Last week Monday Evonik announced that it was dividing its animal nutrition business into two separate units. One focussing on its amino acid offerings and the other on specialty nutrition, a business stream that will encompass the company’s functional feed additives and digital tools focussing on solutions and specialties for poultry, swine and ruminants.
In today’s Industry Perspective, Vice President and Head of the Specialty Nutrition product line, Dr. Arne Hoppe sits down with Feedinfo to discuss the strategy powering this new unit and how he sees it better servicing the company’s customers and the various needs of livestock farmers, in particular improving sustainable and efficient production.
He is also joined by Dr. Claudia Parys, Director of Global Marketing for Ruminant Solutions, who will go into depth about what this new business strategy means for dairy – Evonik’s main focus for its ruminant portfolio – and the approach the company is employing to help the industry tackle various challenges, like reducing feed cost and emissions and improving the health and welfare of cows.
Finally, Dr. Kiran Doranalli, Director of Global Product Management for Ruminant Solutions rounds out the discussion with a look at Evonik’s latest edition to this newly-minted unit, PhytriCare® IM, the company’s first phytogenic solution which is aimed at addressing chronic inflammation.
[Feedinfo] Last week Evonik announced the split of its animal nutrition business into two operating models. Can you give an overview of your new Specialty Nutrition unit. What can customers expect from this new product line?
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Dr. Arne Hoppe |
[Arne Hoppe] We are transforming the operating model of our Evonik Animal Nutrition business to enhance customer focus, ensure competitiveness and enable further profitable growth. Specialty Nutrition is one of the two product lines within Animal Nutrition, which will operate separately to the amino acids business and according to a different model, offering systems solutions and specialties for poultry, swine and ruminants. We have recently developed a variety of new products for this area, on our own and through partnerships and technology acquisitions. We have also brought in existing, but very advanced, products and digital solutions that are extremely effective at improving the sustainability of livestock farming. |
This product line has been evolving rapidly, with three products launched in the last three months. Two new solutions were debuted at VIV Asia 2023 in Bangkok. The first is ScreenFloX®, our digital pathogen monitoring service to provide early warning of disease and allow preventive measures to be taken quickly and effectively. The second is Ecobiol® Fizz, a water-soluble probiotic for poultry farming, supporting better flock efficiency and limiting biofilm formation. PhytriCare® IM is the third and most recent product we have launched, in partnership with Dr. Eckel; which is a plant-based premix containing 10% flavonoids.
We have carved out this product line to provide our customers with a collection of our most value-add solutions to support sustainable livestock farming. It is the result of significant investment by Evonik over the last 10 years, totalling billions of euros.
[Feedinfo] Considering the number of products and services that now fall under your Specialty Nutrition line, it has quite a broad focus that encompasses a lot of challenges. Talk to us a bit about the new strategy powering this stream of your animal nutrition business?
[Arne Hoppe] Yes, ‘Specialty Nutrition’ is absolutely a broad concept, and we want to keep it broad in its appeal. This product line’s purpose is designed to help the animal industry produce and meet human protein needs with higher efficiency all-round. For us, the focus is on doing more with less to enhance animal health, reduce ecological footprint, improve meat quality, and ensure food security and profitability.
It is more important than ever to do this in the current context because consumer behaviour is changing drastically. The world is moving towards holistic solutions, and food choices are considered the backbone of a modern and healthy lifestyle. Therefore, for the livestock production industry to flourish, it must continue to evolve with these beliefs. This is why our Specialty Nutrition product line begins with prevention and ends at treatment. It enables animal producers to make better decisions, to select the right products at the right time, and to maximise profit. This is done through both physical products and digital solutions.
[Feedinfo] Let’s zoom a little and look at how this impacts your strategies for monogastrics and ruminants. Are there any changes in how you will go about addressing the unique challenges faced in the farming of these various species?
[Arne Hoppe] Our monogastrics strategy is particularly focused on poultry, especially in the area of gut health, and this encompasses not only single molecule products but system solutions too. And this is because we believe that a combination of different, yet synergistic molecules, that has multiple modes of action is required to effectively tackle gut health challenges and to fill the gap left behind by antibiotic growth promoters.
For ruminants, dairy is our main focus, but we will explore other species within the ruminant segment as well. In addition to our rumen-protected amino acids – which are very much at the core of our ruminant business – we are also expanding our product portfolio and services to provide even more solutions to tackle sustainability issues and improve profitability for ruminant farmers.
[Feedinfo] Now looking specifically at dairy, I was wondering if we could just drill down a little more into your approach for this sector. How does Evonik´s Ruminants Solutions portfolio help to overcome various challenges faced by dairy farmers?
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[Claudia Parys] We specialise in providing holistic solutions to help farmers improve their bottom lines, and this is especially clear from our portfolio of products, services and expert knowledge in the dairy industry. Globally, since 2014, total milk production has grown by approximately 1.8% and milk yield per cow has increased by more than 3%. In contrast, the dairy cow population around the world has remained stable, largely thanks to improved efficiency. However, to meet the increasing demand for milk and milk products from a growing global population, the proportion of high-yielding cows is expected to increase. Through targeted nutrition, we can help farmers reduce both feed cost and nitrogen emissions, all while improving the health and welfare of their cows. Only optimally fed cows supplied with essential nutrients can deliver the highest milk quality, which ultimately determines farm profitability. |
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One important aspect to focus on too here – which has been well established in monogastric species but can also be beneficial in ruminants – is the low protein concept. Low-protein diets, balanced for amino acids that are most limiting in dairy cows and that utilise rumen-protected supplementation, can also help to reduce both operational costs and the carbon footprint.
[Feedinfo] On the subject of rumen-protected amino acid solutions, it has been 30 years since you introduced your rumen-protected methionine solution, Mepron. But, as you know, the dairy industry’s needs have changed dramatically since then, especially on the issue of sustainability. Why should Mepron still be considered a viable solution for tackling sustainability concerns in dairy production?
[Claudia Parys] We are very proud that Mepron® has been a staple part of the dairy industry for almost three decades now, helping dairy farmers to reach their production goals without additional costs. We know that methionine and lysine are the first- and second-limiting amino acids in the dairy cow diet, and there is good understanding of the benefits of rumen-protected amino acids in dairy cows, but there is still a high degree of penetration to happen within the industry in terms of amino acid usage.
We believe that we can meet the challenges of environmental sustainability economically, by improving protein efficiency and reducing crude protein levels in feed. The science shows that low-protein diets, balanced for methionine and lysine with our rumen-protected products like Mepron® and AjiPro-L®, reduce ecological footprint, thus addressing sustainability concerns and supporting customers in the journey to greener production. That’s why Mepron® is just as important today as it was when it launched 30 years ago.
[Feedinfo] How has the issue of sustainable farming transformed your dairy portfolio over the years? And what are the industry trends that are informing Evonik’s dairy strategy of the future?
[Claudia Parys] In today’s context, dairy farmers face a number of challenges, especially concerning sustainability, nutritional efficiency and animal health. Demand for milk and milk products is rising alongside growing pressure on dairy producers to reduce the environmental footprint of production and maintain a high level of animal health and welfare. Remember, dairy farmers have to meet all these demands while maintaining a good level of profitability. How do we help them achieve this?
Improvements in efficiency and feed will help meet the increasing demand for milk, alleviating the pressure to increase the number of cows. In fact, an improvement in production efficiency (i.e., more milk yield per cow) supports sustainability goals by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit volume of milk produced.
As already mentioned, only optimally fed and supplied cows perform at peak milk production and deliver the highest milk quality, and stress for the animals should be avoided. Mepron® and AjiPro-L® enable dairy farmers to improve performance in a more sustainable way when used in a low protein diet.
Our services (AMINONIR®, AMINODat®, AMINOCow® and AMINOLab®) can provide reliable and timely information about the nutritional value of feed ingredients, allowing dairy farmers to precisely formulate their feed to the needs of the animal, maximising results. Meanwhile, K-pron®, our potassium carbonate solution for dairy cows, can be used to manage heat stress, while contributing to dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) and rumen buffering effect.
Arne also introduced our latest product, PhytriCare® IM, which is our first phytogenic and is rich in flavonoids. The flavonoids can help tackle chronic inflammation.
It is our ultimate goal to offer dairy farmers products and services that are well researched and differentiated, and that help them with the specific needs and challenges that they face.
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[Feedinfo] Staying with PhytriCare IM, please talk us through the science powering the product and how it came about. [Kiran Doranalli] PhytriCare® IM is a blend of carefully selected plant extracts that covers a wide range of secondary metabolites, including flavonoids. Research has shown that several flavonoids have an impact on a broad spectrum of inflammatory pathways; modulating, but not suppressing, the inflammatory response. PhytriCare® IM, with its unique composition, was developed in cooperation with Dr. Eckel to cover a broad range of flavonoid subclasses, suitable for sows, laying hens, and dairy cows. The product was developed over several years and has been tested by customers over the last few months, with very positive feedback. |
[Feedinfo] Finally Mr Doranalli, earlier Claudia Parys talked about for AjiPro-L, your protected lysine source, which you’ve recently signed a global distribution agreement with Ajinomoto for. Can you talk us through how this deal come about and what does this mean for your ruminant and dairy customers?
[Kiran Doranalli] Our agreement with Ajinomoto to distribute AjiPro-L® is part of an ongoing endeavour on our part to offer customers holistic solutions for efficient and sustainable milk production in dairy cows. It’s a product that complements Mepron® within our Ruminant Solutions portfolio and has shown the added value it can provide customers when used in combination.
AjiPro-L® is a rumen-protected lysine product that provides an optimal balance between rumen protection and the intestinal delivery of metabolizable lysine. In most common and widely used dairy rations, lysine, along with methionine, is a limiting amino acid in dairy cows. AjiPro-L® can be used to fulfil the lysine requirement of the cow. By delivering only the lysine, it helps to optimise the metabolizable protein, which helps meet the challenges of environmental sustainability and production economics by reducing crude protein levels in the feed.
Published in association with Evonik
