Nutreco expands calf and beef cattle research

It expands the trial capacity for developing innovations and will enable Nutreco’s animal nutrition business to increase its presence in the global market for ruminant nutrition. This investment is part of Nutreco’s animal nutrition research focus areas which it sees as vital in this perspective: young animal nutrition, health & welfare, feed efficiency and application solutions.

LifeStart

The Calf and Beef Research Centre will also contribute to LifeStart, Nutreco’s new dairy calf nutrition programme that will be launched in October. The development of young calves is crucial for them to reach their full potential in later life.

There is a large unmet demand by dairy farmers in this field. A thorough understanding of the mechanisms behind young animal nutrition allows Nutreco to develop new and innovative feeding programmes. By stepping up in beef cattle research Nutreco can expand its leading position in this segment to the growth geographies of Russia, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Research capacity

Construction is scheduled to start in the second half of this year and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015. It will be located in Boxmeer, the Netherlands.

After completion researchers of the ruminant team will have access to a facility with 160 calf places and 80 beef cattle places. This is in addition to the company’s existing dairy cattle research units in the Netherlands and Canada. The research unit will have the latest equipment to monitor feed intake and animal performance for both individual and group-housed animals. These include automatic feeders and special housing, which will make detailed metabolic studies possible.

Last year Nutreco opened its renewed Swine Research Centre in Boxmeer. In total Nutreco operates 11 animal nutrition and fish feed research centres worldwide with over 250 employees. We have over 60 collaborations with universities and research institutes and invest € 25 million in R&D annually.