Maximizing Animal Performance with TIMAB.

 By Maura Keller.

 TIMAB USA works with dairy producers to help them maximize their herd’s performance, while meeting all of the unique nutritional needs of each animal. And while the animal nutrition space is a complex one, filled with an array of products and methodologies, TIMAB USA has streamlined the supplemental nutrition process with their pHix-up product, which optimizes digestion thanks to a better ruminal environment, while improving overall animal performance.

TIMAB is an innovative company, offering magnesium-based solutions in three fields of application: agricultural, industrial and refractory. The company is a recognized player in Magnesium with 40 years of global experience, which allowed it to develop specific & high-performance solutions. As part of the Group Roullier, TIMAB USA and TIMAB Magnesium, specifically, place research and development at the heart of their approach. They accomplish this at the company’s two fully integrated production sites: Magnesitas Navarras & Magnesium do Brazil, as well as the innovative lab, Centre Mondial de l’Innovation.

pHix-up At Its Core
TIMAB USA strives to use its wealth of expertise to provide innovative solutions with added value in  animal nutrition. As such, the company introduced pHix-up to the animal nutrition market. A unique and innovative solution, pHix-up acts directly on rumen pH to avoid the risk of acidity in the rumen through the neutralization of excess acid.

Beginning in 2015, the TIMAB Magnesium team’s objective was to develop a product that would incorporate adapted kinetic, potency and consistency of responses. And while there are several different buffer solutions in the marketplace, these solutions are either not effective in the long term on the rumen pH or they are simply not powerful enough to act quickly after the feedings.

To establish a solid solution to address these issues, TIMAB Magnesium combined its expertise to screen magnesium sources with the research capacity of Groupe Roullier to generate multiple tests on an in vitro rumen fluid system. As a result of these efforts, TIMAB Magnesium selected specific complementary magnesium oxide sources to guarantee an optimal rumen pH. Together the team formulated pHix-up and, after five years of research, the results speak for themselves.

This unique product features a fast and long-lasting action and a quality control that makes it safe and easy to use.  (Figure 1).

pHix-up is also three times more powerful to prevent the decrease in rumen pH compared to sodium bicarbonate thanks to its neutralizing capacity of 39mEq/g (compared to 12mEq/g for SB). This means that you can use three times less pHix-up compared to sodium bicarbonate, allowing producers to secure their rations and the performance of their dairy cows.

In 2017, TIMAB Magnesium did its first pHix-up in vivo study with Dr Alex Bach at Blanca experimental farm in Spain with interesting results on rumen pH and milk performances (published in Journal of Dairy Science: 101:1-12). Since then, pHix-up was tested several times on farms across the world, improving the rumen environment which leads to better performances and welfare for the animals.
More recently, TIMAB Magnesium worked on two new studies in experimental farms, analyzing new parameters to better understand the actions of the product.

In 2020, Pr Marcos Neves from Lavras University in Brazil looked closer at the milk fatty profile obtained with pHix-up. The innovant solution increased significantly the secretions of unsaturated and oleic fatty acids in milk relative to sodium bicarbonate and tended to increase milk fat concentration relative to SB. M. Neves suggested that lipid digestion was improved with pHix-up, leading to these results.

The improvement in the rumen environment implies a possible change in the microbiome. For this reason, in 2021, Alex Bach worked again with TIMAB Magnesium on a new study to have a look at this parameter. Rumen relative abundance of bacteria reported to be sensitive to low pH was greatest with pHix-up than with SB, emphasizing the higher rumen pH obtained with pHix-up. Also, the abundance of two genera heavily involved in fiber degradation was greatest with pHix-up than SB, which leads to better NDF digestibility for pHix-up.

pHix-up solubility
At its core, the first goal of pHix-up is its impact and action on rumen pH. However, the efficacy of pHix-up is also linked to its high solubility, pHix-up includes 48.5 percent of magnesium content and was tested 16 times in rumen juice conditions for solubility. Here’s what the TIMAB team found: After six hours of fermentation, the average magnesium solubility of pHix-up is 72 percent when other magnesium oxide sources with the same particle size would be around 20 to 30 percent of magnesium solubilized (Figure 2). And as there is more magnesium solubilized in the rumen, the cow has more magnesium accessible for absorption in the blood and then, more magnesium is available for the different organs.

While pHix-up provides the opportunity to replace the standard buffer solutions being used by dairy producers, it can also replace the magnesium sources that are being used as well. This helps the producers’ bottomline. With its effects on rumen pH and its high magnesium solubility, pHix-up is a “must have” in your ration. pHix-up is now used by 500,000 ruminants throughout the world and it continues to grow.