below reads "Damaged Intestinal Epithelium.

University data shows pigs gaining more than 0.25 lbs./day in the first week post-weaning reach market up to 15 days sooner.

Tactical Start helps pigs beat that benchmark

In 14 Ralco trials, pigs fed Tactical Start during the first 21 days gained an average of 0.41 lbs./day in week, then transitioned to simpler diets and continued strong performance without excess feed cost.

7-Day Trial Averages (14 trials):

  • Feed-to-gain: 1.11
  • Starting weight: 13.8 lbs.
  • Day 7 weight: 16.7 lbs.
  • ADG: 0.41 lbs./day
  • ADFI: 0.46 lbs./day

Overall Nursery Performance (12 trials, 7 weeks):

  • Final weight: 65.7 lbs.
  • ADG: 1.06 lbs./day
  • Feed-to-gain: 1.55

What Our Customers See

Side-by-side trial, same barn, same start weight, Tactical Start made the difference.

Side-by-side photos of piglets: left group appears smaller and more crowded (Competitor Nursery Nutrition Program), right group appears larger and healthier (Tactical Start Nursery Nutrition Program). Both groups are eating in pens.

Producers consistently report:

  • Pigs that want to eat
  • Fewer fall-behind pigs
  • Better early health and vigor
  • More uniform weights at market
  • Fewer culls and lightweight pigs
  • Less stress on employees

Other Swine Products You May Be Interested In

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Let’s Take a Closer Look at Your Nursery Diets

Get a free, confidential review from a Ralco swine nutritionist! We’ll evaluate your current diets and strategy to help you spot missed opportunities. No pressure, just practical insights!