Business Update – Large takeover; award season
Every week, Pig Progress looks back on the previous week’s business news, conveniently capturing and summarising the most important business updates in the pig industry. Here are this week’s highlights.
Alltech to acquire Masterfeeds
Alltech and Masterfeeds have entered into a share purchase, under which Alltech will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Masterfeeds, from Ag Processing Inc (AGP). This will provide Alltech complete ownership of Masterfeeds LP, an animal nutrition company in Canada.
Masterfeeds strengthens Alltech’s presence in Canada by creating one of the country’s largest animal nutrition offerings. Alltech, Masterfeeds and EMF Nutrition, another Alltech-owned Canadian company, employ about 700 Canadians, operating 25 feed manufacturing and premix facilities, 9 retail locations and 7 distribution centres in a business spanning the entire country. Masterfeeds will continue to be headquartered in London, ON, Canada.
Nedap client wins prestigious Spanish prize
Spanish clients using Nedap Electronic Sow Feeding (ESF) equipment found themselves awarded with gold and diamond awards at the Porc d’Or show in Lorca, Spain. At this event, with over 600 professionals present, prices were given to farms presenting remarkable results. Three prizes went to Granja Sant Martí in Pinsos Grau – among which the most prestigious Diamond Award, for the best performing farm.
The farm also won a Porc d’Or for the number of weaned piglets per sow in its category (1,001-2,000 sows): 35.82 per sow. In addition, the farm also won a Porc d’Or for the number of weaned piglets per sow on all its farms. Another award went to Granja Vereda de San Marcos (Utiel, Valencia), a farm having 2 times 1,500 sows, and also using Nedap ESF.
Farmex scoops national pig award
More award-winning news, as Reading based pig-farm equipment control company, Farmex, has scooped the ‘Member of the Year’ award, part of the United Kingdom’s National Pig Awards. The award, part of the National Pig Awards, was presented to Hugh Crabtree, the company’s managing director, at a special ceremony in London, by National Pig Association chairman, Richard Lister.
The judges praised the company’s help in improving pig producers’ efficiency through the use of electronic monitoring and also Hugh’s personal on-going support for the industry, having been an ‘absolute stalwart’ of the British pig industry campaigns, particularly during times of crisis.
Antje Eckel agricultural entrepreneur of 2015
And we’re not done – in Germany, Antje Eckel, owner of animal nutrition company Dr Eckel, was awarded the title ‘Agricultural Entrepreneur of the Year’. The prize is awarded by the German agricultural newspaper Agrarzeitung on November 8, 2015.
The jury honoured her for her creativity, entrepreneurial skills and her vision and commitment to agriculture. “A strong sense of future issues and the will to make the company grow healthily are among the cornerstones of Antje Eckel’s success. She is considered by experts to be a ‘pioneer of innovative feed additives’, said Dr Anton Einberger, managing director Trouw Nutrition Germany.
Topigs Norsvin launches new Welfare Index
Breeding company Topigs Norsvin has introduced the Animal Welfare Index (TWI) for the terminal sire line Top Pi. This index makes it possible to produce more robust and healthier finisher pigs. The TWI was first introduced in Germany and is based on meat and carcass inspection data from over 90,000 individual pigs slaughtered by Westfleisch.
By connecting pedigree information to the individual pig’s slaughter data, the genetics behind health and welfare related traits have been identified. This leads to the possibility for breeding values for traits as bursitis, pneumonia, pleuritis and pericarditis. These are then combined into the TWI index. The heritability of these traits varies from 6-19% and so they can easily be selected and bred for. It is also demonstrated that pigs with lower incidences of mentioned remarks have a higher profitability for the farmer.
China agriculture leaders focus on growth
Over 100 Chinese agricultural industry leaders gathered recently in Beijing, China to attend the Alltech China Rebelation Day. Patrick Yu, president of Cofco, China’s largest food processing manufacturer and trader, gave an outlook of the food and feed industry in China. Rob Koepp, director of the Economist Corporate Network, shared an analysis of China’s economy. He said China is the world’s second largest economy, generating $901 billion in GDP. Malcolm Nerva, founder and managing director, Genowledge Corporation, talked about building a high performance team.
Amongst the speakers were also a range of company representatives, including Dr Mark Lyons, Aidan Connolly, Dr Neil Xue and Dr Pearse Lyons. In addition, 4 industry leaders took to the stage to discuss opportunities and challenges in Chinese food production.
Produmix: Trials show homogeneity
Research and trials conducted by Spanish piglet nutrition company Produmix, leading specialist in piglet nutrition, have proved the suitability of their base mixes and nutritional solutions to achieve a better uniformity in every litter.
In a press release, the company explained that its R&D department has been doing research for over 3 years, together with the field tests carried out in both the company’s experimental farms as well as other commercial several farms. According to the press release, outcomes confirm that the use of the company’s basemixes and its nutritional programmes, allow pork producers to obtain an optimal growth of larger piglets, as well as an improvement of growth in runts. In addition, using these products would also significantly reduce the weight variation and achieves an improved homogeneity during the transitional phase.
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