“Optimum Vitamin Nutrition (OVN^TM) is about feeding animals the right amounts of high-quality vitamins produced with the lowest environmental footprint, appropriate to their life stage and growing conditions.  OVN is a sustainable way to achieve the optimum health and performance that you expect in your animals to produce better quality products with less waste for more sustainable farming.”—dsm-firmenich, 2022 Guidelines.

What is the process for creating new OVN guidelines?  First, an expert panel is convened, consisting of dsm-firmenich and university influencers, which reviews scientific literature, industry practices and current recommendations and especially changes.  For example, in the last several years, genetics experts in the poultry and swine segments have issued specific vitamin recommendations based on their own R-&-D and industry experiences. These discussions form the basis for a new set of recommendations, targeted for at least the next 5-10 years. Where applicable (ex. the new NASEM 2021 Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle, 8^th Rev.), expert university guidelines are used as a starting point.

Since 1958, the OVN team has published and revised vitamin supplementation guidelines 10 times, based on scientific advances in nutrition, genetics, industry practices and objectives.  Guidelines cover all animal species, including broilers, layers, turkeys, ducks and exotic poultry, swine, dairy, beef, equine, sheep and goats, fish and shrimp, dogs and cats, rabbits, mink, and foxes.

What’s changed since the 2016 Guidelines were published?  First, production efficiency (amount of product produced per unit of feed intake) has improved in virtually every segment, which results in the need for higher micronutrient supplementation levels in feed to support a more productive animal.  For example, Figure 1 below shows the improvement in milk produced per cow in the US in the last 10 years; approximately a 1% increase per year.  That means for a given amount of feed, today’s higher-producing cows require more nutrition, including vitamins.