Friday Feed Update: What did you miss?

Cargill and InnovaFeed partner on fish feed and insect protein

Cargill and InnovaFeed have entered into a strategic partnership to bring sustainable and innovative feed options to the animal nutrition industry. Through the partnership, Cargill and InnovaFeed will collaborate to jointly market fish feed which includes insect protein, enabling both partners to support the growth of sustainable aquaculture.

“We recognise that the planet has finite resources,” said Pilar Cruz, president of Cargill’s compound feed business. “We’ve seen a strong acceptance of our products by consumers looking for natural and sustainable products,” said Maye Walraven, head of business development for InnovaFeed. Insect-fed trout has been commercialised in France since June of last year. “This partnership will not only enable our salmon and shrimp customers to differentiate their product lines to meet consumer needs, but we’ll also be responsibly managing resources, enabling both companies to support the growth of sustainable aquaculture and make a positive impact on a global scale,” said Adriano Marcon, president of Cargill’s aqua nutrition business.

Joined forces to market GutCare® probiotic in the US

Evonik has announced it will begin working with Perdue AgriBusiness to market its probiotic GutCare®, which supports a more balanced intestinal microbial population in the gut of poultry species and other monogastric animals. Perdue AgriBusiness sources, merchandises and processes agricultural commodities. It also offers a diverse portfolio of products including grains, oilseeds, soybean meal, blended feed ingredients and top-quality seed oils for food and other uses. The agreement for the US market starts a close technical cooperation between the two companies, and commercial activities are expected to begin immediately.

Royal Agrifirm Group and Land O’Lakes announce China joint venture

2 global agricultural cooperatives, US-based Land O’Lakes, Inc. (Land O’Lakes) and the Netherlands-based Royal Agrifirm Group (Agrifirm), announced that they will be setting up a dairy animal feed joint venture in China. The new company, Agrilakes (安阁雷), will leverage existing market knowledge, insights, technologies and research capability from both Land O’Lakes and Agrifirm to provide world-class service to the growing China-based feed customers and dairy farmers. The new joint venture will initially be based in Agrifirm’s existing manufacturing plant in Tianjin, with plans to build a new dairy premix and specialty plant on the adjacent property.

Vilofoss acquires Belgian company

The DLG Group’s premix and nutrition company Vilofoss continues to conquer new markets. The latest acquisition is Belgian Nutriprof, which is strong in cattle minerals and specialty products for the Benelux countries. Just a couple of weeks ago, Vilofoss, one of the three largest players in the European premix and nutrition market for livestock production, bought CPC, a Spanish mineral company. Vilofoss is now ready for yet another growth market and has bought the majority of the shares in the Belgian cattle minerals company Nutriprof. With the new Belgian factory, Vilofoss has 17 factories in eight countries in Europe and a small stake in a vitamin factory in China. Vilofoss produces 400,000 tons of vitamins and minerals a year and has a turnover of more than 3 billion DKK.

BioMar and Chinese trout farmer Minze Long Yang Xia team up

A cooperation has been agreed between BioMar and Minze Long Yang Xia, the largest trout farmer in China, to supply high performance fish feed with almost half the environmental footprint compared to local Chinese feed. Over the last 2 years, the BioMar BioFarm teams of China and Denmark have been collaborating closely with Long Yang Xia on technical onsite trials that consider the daily conditions of the water and the fish. The ideal recipe solution that was discovered considered the parameters of growth performance and fish welfare while limiting the discharge of nitrogen and phosphorous into the local ecosystem. Long Yang Xia is a green pioneer in China who has also invested in modern aquaculture technologies. It is expected that other farmers in the Chinese market will look to more sustainable feed solutions as the Chinese government implements their new initiative, Green Development of Aquaculture.

Second complex for MetAMINO® production in Singapore

On 18 June 2019, and following the scheduled 2-year construction period, Evonik officially commissioned its second complex for the production of MetAMINO® (DL-methionine) and strategically important precursors in Singapore. “Our methionine complex on Jurong Island, which we commissioned in late 2014 has been a real success story. Now, we want to continue the success story with this second plant,” said Christian Kullmann, chairman of the Executive Board of Evonik, during the opening festivities. Each plant has an annual production capacity of 150,000 metric tons of DL-methionine elevating Evonik’s annual global capacity to approximately 730,000 metric tons. The new complex has been modeled on the successful existing plant and has been constructed right next to it. In total, Evonik has invested more than half a billion euros in the new complex and has created more than 100 additional jobs at the site.

Evonik produces MetAMINO® in world-scale plants in Antwerp (Belgium), Wesseling/Cologne (Germany), Mobile (Alabama, USA), and in Singapore. This global production network ensures the highest supply security for its customers.

Mycosorb A+® to be certified by the Carbon Trust

Continuing its commitment to reduce agriculture’s environmental impact, Alltech has announced the addition of its mycotoxin binder, Mycosorb A+®, to its Carbon Trust-accredited offerings. The Carbon Trust has validated that correct use of Mycosorb A+ is capable of improving livestock and aqua performance by reducing the impact of mycotoxins. Within an average diet, Mycosorb A+ supports efficiency, manifesting in promoting uptake of nutrients, addressing dry matter intake (per unit output) and promotes milk yield (in cattle). The Carbon Trust has validated that in terms of ruminant livestock, it is likely that these changes will lead to a reduction in methane emissions in ruminants against a valid baseline and improvements in animal efficiency and performance in both monogastric livestock and aqua.

Trouw Nutrition introduces IntelliBond M in Europe

Trouw Nutrition, a Nutreco company, is introducing IntelliBond M (Dimanganese chloride trihydroxide) to farmers in Europe. IntelliBond M is manufactured in the USA and distributed globally by Trouw Nutrition. The commercialisation of IntelliBond M in the EU brings the entire IntelliBond portfolio to European livestock producers and expands upon the EU market’s robust response to IntelliBond Z (zinc hydroxychloride) and IntelliBond C (copper hydroxychloride). The exclusive technology makes IntelliBond non-hygroscopic, facilitating easy handling and uniform blending. IntelliBond’s low-dust properties are particularly important in Europe where low-dust formulations are popular as a tool for supporting worker safety. IntelliBond M is the only authorized Manganese source that comes in the form of a granulated product.

Dinnissen expands with new building complex

Dutch company Dinnissen Process Technology continues to grow. The next step in this process is the realisation of an additional, new 60 x 70 metre production complex in Sevenum, the Netherlands. Major investments have been made within this new complex, which will be adjacent to the existing Dinnissen factory. These include 10-tonne overhead cranes, wall console cranes, state-of-the-art laser cutting installations, highly accurate lathes, milling machines and press brakes, a separate stainless steel welding hall and a lot more specialist equipment to meet the future customer requirements. In addition, Dinnissen supplies increasingly complete prefab skids for many international customers. The expansion offers more possibilities in this area. Currently Dinnissen employs approximately 200 specialists in a motivating and inspirational working environment, where all of the machines and complete processes are developed and produced entirely in house. In view of the positive developments, Dinnissen is looking forward to further growth.

Brookside Agra develops nutrient supplement for weak piglets

US company Brookside Agra has developed a fast-acting, nutrient supplement that gives weak, newborn piglets a much-needed energy boost and a chance at survival.

Given right after birth to weak, cold piglets with a birth weight below two pounds, liquid Runt-Rescue™ helps to reduce mortality in large litters, prevents weak piglets from starving and provides small piglets with the energy boost they need to find and secure a teat for suckling. Runt-Rescue contains hyper immunized egg powder which contains egg-based antibodies derived from hens strategically vaccinated with specific antigens over time. This ingredient in Runt-Rescue helps to fend off such intestinal pathogens such as rotavirus, coronavirus, E. coli and Salmonella.