December 15, 2009
Skretting extruder improves salmon starter feed
Press Release
A twin-screw Clextral extruder at the Skretting plant in Vervins, France, is producing an advanced salmon starter feed with extremely regular pellets, even down to the smallest size.
The Nutra XP micro-pellets, which are available from 0.5 mm to 1.0 mm, exhibit slow sinking speed with high water stability and are available in Norway and the UK.
Roar Sandvik of the Skretting Norway freshwater team introduced the first batches of Nutra XP to Norwegian customers in March this year.
''''Although well into the season, many of our customers were keen to try Nutra XP. They say the slow sinking and high water stability gave the salmon fry have more time to feed on the pellets and the water quality stayed good throughout.
''''Combined with the homogeneity in pellet size, these features led to more uniform growth rates among groups of fish. Now our customers know Nutra XP works well, we expect a strong demand this winter.''''
Mark Weir of Skretting UK took a road show around freshwater customers in Scotland to present the benefits of the Nutra XP ready for its arrival in the UK at the beginning of 2010.
He said, ''''The improved physical characteristics in Nutra XP result from the precisely controlled extrusion technology at Vervins, which is Skretting''s centre of excellence for starter feeds. Heating starches in the raw materials gives the pellets their water stability while the twin extrusion technique provides greater control over physical properties for the slower sinking speed.
''''As a specially designed small-scale extruder, it produces very small pellets with high quality and consistent precision in size. We believe Nutra XP represents an important advance in starter feeds for salmon, offering efficient use of feed resources and good growth with uniform sized fish in each batch.''''