18 January 2021 - On Monday last week, Cargill Animal Nutrition opened its new USD 50 million premix animal nutrition facility in Lewisburg, Ohio.
The 220,000 square-foot “Lewisburg West” plant produces non-medicated feed and supports Cargill and Provimi branded animal nutrition premixes and products, along with additives and specialty and custom blends. It is estimated that Lewisburg West’s four segregated production lines have the capacity to produce up to 154,000 tonnes each year.
During a virtual event for producers, customers, and media, Feedinfo spoke to Adriano Marcon, President of Cargill Animal Nutrition, and Mark Lueking, Vice President; Regional Managing Director (North America), Cargill Animal Nutrition & Health.
They confirmed that the project was conceived several years ago and integrates technologies that the company developed over the years, born from Cargill’s engineering experiences at its other animal nutrition plants around the world.
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“This project is the culmination of several years of thoughtful work, reimagining our facilities from the ground up. The expanded capacity and advanced technology the plant gives us means we can help more customers have confidence in the safety and quality of the premix they use for their animals,” said Marcon. Delays The opening itself, however, has been a long time coming. Cargill broke ground on the Lewisburg plant in November 2018 and not in late-2017 as initially expected. Projected for 2019, the completion of the plant was pushed back that year after site engineers ran into a few unforeseen obstacles such as the wet summer and a harsh winter in Ohio that caused a variety of delays both in working days and arrivals of shipments. And in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic created further delays. “We wanted to prioritise safety and not speed. In 2020, due to COVID-19 it was necessary for us to implement protocols around the safety of our employees, contractors and community before resuming work on the Lewisburg project. We weren’t too concerned about the delays; it was more important to focus on the food safety and precision metrics we were aiming for. It was important to get it right,” commented Marcon. |
Adriano Marcon
Mark Lueking |
And from an operational standpoint, Cargill revised upwards the designed annual production capacity at the facility from 86,000 tonnes originally announced in 2017 to 154,000 tonnes today. According to Marcon, Cargill took the time to expand the scope of the project, adding in the process extra capabilities to address young animal nutrition needs and meet pet food premix demand.
Asked how local officials as well as customers perceived the delays, Lueking stated that no concerns were expressed, and that Cargill continued to receive strong support from Lewisburg and Ohio state officials.
But according to Cargill, the wait was worthwhile.
Thanks to its 154,000 tonne capacity, Lewisburg West will account for a significant share of the US antibiotic-free premix market, including growth with existing customers beyond the US marketplace.
“We like to think that Lewisburg will be the animal nutrition capital of America. Americans eating animal protein will on average each week be consuming chicken, eggs, a steak or some milk which will have been fortified by premix from Lewisburg,” Marcon commented.
Technology and Trends
Described by the firm as a “future-ready” facility, Lewisburg West is deploying advanced technology which Cargill claims has not been previously used in animal agriculture or pet food production, allowing the use of less resources to produce feed, while ensuring the highest quality, accuracy, and traceability of products.
The facility includes a 160-ft steel premix tower, along with automation and controls that provide precise measurements and traceability that reduce cross contamination risks. Flexible hoppers are used for micro-ingredient dosing, providing gram per tonne-level precision in production, and stainless-steel design makes cleaning the systems easier and more effective. Barcoding also enables multiple checkpoints which confirm weights after each component is added in any batch.
“It started with thinking differently about how to best meet the changing needs of our customers, along with a commitment to invest and innovate for the future. Now, we believe the new facility sets a new standard for premix production,” said Marcon. “The plant was designed with feed and food safety as a top priority.”
Each of the plants’ four segregated production lines can run a mix from start to finish in approximately one hour, providing increased capacity across Cargill’s network of feed facilities.
Discussing custom blends, speed of conception to manufacture depends on many factors, but Lueking said that Cargill Animal Nutrition is now able to do this faster than before.
“Customers have many different preferences, and we have to be flexible. Every animal species has different requirements, and each species has different life stages. Demands are becoming more and more specific and customers want to differentiate their offerings from those of their competitors,” he said.
Lueking added: “Specialisation of premixes is more prevalent than ever. We know that accuracy and precision feeding are critical to animal performance, and antibiotic-free claims on food continue to be an industry growth engine. When animal protein producers want to become antibiotic-free, they need to be sure to trust their suppliers and have peace of mind.”
Marcon nodded: “Premix production has certainly evolved. It is not a simple activity. In pigs, for instance, premix may represent only 2% of the diet, but at the same time it can constitute about 50% of the nutrients needed.”
“50% of poultry meat in the U.S. today is now antibiotic-free, and part of that is No Antibiotics Ever. Antibiotic-free is not as widespread in pork production but the demand is certainly growing there too. As a non-medicated facility, Lewisburg West allows for more support to livestock and poultry operations raising animals without the use of antibiotics and opens new opportunities for the company within the pet food market which has high standards of compliance. We like to think of our new Lewisburg plant advancing that trend as well as advancing the food safety standards of the U.S. consumer,” Marcon went on to say.
Manufacturing Footprint Efficiencies
In a June 2020 interview with Feedinfo, Marcon discussed some of the operational developments and safety focused adjustments in the Cargill Animal Nutrition plant network, especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time reference was made to some infrastructure efficiencies in the network being identified. Marcon mentioned that with newer plants being larger and more modern, this reduces the need for smaller, outdated assets, which eventually can be closed.
With Lewisburg West now open, we repeated the question.
Lueking firstly stressed: “At this time we have nothing on the docket in terms of closing any plants.”
And Marcon added that “Lewisburg East” will continue to run and specialise in medicated premixes.
Citing large and recent investments that added extra capacities such as the November 2019 opening of a USD 34 million expansion of the animal nutrition facility in Temple, Texas, and the April 2018 opening of the USD 20 million Owosso, Michigan feed facility, Marcon said: “We continue to upgrade our assets in the U.S., and we are continuously looking at our manufacturing footprint”.
