Robert Walker, Alltech Crop Science 

Today more than 800 million people face hunger and malnutrition. As the population grows, food production will have to increase by approximately 60 percent by 2050. How do we feed, fuel and support the growing world population? 

Currently 33 percent of world soils are under severe pressure from human activities that degrade and sometimes eliminate essential soil functions. At Crop Science: Growing the Revolution symposium, Robert Walker, general manager of Alltech Crop Science, addressed the importance of soil.

“It takes 2,000 years for 10 centimetres of topsoil to form, and there are only 100 harvests left in UK soils,” said Walker, noting that a recent trial carried out in the UK found that city soils had 33 percent more carbon and 25 percent more nitrogen than their agriculture counterparts. Yet, he said, the agricultural soils produce more food.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2015 the International Year of Soils, and Alltech continues to highlight its importance in the food chain. Soil has a lot more to offer than just food production – soil microbes must be explored.

“We have only identified 2 percent of all microbes in the soil. We need to be looking at the other 98 percent,” added Walker, underscoring that it has been 30 years since the last antibiotic was brought to market. Recently scientists found 25 new antibiotics in the soil so the potential is out there.

“Microbes in soil make the plant more resistant to pathogens. By adding microbes to the soil, it can add a lot of money to your yield. It's a business that is going to double in value,” Walker said.

Crop science has huge growth potential. We need to ask ourselves why big companies like Syngenta, Monsanto and Bayer Crop Science are acquiring interests in or entering the bio market. There is so much more to soil than meets the eye.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Association (FAO), the global volume of food wastage is estimated at 1.6 billion tons, with a global cost of $750 billion annually. “Each day 35 to 40 percent of food that is grown or raised is wasted, and 71 percent of global water consumption is used to irrigate crops,” said Dan Glickman, former U.S. secretary of agriculture.

Today 60 percent of food loss comes from the U.S. and Europe, yet globally more than 800 million people face hunger and malnutrition. As the population grows, food production will have to increase by approximately 60 percent by 2050. Can the reduction of food waste contribute to feeding the world? During the session on Crop Science: Growing the Revolution, Glickman identified four ways to prevent food waste:

• Global adoption of good Samaritan laws – These laws are intended to protect good-faith food donors from civil and criminal liability should the product cause harm to its recipient. In the U.S. 14 billion pounds of food per year is sent to landfills. Meanwhile, nearly 30 million Americans, including 12 million children, are at risk of hunger and malnutrition. The adoption of good Samaritan laws globally would reduce this risk, as well as food waste.
• Research and development – Budgets for agricultural research and development have not increased to meet the scientific demands of the world. Global budgets for agriculture and food security need to increase dramatically for us to increase crop yield and develop new methods of pest resistance.
• The role of technology – We must continue to challenge the basic principles of science. New developments in biotechnology have helped us understand nutrigenomics and genes. This form of technology must be embraced to ensure we get the full potential from our crops and arable land. 
• Agricultural grants and education – Training and education must be supported if we are to continue to feed the world. Young men and women who wish to enter the agricultural industry must be supported and educated to ensure the future of food production can be secured.

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[DUNBOYNE, Ireland] – Global animal health and nutrition company Alltech is delighted to announce the 2015 winner of the Alltech Innovation Competition hosted at its European headquarters, Dunboyne, Co. Meath. University College Dublin (UCD) students, Catherine O’Connell, Rebecca Fitzgerald and Shannon Coco, were awarded the overall prize for their outstanding competition entry – Moo Shoe. The Moo Shoe provides a solution to one of the biggest problems in the dairy cow industry – lameness, an issue that affects one in five cows on Irish dairy farms. A total of six universities battled for the prize fund of €4,000 while runners-up each received a cheque for €1,000.

The Moo Shoe is made from durable, antifungal polyurethane and rubber. The shoe slips securely over hooves, eliminating the need for glue or nails, and it prevents the primary causes of lameness. “When researching and developing our idea, we were amazed to discover that little exists on the market to prevent lameness. The average cost of lameness per cow in Ireland is a staggering €283, whereas the Moo Shoe ensures infection-free and injury-free hooves for a minimal cost per cow,” said Rebecca Fitzgerald.

Facilitated by Dr. Aoife Lyons, director of educational initiatives at Alltech, and Professor Damien McLoughlin, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, the competition celebrates business and entrepreneurship, and challenges the creative minds of university students. Teams from Dublin City University, Dublin Institute of Technology, Trinity College Dublin, National University of Ireland Maynooth, University College Dublin and University of Limerick each presented forward-thinking business plans on their innovative ideas in the areas of agriculture, food, human health and sustainability.

The competition was judged by Dr. James Roche, emeritus professor at UCD, Constantin Gurdgiev, economist and lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, and Ross Hunt, co-founder of Agrilarity, a company dedicated to digitising and automating agricultural processes.  

“These young people are a reflection of the talent and potential that Ireland has to offer,” said Dr. Aoife Lyons. “Alltech is known for working with our customers to identify problems and provide natural solutions. This year’s competition entrants displayed real insight, talent and knowledge. By combining academic expertise with innovation, each group had a potentially viable product to bring to market.”

The concepts presented by the university finalists were as follows:

·         University College Dublin – Moo Shoe - provides a solution to lameness in dairy cows

·         National University Ireland Maynooth – Moodley Manor – manufacturing dairy-free & animal-free foods

·         Dublin City University – The Summit Shaker – stainless steel protein shaker

·         Dublin Institute of Technology – Hear Here Ltd. – assistive technology devices for the deaf and hard of hearing communities

·         Trinity College Dublin – GreenCar - a peer‐to‐peer car sharing company

·         University of Limerick – Integrated digital marketing communications platform for small and medium enterprises  

Alltech continues to work with Irish universities to ensure the development of talented and educated Irish agri-business graduates. Last year’s winner, John Kennedy, from Waterford Institute of Technology, won the overall prize for an android app using GPS technology to guide farmers while spraying and spreading fertiliser. The concept ‘Field Buddy’ is currently in development, and Kennedy is furthering his studies in the area of information technology to develop new apps for the agricultural industry.  

The Alltech Innovation Competition reflects Alltech’s commitment to lifelong education and the inspiration of innovation and entrepreneurship.

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – In a battle of brains amongst seven Kentucky universities in the 2015 Alltech Innovation Competition, it was Kentucky State University and the University of Pikeville who emerged as victors, respectively capturing the undergraduate and graduate first place designations. Each team won $10,000, the amount with which Dr. Pearse Lyons founded Alltech, now a $1 billion company operating in 128 countries.

The University of Pikeville’s team of two graduate and two undergraduate students won the graduate competition with Rhizofeed, their herbal extraction company based in Pikeville. Using bloodroot harvested in Eastern Kentucky, Rhizofeed extracts whole rhizome for use in poultry feed to improve gut health. Less expensive and more stable than probiotics, according to the student team, rhizome extract has anti-inflammatory properties and has been linked to improving the immune system, regulating digestion and promoting weight gain. Rhizofeed aims to target poultry producers looking for alternatives to probiotics or antibiotics, a market expected to grow as an increasing number of major food companies, such as McDonald’s, demand antibiotic-free production. Grown, extracted and sold from Kentucky, Rhizofeed will further diversify Eastern Kentucky’s regional economy while improving poultry production globally.

Making their inaugural appearance at the annual Alltech Innovation Competition, Kentucky State University captured first place in the undergraduate competition with an aquaponics venture. Old Kentucky Home Aquatics, focuses on in-pond aquaponic raceway systems, inspired by the regional potential for farmed catfish and vegetables as well as a drive to support small-scale farming. The business will construct raceways in established ponds, educate farmers and develop a processing route to build regional agriculture. The raceway systems will provide for easier harvesting, higher stocking densities, better water quality and waste collection while controlling overfeeding. Floating rafts enable the incorporation of aquaponics, such as the growth of Bibb lettuce and spinach, using fish waste as a nutrient source.

The winning teams’ competitors included Bellarmine University, Brescia University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and Western Kentucky University. With seven universities going head-to-head, Dr. Karl Dawson, chief scientific officer at Alltech, noted the challenge this year’s judges had in naming winners, “The quality of the work this year was several magnitudes better than ever before but what made the winning projects so innovative was the simplicity of the ideas and the quality of the presentations.”

“I have been amazed, totally amazed, over the three years we have now run this competition. The event brings out the best,” said Dr. Pearse Lyons, president and founder of Alltech. “Young people find a way to do it, and both winning projects use products from Kentucky—yet not tobacco—to build two viable Kentucky businesses.”

The Alltech Innovation Competition, now in its third year with annual competitions held in both Kentucky and Ireland, holds value to Alltech, not only in terms of the ideas and possible collaborations brought forward but also in terms of talent identification. “Recognizing the innovators and future leaders in the state is very important to us,” said Dawson.

Also central to the Alltech Innovation Competition’s founding mission is its contribution to the state’s economic engine. “To inspire these young people that you can be innovative is the real value of the Alltech Innovation Competition. We have to look for new solutions and inspiring these young people is integral,” said former Kentucky governor Paul Patton, now the interim president of the University of Pikeville.

Alltech will run a sister competition in Dunboyne, Ireland, this Wednesday. The Alltech Innovation Competition reflects Alltech’s commitment to lifelong education and the inspiration of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Alltech has just released the results of its fourth annual global feed survey. The highly anticipated report provides a glimpse into the animal feed industry and allows us to compare output across countries, regions and species. Compiling the data is no small task. Wherever possible we collect information from local feed associations, but in many areas our global sales team works with individual feed mills to obtain the numbers.

In 2014 we saw more feed mills producing more animal feed than in past years. The estimated worth of the feed industry is now $460 billion with global production of 980 million metric tons. That's a 2 percent increase over 2013. 

A number of factors affected output, including: slow markets, shifting raw feed material costs, fluctuating governance over import/export standards and animal diseases such as PEDv in pigs and bird flu in poultry. However, the top 10 producing countries remained the same: China, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, India, Spain, Russia, Japan, Germany and France. 

To learn more, please download the survey below. You are also welcome to watch a recorded webinar with analysis and interpretation of the results by the feed survey’s director, Aidan Connolly.

Download Survey [+]

Watch Recorded Webinar [+]

Download Presentation Slides [+]

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.