Alltech’s 37+^™ mycotoxin analysis program has run more than 5,200 tests, each searching for over 37 mycotoxins in animal feed. In many cases, these mycotoxins can individually harm the animal when consumed, but many tests showed a combination of these toxins, which can cause harm to not only the animals but the overall performance and profitability of the farm. Of the thousands of tests run, 99.68 percent of samples contained at least one mycotoxin.

You could say that mycotoxins are a consistent opponent. On average, every feed sample contained 7.3 mycotoxins. Mycotoxins have been shown to reduce feed intake, damage gut integrity and cause poor fertility. Each of these issues can be a major cost to producers, so identifying and addressing these hidden challenges is very important.

With the 37+ program, mycotoxins can’t remain hidden for long. Alltech’s Mycotoxin Management program places high value on quality, efficiency, traceability, food safety and the environment. This program is designed to reduce risk and improve safety while ensuring that mycotoxins do not limit livestock performance and profitability.

Learn more about 37+ or Alltech’s solutions for mycotoxins by visiting us at alltech.com or contacting your local Alltech representative.

Hello Folks,
My name is Niall Brennan. I have been recently selected onto the Alltech Dairy Career Development Programme. This is a stage in my life that has taken a lot of hard work and involved making some very serious decisions. Five years ago I made up my mind in the final year of secondary school that I wanted a career in the agriculture sector, having got the interest from the family dairy farm in county Louth. I completed Ag Science outside of school to ensure I would have the science subject I needed to get into my course, Dairy Business. I have to say I loved my time in Dublin; I met some great people and learned a massive amount. In 2012 I had the chance to travel to New Zealand where I worked with 550 and 800 cow herds.

Having talked to Alltech representatives at a career fair in UCD in February I was automatically drawn to the company. I was notified about the Dairy Programme and quickly saw this as a great opportunity for me to get involved in something that I had a genuine excitement for. Luckily I was accepted and began training on Monday the 15th of September.

This week I was introduced to the Alltech team in Dunboyne. I was immediately drawn to the level of professionalism of the company, be it the people or the culture within it. The company gives off a real message that if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing right. People in Alltech also come across as genuine and I feel I could approach anyone here.

So far I am delighted with the programme and the other three members, Joe, April and Han. I will continue to train until mid November when I will be deployed out to Turkey. I will be working as a dairy nutritionist on a farm there. I have heard only positive things about the farm from people who have visited it or knew about it. The farm is home to 14,000 cows with an emphasis on high intakes and utilisation. It is located 15 minutes away from Kusadasi, so I should be able to have some fun at the weekends. So there you have it, that’s my first blog.

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As a young man leaving the Irish education system my goal in life was not yet clear to me. Up to that point I had worked in the family business but I broke away from tradition to join an agricultural course in DKIT who had partnered with Ballyhaise Agricultural College. I soon fell in love with Agriculture and quickly set my goals with what I wanted to achieve during my time at college. Graduating from UCD was a very proud day for both myself and my family, it was sad saying goodbye to all the friends I had made but it was made easier knowing I was selected to join the Alltech family on the Dairy Career Development Programme.

I gathered on-farm skills from managing a 200 cow beef herd in the Loire valley in France and travelled to South Dakota in the summer of 2013 to broaden my knowledge of the dairy industry on a bigger scale. This experience was priceless and will stand to me for the challenges that lie ahead. From the moment I applied for the programme with Alltech I had no doubt what I wanted to do and as the saying goes, "what’s for you won’t pass you." Getting to join Alltech is a dream come true and I know for sure tough and busy times lie ahead.

My first week consisted of meeting all the Alltech family of workers in Dunboyne, the Irish headquarters. From the outset people were introducing themselves and everyone was extremely supportive. I know for sure that even if I’m in the countryside of Vietnam there will be someone with a listening ear just a phone call away. We had various different speakers in this week and I can see already that the level of training we are receiving is second to none.

There is a lot of information to take on board in a short space of time but nobody said the real world was going to be easy. I know with my fellow graduates, Niall, April and Han and all the Alltech team we will get through it together and I’m sure we will have a lot of fun along the way. So until next week it’s over and out from the Alltech DCDP crew.

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We are very excited to welcome the first ever members of our new Alltech Dairy Career Development Programme - Niall Brennan and Joseph Butler from Co. Louth, Ireland, April Higgins from Co. Mayo, Ireland and Han Longfei from Henan Province, China.

Each member will be based in Alltech European Headquarters, Dunboyne, Ireland for the next ten weeks before taking their on-farm positions in November as part of the 40 week programme. Members will be based on farms in Turkey, Vietnam, US and China.

Here is a brief bio on each of our new team members:

Niall Brennan is from county Louth, Ireland. His passion for the dairy industry came at a young age while growing up on the family farm. Brennan recently graduated from University College Dublin with an honours degree in Agricultural Science, where he specialized in Dairy Business. In 2012, Niall received a scholarship to travel to New Zealand where he spent six months working on a dairy farm in Canterbury. He will be working in Turkey.

Joseph Butler grew up in a small village in county Monaghan, Ireland. He attended Ballyhaise Agricultural College and University College Dublin where he earned an honours degree in Animal and Crop Production. Butler has a strong beef farming background, as he hails from a progressive suckler family farm. He has also previously managed a large beef farm in Loire valley, France and a large dairy farm in South Dakota, USA in 2013. Additionally he has worked with the local feed mill in Monaghan giving his additional expertise in the area of animal nutrition. He will be working in Vietnam.

April Higgins is from county Mayo, in the west of Ireland and has been very involved in the Irish agricultural industry from a young age through showing and breeding cattle. Higgins recently graduated from University College Dublin with an honours degree in Agricultural Science where she specialised in Animal Science. As part of her degree, Higgins completed a two month work experience on a large dairy farm in South Dakota, USA. She also spent four months reporting for Ireland’s leading agricultural publication, The Irish Farmer Journal. She will be working in the US.

Han Longfei grew up in Luoyang, Henan province, China. He was awarded a BSc in Animal Science and an MSc in Animal Genetics in Huazhong Agricultural University. Longfei spent the last two years of his MSc travelling around China visiting farms, talking to farmers, speaking with scientists and technicians in China and around the world. He will be working in China.

We’ve just finished a rewarding and exhausting four-year project, our sponsorship of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games^™ 2014 in Normandy. The Games are unlike any other global sporting event and our sponsorship is unlike any other sports sponsorship. Event sponsorship is commonly used as a way to advertise retail products to a mass audience yet Alltech does not produce retail products.  

So, what then are the objectives and benefits of a sporting event sponsorship for a B2B agricultural biotechnology company like Alltech? Catherine Keogh, Alltech's CMO, and Aidan Connolly, Alltech's VP of Corporate Accounts, set out to answer that question in a paper entitled Using Event Sponsorship to Cross the Chasm between Consumer Perceptions of Agriculture and On-farm Realities published in the International Food and Agribusiness Management (IFAMA) Review.   

Keogh and Connolly take you through the how and why of the sponsorship, laying out the objectives, methods and metrics. More importantly, they provide an excellent and succinct overview of a very serious challenge facing farmers and the agriculture industry as a whole. Agriculture finds itself confronted with a wave of negativity even as innovative technologies are allowing farmers to feed more people using fewer resources. It is very important that agriculture meet this discussion head on and work to dispel myths, encourage open conversations and build trust.

To find out how we used our sponsorship of the Alltech Games as a step toward building that trust, read the article at IFAMA.org.

The Games just flew by. It was an incredible experience for all of us at Alltech who traveled to Normandy to take part in the event. We were able to capture a few of the sights and sounds and we would like to share them with you. Here are links to our photos, videos and blog posts. We hope you enjoy them and share some of your memories with us as well via our Facebook page. 

• Games Videos 
• Games Photos 
• Games Blog Posts 
• Summer in Normandy
  A fun Facebook photo album from our team in France 

Most people associate anchovies and sardines with their salads or pizza toppings, but in fact these small and mighty fish are a crucial part of modern aquaculture. Oily fish, such as anchovies and sardines are currently being over-fished. These fish are processed and turned into pellets to feed larger farmed fish, which are being sold to the human health market to make fish oil supplements, functional foods and pharma applications. These practices are not sustainable and without increased aquaculture production, the world will face a seafood shortage of 50 to 80 million tons by 2030¹.

Fish contribute to 16% of the world’s protein, but with land and fresh water in short supply the aquaculture industry is facing a huge crisis on whether or not the industry can grow at a sustainable rate. Researchers have predicted that if fishing rates continue apace, all of the world’s fisheries will collapse by the year 2048².

Global concerns on sustainable fishing practices are due to the growing demand. It takes approximately 1.5 kg of small wild fish, like anchovies, sardines and salmons being caught in the ocean to produce ½ kg of farmed salmon. Alternative sources are required to ensure the sustained production and nutritional quality of farmed fish.

Fish oil derived from fisheries, is the most common source of omega-3 fatty acids. Fish oil is typically extracted from oily cold-water fish such as cod, halibut and tuna. Traditionally, fish oil was used in animal feeds to support the wellness of the animal and ensure a healthier final product for the consumer. However, the fish oil industry has gone through a dramatic transformation due to the limited availability, prices have gone through the roof and quality has gone through the floor. Some farmers are opting to use cheaper alternatives high in omega-6, like vegetable oil and sunflower oil. These alternatives often lack beneficial DHA omega-3, limiting their health benefits and creating the need for sustainable sources needed for optimal animal nutrition.

To avoid overfishing, alternative sources are being examined to provide nutrients formerly supplied by fish and fish oil to feed the growing population. Algae are gaining attention for their application in the feed and food industries as a highly sustainable source of protein and DHA omega-3. Moreover, the omega-3 content in fish originates from their consuming the algae directly or other creatures that feed on algae.

Sustainable aquaculture practices using algae have the potential to minimize the impact from overfishing, while providing a nutritious protein source of DHA omega-3.

This solution comes at a critical time as the growing human population will be too great for the seafood industry to sustain environmental and economic demands. In America alone, 7,000,000 tons of fish are consumed per year and to meet that demand, 91% of the fish were imported, resulting in a $12,000,000,000 trade deficit³.

The ocean can no longer be treated as an unlimited source of protein. The industry must make a change and algae provide a unique opportunity to replace nutrients formerly supplied by fish and fish oil to meet the current consumption trends.

1. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
2. National Geographic
3. FAO, USDA, NOAA

I want to learn more about aquaculture nutrition.