Friday Feed Update: What did you miss?

Bayer sells animal health business unit to Elanco

US-based Elanco Animal Health has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Bayer’s animal health business unit. The transaction is valued at US$7.6 billion consisting of US$5.3 billion in cash, subject to customary purchase price adjustments, and US$2.3 billion in Elanco stock. The divestment is expected to be concluded in mid-2020.

“I have tremendous respect for the Bayer Animal Health team and their shared passion for improving the health and well-being of animals,” said Jeffrey N. Simmons, president and chief executive officer of Elanco. “Combining Elanco’s strong relationship with veterinarians and Bayer’s leadership in retail and e-commerce will ultimately benefit all our customers. We look forward to joining our complementary portfolios and capabilities to build a fully focused animal health company, providing a sustained flow of innovation for farmers, veterinarians and pet owners.”

Bayer’s animal health business enjoyed sales of US$1.8 billion in 2018. It develops and markets products and solutions to prevent and treat diseases in companion and farm animals.

Brookside Agra Introduces All-Natural GP Pro+™

Brookside Agra is now offering all-natural GP Pro+, a high-quality acidified nutritional protein supplement research-proven to improve pig and sow feeding performance.

GP Pro+ contains key nutrients including digestible sources of peptides, amino acids and trace minerals, such as 79% crude protein, 70% soluble protein, 12% lysine and 87.5% TDN.

Using a preparatory stabilisation and acidification process, GP Pro+ is unique in its quality as a feed ingredient and is highly stable with moisture under 5% and a pH around 3.

In a recent study, naturally-raised weanling pigs whose diets contained GP Pro+ ate more feed and gained more weight compared to the control group in field trials, which lasted 49-51 days.

Animal control made easy with Smart.Light

To render animal control easy and efficient, animal house out¬fitter WEDA Dammann & Westerkamp has developed a new solution with the Smart.Light. With the help of this innovation, the status of feed intake of the individual animals or pens is indicated directly at each valve in the house.

The Smart.Light eases and speeds up animal control in the compartment. Due to the LED lamp, which is clearly visible from a distance and displays different colours, animals with a deviating feeding behaviour can be identified immediately. Daily animal control is therefore optimised and animals that have fallen ill can be treated quickly.

The functional principle is simple and universally comprehensible: The Smart.Light consists of an LED lamp that displays messages in the house directly by the animal or in the pen. If the pigs have consumed their feed quantity according to the feed curve, the lamp remains off. If only 80% of the typical feed quantity is consumed, the Smart.Light turns yellow. If the feed quantity consumed is below 80% of the feed curve, the Smart.Light turns red. The house staff can then act immediately.

Cargill to open Innovation Lab at University of Illinois

The Research Park at the University of Illinois will soon be home to the newest Cargill Innovation Lab. Students focused on solving challenges across the global food and agriculture systems will now have a new space to test their work.

Led by Cargill’s digital labs team of data scientists, Innovation Lab students and staff will work directly with Cargill business leaders, operations teams and customers to help move digital ideas to test mode.

“Cargill’s commitment to engaging our students in its innovation process will add a new dimension to their educational experiences at Illinois,” said Robert J. Jones, chancellor, University of Illinois at the Urbana-Champaign campus. Meanwhile, the Innovation Lab provides Cargill with a pipeline of talented software engineering and data science students and graduates ready to modernise agricultural supply chains and food systems across the globe.

The Cargill Innovation Lab formally opens its doors later this year.