The Illinois-based grain trading and animal nutrition company announced the opening of the new facility last week [December 5]. ADM Animal Nutrition is a division of Archer Daniels Midland Company.
The interest in establishing an animal nutrition technology center was to support existing company capabilities, improve “time to market” and develop additional abilities including aquaculture feed extrusion, feed-enzyme validation and gut microbiota sample preparation, said Ryan Lane, ADM president of animal nutrition, North America.
The center is an investment in the company’s ongoing expansion of its work with livestock, aquaculture and companion animals and the most recent in a series of new facilities.
“Over the last five years, we’ve had the most extensive portfolio transformation in ADM’s history, and you can see this in our animal nutrition business,” he told FeedNavigator. “With our acquisitions of Neovia, Crosswind Petfoods, and Biopolis, we’ve expanded our reach and capabilities in nutrition, health and wellness.”
The new research facility allows ADM to more closely collaborate with customers and introduce new ingredients, he said. It provides “opportunities for us to identify unmet needs to support additional feed additive and ingredient developments,” he added.
Now that the site has opened, the next steps including commissioning laboratories, completing existing projects and introducing customers to new capabilities and ingredients, he said.
Focusing on aquaculture, animal nutrition
The facility was designed to work with a range of nutritional products, ADM reported. The site has a pilot extrusion facility able to generate multiple small batches of test feeds daily to assess ingredient use.
The center includes a feed evaluation laboratory to provide specialized screening and includes simulated digestion capabilities, the company said.
“With the acquisition of Neovia, ADM has a greater presence in livestock premixes and complete feeds with product applications in all production phases,” Lane said regarding why the research center will include a focus on broad animal nutrition. “Depending on species, life phase, and market need, nutritional solutions vary greatly and we developed an additional multipurpose laboratory to address the extensive needs of our businesses.”
The site will also support company work with aquaculture and focus on developing products for the global market, he said. The intention is to work with feed manufacturers focused on shrimp, tilapia, catfish, salmon and marine fish species.
“In new ingredient development for aquaculture, it is important to quantify the nutritional value of the product as well as the ingredient functionality in the feed,” he said. “The extrusion pilot facility will allow ADM to work directly with customers to ensure existing and new ingredients hit feed key performance targets, such as floatability, fat-holding capacities and ingredient replacement.”
Enzyme development
In addition to the work with aquaculture feeds and extruded feeds, the new facility has an enzyme analysis laboratory to aid the generation of novel feed enzymes.
Developing enzymes for use in animal feed has been a “strategic focus” for ADM, and company partnerships and the establishment of a lab at the University of California Davis have supported that interest.
“This product pipeline is exciting for ADM and we expect it will lead to differentiated enzyme offerings in the feed industry,” he added.
“This facility brings our feed enzyme development program full-circle with in-feed application validations, product shelf-life and quality assurance-quality control programs,” Lane said.
