KEENAN mixer wagon donated by Alltech South Dakota for auction raises $32,500   

[BROOKINGS, S.D.] – The Prime Time Gala recently held its fifth annual event in support of Feeding South Dakota, which provides food assistance to hundreds of men, women and children across the state. The South Dakota Cattlemen’s Foundation, through support and donations from the agriculture community, including Alltech and Hubbard Feeds, raised $228,602.  

Alltech South Dakota donated a KEENAN mixer wagon to the fundraising auction, which raised $32,500 and was sold to Mark and Darren Schmidt from Marietta, Minnesota. 

“Alltech is proud to support the Prime Time Gala as the money raised for Feeding South Dakota will go back to the people in our communities who need it most,” said CJ Tanderup, Western U.S. business manager at Alltech. 

The event, hosted by the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Foundation in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, welcomed 1,600 guests. In the past five years, the event has raised over $966,000 for Feeding South Dakota, which has helped purchase 543,624 pounds of beef for those in need across the state.  

Five students attending South Dakota schools who are interested in improving beef production and promotion also received $15,000 in scholarships during the gala. In the past three years, $35,000 in scholarships have been awarded. 

“As chair of the scholarship committee, I’m proud of these students and their passion and dedication to the future of the beef industry,” said Tyler Melroe, beef nutritionist for Hubbard Feeds.  

For more information about the Prime Time Gala, please visit sdprimetimegala.com.  

The following is an edited transcript of Nicole Erwin's interview with Ian Lahiffe, lead of operations at Allflex Livestock Intelligence in Beijing, China. Click below to hear the full interview:

Nicole:         I'm speaking with Ian Lahiffe, lead of operations at Allflex Livestock Intelligence in Beijing, China. Ian was formerly new business general manager for Alltech in China. Ian, thanks for joining us.

Ian:              Thank you very much. Glad to be here.

Nicole:         As wage earnings increase in China, so does the demand for meat. Meanwhile, the U.S. is easing its way back into the market after 14 years of being banned, but analysts predict the transition won't happen overnight. What is your take on the re-entry of U.S. beef into China?

Ian:              It's a very topical issue, and I'm delighted to be here to talk about it. I think the first point is that the growing demand for beef, as you highlighted, and the growing income in China is very clear. Secondly, China needs new suppliers for beef, so it's a very pragmatic approach to reward the U.S. for nearly 15 years of lobbying and education. And in 2017, the market was reopened.

                    Now, the challenge, and why it will take time, is due to the Chinese requirements for U.S. beef in terms of two aspects: one is traceability, and the other is the use of hormones. These are the two issues that the U.S. as an industry needs to address or have a plan for so that they can get full access and take advantage of the huge surge in demand in China.

Nicole:         There are debates that take place here in the U.S. as to what constitutes hormone-free and antibiotic-free. Some would say a weaning period takes away any trace elements of antibiotics or hormones, and that equals hormone-free. Does that mentality cut it abroad?

Ian:              I don't think so. I think the young consumers — and that's the particular age group that we're dealing with — if you ask them about their consumer habits and their preferences, “healthy,” “natural” and “antibiotic-free” are frequently used keywords. Actually, there was a bit of a fuss in China when McDonald's made their announcement that they would move to antibiotic-free in the U.S. The Chinese consumers were like, "Well, what about China? When will you move to antibiotic-free production here?" So, I think it's an issue — not only from a government and regulatory perspective — that in order to get full value from the market, moving toward antibiotic-free in its purest form, if possible, is what the consumer market is really looking for.

Nicole:         Canada is spearheading an acceleration project that aims to track an animal from farm to table. There are similar programs on the ground in the U.S. as well. Is this the type of system needed for new market requirements like China's?

Ian:              I think so. Obviously, a lot of countries have their own national identification systems. Increasingly, we're seeing processing companies want more information as to where the animals come from. Part of it is provenance, part of it is building a brand that consumers trust. If you're making a claim that it's an Angus, or particular claims about organic, well, how can you back up these claims? So, I think part of it is commercial, but part of it is going to be a government requirement in terms of international trade because there are a lot of sensitivities around traceability, particularly in China.

Nicole:         China is only second to the U.S. in global beef imports, from what I've read. What would you say are the differences in preference in beef products in the U.S. and China? And how do producers raise livestock to meet different market demands? Do you have to pick between one or the other?

Ian:              That’s a very good question. I think the first thing is that, obviously in the U.S., Angus is the leading beef breed, and that's partially driven because of Angus' efficiency, but also because of the particular cuts — you get a better steak cut. In China, it's a little bit different. While there are more and more people interested in eating Western steak and Western beef — typical beef consumption — there are actually lots of traditional Chinese dishes like hotpot, where the meat is very thinly cut and you can get value out of all different types of cuts. Also, there's quite a strong market for chilled meat rather than frozen beef. In a lot of Chinese cuisine, they prefer fresh meat.

                    I think the message would be that it's important for producers to understand the consumer experience of eating the beef. Don’t just assume, “Well, because we produce prime Angus beef (it will be successful).” Maybe that's not what the market is willing to pay for, or maybe that’s not where the demand is. So, I think it's good to get an understanding of where the true beef consumption is taking place within the market.

Nicole:         Are there parts of the U.S. that are ahead of the curve in meeting some of these demands and cultural requirements of being hormone-free?

Ian:              Well, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation, only 3 percent of the U.S. beef herd officially meets China's requirements for hormone usage. For the record, about 15 percent of the herd will meet requirements for traceability. So, these are quite low numbers in terms of the total potential growth. But, again, it takes time. Obviously, the market only opened in 2017, and it opened in a political frenzy. It was all done with a lot of goodwill about a new president. There was a “rush job” to get beef into the market, whereas when you get into the true supply chain challenges, I think it will take a lot longer for the producers and the supply chain in the U.S. to get there.

                    I know there are a number of states in the U.S. like Texas, Nebraska, Kansas and Montana that are leading in terms of their engagement with China from a state to government level. I'm sure there's a huge engagement between the U.S. and China and their beef industries to understand the needs of the market. I think the market is also moving so quickly in China that the market of 2003 is very different than 2018. I believe even within a number of years, China's consumption habits will continue to evolve, so it's a constantly moving target.

Nicole:         The United States' main competitor is South America. How much does ag science play a role in our ability to compete with other countries? For example, utilizing natural feed additives and understanding the significance of modified environments for hygiene and bacteria control? Does the U.S. have an advantage here?

Ian:              I think the U.S. certainly has an advantage. Obviously, there's a commoditization. When you look at the volumes that are coming into China — I mean, between Australia and Brazil, they would be somewhere in the region of supplying 350,000 tons of beef, which is almost half of Ireland's production, to put that in context. It's very easy for it to slip to a per-ton price. The initial reaction from Chinese buyers when U.S. beef came on the markets was, "Oh, it's too expensive. We're used to buying big containers from Brazil that are coming in maybe $40,000–$50,000 cheaper per container." So, I think that is a real challenge.

                    It's not only a challenge that the U.S. would face. European exporters to Asia would also be challenged by South America. I think the efficiencies are, as you mentioned, the scale, but also meat quality. I think what the U.S. really has is, not only does it have the science and the excellence, but it has a grading system to back all that up. I think the USDA (label) and prime cuts and all that is well-understood in the Asian markets. That's a sign of quality and reliability.

Nicole:         If U.S. beef is at a cost disadvantage in a price-sensitive market like China's, what are some strategies that U.S. farmers not using hormones can do to increase profit? And the same question for farmers who have not yet moved away from hormone additives: What can they do to increase profit margins?

Ian:              Well, I think it's a very exciting time. The supply chains are changing, and part of what's driving this is an incredible Chinese entrepreneurial spirit. If you think of Alibaba and JD.com, they are e-commerce giants. If you look at what they've done in a comparable sector of seafood, they've taken all of the middlemen and all of the traders out of the supply chain, and now they work directly with producers, engaging in the customer experience, giving feedback and shipping the product so it's the freshest it can be. It's the closest you can get to your customer.

                    I think my advice to any of the ranchers is to try to find a way to connect directly with these e-commerce platforms and build, insofar as possible, your own brand. Maybe your order will come directly from China rather than going through three to four trading companies where margins will be added, but very little value might be created.

                    When you saw the activities in 2017 when the market was first opened, a lot of Chinese entrepreneurs were looking around thinking maybe they'll take stakes in U.S. businesses as part of their commitment to disrupting the supply chain.

Nicole:         So, how difficult is it for ranchers to make those connections?

Ian:              Well, the first thing you can do is get in contact with these e-commerce companies. They all have offices in the U.S. The thing is that they're almost like hunters, so they'll find you. So, make sure you have your own branding. Make sure you have a website. Think about social media — are you on Chinese social media platforms? Are you on Western social media platforms? Is there a story behind your beef? Is it well-understood? Does your story connect with Chinese consumers, Asian consumers? Maybe engage some people that have experience in the region to get some ideas as to how you can connect and then generate demand that way.

Nicole:         The U.S. beef brand is not as familiar as other brands in China because it hasn't been on the shelves, which are already crowded with its competitors. So how do you get Chinese consumers to take notice of it once it is actually on the shelf or in the freezer?

Ian:              I think, generally, the U.S. is seen as a model of quality for products in general. In China, obviously, if you look at the premium offerings in the market, it would mostly be Australia and New Zealand. But, again, you're into the differentiation here — the Australian premium would be a grass-fed Wagyu, whereas American might be a grain-fed Angus.

                    Again, it's about education. It's about using these online platforms. It's about training people on how to cook, because one of the challenges is that you might have excellent beef quality, but if somebody cooks it very badly, people would say, "Whoa, that American beef isn't as good as people say." So, I think it's about following education right through to consumption.

                    I was in Carrefour (retail company) and Walmart in the last few months just looking around, and there's U.S. beef with flags, and the price, obviously, isn't as competitive as the Australian beef, but it is certainly generating customer interest. There’s also the “symbol” of Black Angus — the Chinese consumer seems to think when it's a pure black animal, it's definitely high-quality. Whereas sometimes with the crossbreeds that we see in Europe — we're bringing Chinese beef farmers to Europe and they look at a field of Irish cattle and say, "Oh, how could the beef be good from those when they're all different colors?" Even very simple messaging like this can be used to the U.S.'s advantage.

Nicole:         So, cultural education, marketing and traceability.

Ian:              Yeah, I think traceability. I mean, there are a lot of interesting technologies that I'm seeing in the market. Obviously, Walmart has an interesting relationship with IBM, and they're doing a blockchain project in China. They're looking at beef. Their pilot project was in pork and fruit, but beef is next.

                    I think you can use DNA traceability. It's already being widely used in the U.S. I think it's a matter of understanding if we can get a premium by being more transparent — so rather than just adding extra cost and extra work, ensuring that this is really driving a premium. I think that's part of the business model: By being fully transparent and providing the customer confidence, can you get a few extra cents per kilogram? I think that's a key part of the negotiation skills, and I'm sure the U.S. beef guys are going to be really good at that, too.

Nicole:         Lastly, how far away are we from implementing some of these programs?

Ian:              I don't think very far at all now. I mean, there's obviously a bit of concern due to what we call this impending or ongoing trade war. If you look at some of the commodities, there is a very famous turning around of five shipping containers of sorghum. They were on their way to China when the tariffs were announced. Three of them were diverted to other markets and two were sent back to the U.S. With beef, there's a lot of hesitation as to the extra tariffs that will make the price even higher. There's also a concern that during this potential tension, that if your beef is in port, suddenly there will be an issue and they'll say that the paperwork isn’t right, or “Our software system is down. Please reapply," and suddenly your shelf life is shortened.

                    There's been a lot of concern about these things, but I would say the demand is so strong. China will need another 600,000 tons of beef by 2020, and where do you turn for that beef? Realistically, if you want beef coming from reliable sources, Ireland is a good example and the U.S. Two prime countries that aren't already exporting. So, in that sense, it's now time to take action. By 2020, of that 600,000, can the U.S. supply 200,000 tons or 300,000 tons? The sky is potentially the limit because the Chinese domestic industry is contracting. It's the perfect storm for U.S. beef producers now. It's just a matter of sending the right signals and taking the right actions.

Nicole:         Ian Lahiffe is lead of operations at Allflex Livestock Intelligence in Beijing, China. Thank you.

Ian:              Thank you very much.

Ian Lahiffe spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference. Click below to see presentations from ONE18:

The following is an edited transcript of Tom Martin’s interview with Eddie Daly, business development manager at InTouch. Click the link above to hear the full audio. 

Eddie Daly is the business development manager at InTouch, a live nutritional support service developed by KEENAN to provide real-time feedback on diet performance. He joins us from Dunboyne, Ireland.

Tom:                          First, what is InTouch, and what’s your role with InTouch?

Eddie:                         InTouch, in its simplest form, is a live feedback and support system for predominantly ruminant farmers — dairy farmers or beef farmers. My role as business development manager is growing the business, growing InTouch’s presence in the different regions, especially those new regions that we're going into now with Alltech as our mother company. It’s bringing new technologies to the market and tailoring InTouch’s offering for each region.

Tom:                          When InTouch first tapped into the internet in 2011, which seems like light-years ago, there wasn't much connectivity. There were maybe 12 million connected devices. How does that look now?

Eddie:                         It's changed drastically in the last seven years. Conservative estimates say there are 10 billion connected devices at the moment — some people say there are about 20 billion — so, it's huge. The number of smart devices in our everyday lives has grown astronomically. I think the goal in all of this hasn't changed. It's all about making those devices speak with each other and delivering a coherent message to the end user at the end of the day.

Tom:                          InTouch offers its farm clients real-time performance monitoring and instant feedback. What does that mean?

Eddie:                         I suppose it means, in its simplest form, that we record what is happening on a daily basis on each farm. So, farmers and nutritionists will talk about the prescribed diets of the day that they formulate and try and execute. So, what we're recording is what they actually put into that mixer wagon. So, we’re importing data back from the mixer wagon and we’re combining that with production data to give them different key performance indicators.

Tom:                          And is that information, that data, is it being obtained through sensors that are strategically placed?

Eddie:                         Yes. We’re importing data from the sensors from the mixer wagon and we're also importing different kinds of service sensors. That can be anything from chain tension, so different things that are important to the farmer for both his performance and also for his machine operability.

Tom:                          Farmers are busy people, and yet here is all this incoming data, streams of it. How do you help them interpret and harness it to their advantage?

Eddie:                         You're exactly right. You know, we’re being inundated with data from different sources. It can be very difficult for one farmer or one customer to sit down and make sense of it all. One of the most important elements of InTouch is having a human at the other end of the phone or other end of the computer. We have a trained team of InTouch nutritionists, who will interpret the data that has already been crunched. So, the data has already been interpreted by our algorithms in the InTouch system. That person at the other end of the phone will relay the information to the farmers. So, we’re always trying to make it very manageable for the farmer to make one small decision that might make an improvement on his overall operations.

Tom:                          Is a benefit of this process a reduction, or even elimination, of paperwork?

Eddie:                         Absolutely. That's the goal. We customize our approach depending on how that customer likes to be contacted. We now contact them through the phone — which can be a very brief phone call that lasts 10 seconds, or it can be a long phone call that lasts 20 minutes — or by email. And we're going mobile. We have an InTouch app from which the farmer can receive information and also send information to his mixer wagon. We're always trying to tailor our approach to exactly what the farmer needs and how he best likes to connect with us.

Tom:                          What are some ways that InTouch can turn around this data and help the farmer optimize efficiencies and accuracy in feed mixing?

Eddie:                         Our goal at InTouch is to simplify the process so that we can say that, whether you are operating the mixer wagon yourself or whether you have three different operators, with InTouch you can be guaranteed that it's being operated consistently on any given day.

                                    We’re trying to simplify the process of loading the mixer wagon. Then, at the other end, when we have the performance information, we're trying to give farmers useful management clues as to what he should be doing. We can take different producers from a particular region — take the U.K., for instance — and we can benchmark each producer against other producers in his region. He can see in a snapshot where he lies in that league table, how he is performing, and then that will give him clues as to what he should be doing or what he can do to improve.

Tom:                          We touched on the elimination of paperwork, but what other sorts of conveniences does InTouch bring to the farm?

Tom:                           Now that we’ve gone cloud-based — that was in 2011, as you mentioned — all the farmers’ information is stored securely in the cloud. That means they can access their data from anywhere, at any time. So, they can log on to their own unique producer portal through any device and access their information straight away. With the mobile app, everything is a lot simpler; you can make changes on the go. I was recently speaking to a beef producer who was importing a lot of animals on a daily basis. He was going to different sources, and from his mobile, he could update his rations based on his changing inventory of animals. So, that made his life a lot easier, and he could then spend his time better, as a result.

Tom:                          How does InTouch differ? What sets it apart from other feed management technologies and tools?

Eddie:                         I suppose it’s the alert system. We flag any discrepancies in performance in or around 10 percent. So, if we see inaccuracies of 10 percent, or reduction in performance by 10 percent — or increases in performance by 10 percent — we raise an alert.

                                    The next thing that makes InTouch different from other management tools is that there's a person who is interpreting the data and taking it to the next level. These are trained nutritionists. They can advise on a new formulation of the diet as a result or they can just simply walk through with the farmer the different management things he's doing and make suggestions. In the end, the farmer gets a very condensed bit of information. He's not having to deal with reams of data; he’s able to get to the root of the problem much more quickly.

Tom:                          And can you interface with other software programs and services?

Eddie:                         Absolutely. At the moment, we’re integrating the different herd management tools such as DairyComp and milking equipment such as DelPro. We're speaking with those feed management and herd management tools. From day one, we've always been a very open platform. We'll share our information or our portals with other platforms so we can give the farmer a better value at the end of the day.

Tom:                          There is a lot of interest these days in food chain traceability. How does InTouch facilitate that?

Eddie:                         We're working with a few retailers that are concerned about traceability. They want to guarantee that their end product is from a credible source. So, we're working with them by collecting and recording the feed data so they can then say, “This animal has been fed this diet over a certain amount of days and achieved this performance.” So, they can put a stamp on it and say, “We can verify this beef or this milk” or “This is a truly sustainable product because we know where it’s coming from — we know what it’s been fed and we know the cost of it to the environment.”

Tom:                          Any emerging technologies that you're keeping your eye on for their potential to improve efficiencies and quality for your clientele farms?

Eddie:                         Yes. There are so many smart devices coming on board now. In agriculture, it's definitely a very hot area. We’re certainly looking at incorporating things like cameras. There’s a lot of very smart technology out there monitoring cow behavior through cameras, monitoring feed behavior as well.  I suppose one of the most well-known ones out there is NIR, or “near infrared technology,” which is able to get a snapshot of the quality and the nutritional value of some ingredients. So, we’re very open to building those kind of things into the system and tailoring our approach.

                                    With Alltech coming on board and acquiring InTouch, we definitely see synergies between the two companies. We've always been about precision feeding, and with Alltech, we’re seeing potential to get to precision nutrition. Alltech has a lot of very nice solutions based on minerals and additives that can add to the performance of different producers. If we can pinpoint an area that a producer is lacking in or needs help with, we could see a lot of synergies with Alltech and fitting in different solutions.

Tom:                          Does InTouch employ blockchain technology?

Eddie:                         We're not there yet, but we have the potential to plug into one of those kinds of systems very nicely. I suppose it comes back to that conversation about retailers and an integrated system. Blockchain has very exciting possibilities for farmers. They can use blockchain to add to the value of their product at the end of the day. We're definitely interested in that arena, and we’re in talks with different partners.

Tom:                          With all this data pouring into InTouch from thousands of farm clients, do trends emerge? What are you seeing?

Eddie:                         Yes. We can break it down by markets — by country or by regions within the country. Anecdotally, you could say there is definitely a tendency for the larger farms to have the ability to make savings and become more efficient just purely through scale. But, I think one thing that we’ve seen across the last decade is that good management is key to any profitable business. Those farmers who are clued into their data and are aware of their bottom line are the farmers who are going to grow and be more profitable as a result. So, it’s very much down to the individual farmer. I wouldn’t say there's any formula to a successful agricultural enterprise, but a very clued-in, good manager goes a long way to being a successful business.

Tom:                          So, Eddie, based on the information that InTouch is gathering, do you have any advice for producers?

Eddie:                         That’s a tough one. I suppose I would always recommend casting a critical eye over your business, not to have to accept criticism or anything like that, but to definitely embrace new technologies. Farmers are the original inventors. They have come up with the best innovations in agriculture themselves. So, I'm sure there are listeners to your podcast who have thoughts on innovations that they just want to get out there. And I would just encourage them to do so because I think agriculture and ag-tech are in a golden age.

Tom:                          Thank you for joining us, Eddie.

Eddie:                         Thanks, Tom. Good to talk to you.

In a recent webinar, Dr. Shelby Roberts, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition, used her knowledge of ruminant health and immunology to take a closer look at calf gut health and the importance of nutrition during the first weeks of the calf’s life. Here are a few points to keep in mind in the midst of spring calving.

1. The importance of colostrum for the calf’s immune system

Colostrum is the mother’s first milk and the calf’s first source of immunity and nutrients. Antibodies from colostrum protect calves until their immune systems are fully functional. However, the first couple weeks after birth can be a period of elevated risk as the maternal antibodies disappear and the calf’s immunity is maturing, as shown in the diagram.

2. The balancing act between pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria

Good bacteria (e.g., lactobacilli, bifidobacteria) are constantly fighting to keep the pathogenic bacteria (e.g., E. coli, Salmonella) in check, but the immune system is also fighting the pathogenic bacteria. The immune system and the good bacteria work together to keep the cow healthy and to suppress the pathogenic bacteria. When antibiotics are used, this clears out the pathogenic bacteria AND the good bacteria. While recolonizing the gut, the cow is at risk for pathogenic bacteria recolonizing at a quicker rate than the good bacteria, leaving the immune system as the last and only line of defense when antibiotics are removed.

3. The new research behind Bio-Mos® is here

Since the 1980s, Alltech has been conducting studies on its signature product, Bio-Mos. The calf research on Bio-Mos has shown the following results:

• Maintenance of gastrointestinal health
• Alteration of intestinal microbial populations
• Stimulation of immune activity
• Stimulation of the natural defenses of the animal 

When it comes to receiving diets, Bio-Mos has also been tested. In a study conducted in a commercial feedlot in Southern Alberta in Canada, 902 mixed-breed, newly weaned beef cattle were split into two groups, one fed a control and one supplemented with Bio-Mos. Cattle fed Bio-Mos showed improved average daily gain and maintained a healthy immune response. 

Have a question or comment?

Below is a transcript of Tom Martin’s interview with Dr. Karl Dawson, vice president and chief scientific officer at Alltech and co-director of the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition.

Click below to hear the full interview:

                                    Over the last 10 years, scientists at Alltech have been using nutrigenomics to define a variety of new nutritional concepts, manage product development and redefine our view of nutrition. What are the practical applications of the science, and what does it mean for the future of feeding and farming? Tom Martin talked with Dr. Karl Dawson, vice president and chief scientific officer at Alltech.

Tom:                          Let’s begin with the question: What is nutrigenomics?

Karl:                            Nutrigenomics is a system for looking to see how the environment, disease processes and nutrition influence gene expression in an animal. This is taking the basic information that comes in an animal’s genetic makeup, its DNA, and looking to see how that's used. This system allows us to look at numerous genes at a time. And in some of our studies, we would be looking at as many as 25,000 genes at a time. So, we get very precise in our measures of what the environment, or disease — or, in this case, nutrition — does to that animal.

Tom:                          In a recent panel discussion, the webinar “Farming the Future,” you said that nutrigenomics is really going to redefine things, if it hasn't already. Can you elaborate on that?

Karl:                            Yes. We’re going to be looking at nutritional processes in a totally different way. We could also look at things like diseases in a different way. The way we look at nutrition today is based on a narrow group of responses in an animal to a nutritional strategy. Nutrigenomics allows us to do that same kind of thing while looking at many, many different characteristics at once and very rapidly. We can look at changes induced by nutrition within several days instead of waiting for a whole production cycle, which may take anywhere from 42 days to two years.

Tom:                          The name of the field, nutrigenomics, might lead us to believe that it’s limited to exploring how nutrition influences the expression of individual genes, but is it more than that? Does the science also look at disease and environmental factors and how they’re related to nutrition?

Karl:                            Yes. We can look at all of those things and how they're related. “Nutrigenomics” may be a misnomer. In the science world, we call it “transcriptomics,” the idea of looking at these genes and how they're transcribed. But the word “nutrigenomics” has taken off, and it’s really being used to describe just about anything to do with gene expression and factors that influence gene expression.

Tom:                          How is this tool being used to define new feeding strategies?

Karl:                            We can talk about a couple of examples that have developed over the last seven or eight years. One of those is the feeding of young animals. We could take a chick during the first 96 hours after hatching and change its nutrition — by limiting its nutrients, we can change how that animal performs throughout its life or its nutrient requirements throughout its life. We would not have been able to know what that looked like until we had this nutrigenomics tool.

                                 We can show that the gene expression pattern changes in a young bird when you've limited its nutrients, but those changes that take place in that gene are reflected throughout the life of that bird. So, some 24 days later, that bird has a totally different environment that it is working with, and the types of nutrients it requires have changed. It's a totally different animal when it comes to its nutritional requirements.

Tom:                          And does this bring more consistency, more precision to farming?

Karl:                            Yes. It’s going to bring a lot of precision, but it actually gives you a new tool because, in some of those changes we’re seeing, we can decrease the amount of nutrients that animal is requiring. You condition it to a low nutrient value or nutrien. As it grows, it’s expecting that as it goes on through its life. So, for example, its mineral requirement may be decreased by as much as 50 percent. That’s a totally different world for that animal to grow in, and it changes the way we feed that animal to optimize its performance and health.

Tom:                          Let's say there's been a blood draw or a tissue sample taken from the herd or the flock on the farm and brought to the lab to process. How long does it take to get that information back to the farm?

Karl:                            It only takes about 48 hours for us to process a sample, but I don't want to mislead you here. We would not necessarily use this as a diagnostic tool at this point. Today, it's a research tool to show you what changes happen with a new trend. We can use it to screen new nutritional strategies or look at nutrients in the way they're influencing that animal. Eventually, you’re going to see some diagnostic tools coming from that. But today, that probably isn't a very realistic approach for this type of technology.

Tom:                          What are some new commercially useful feeding concepts that have come directly from the use of this molecular tool?

Karl:                            A couple come to mind immediately. One of them has been a rather surprising observation. Often, in the growth of that young animal and growing livestock, we’ll use enzyme supplements. The idea behind using an enzyme supplement is really to change what is happening to the food, how it's digested. Well, one of the surprising things that we found using nutrigenomics is, that is reflected not only in the digestion process, but actually the way the tissue develops in that animal. It changes the receptors for hormones. It changes the way that animal responds physiologically.

                                  That technology has moved forward and is the basis of a couple of different programs that we’re using in beef cattle today — to use enzymes to enhance their growth and performance. In some systems, we found that this can be worth as much as $15 to $20 per head when that animal reaches its final stages of growth or finishes out and goes on for beef production. So, it's a pretty substantial thing. We never would have seen that, or even thought about doing that, if it hadn't been for that nutrigenomic tool that allows us to see those changes in those animals.

Tom:                          I also recall from the webinar, “Farming the Future,” some discussion about the influence of minerals.

Karl:                            Absolutely. Minerals are very important, and that's one of the areas that probably was the hallmark of our nutrigenomics work when we started out. One mineral, specifically, is selenium. Selenium is a nutrient that's very important, but we had no idea of how much or what the ramifications of feeding selenium really were. We found all sorts of hidden traits that are influenced by selenium, all the way from reproduction to the development of brain tissue and the speed at which an animal grows.

                                    One of the most interesting traits is the way that animal generates energy. We found very early on that we could change the function of the mitochondria and the cell. This is the energy-producing organ within that cell. We can increase its efficiency by about 15 to 20 percent. That doesn't sound like a big number, but using a dairy cow for example, that means we can improve its energy efficiency by that same amount, which probably means 2 to 3 liters of milk a day from a cow.

                                 So, this is turning everything upside down. We've changed what we thought we knew about energy metabolism, and it's a totally different world now. We're going to have to go back now and redefine energy metabolism — not based on the energy content of the feed, but based on these minerals and the way they are interacting with that energy source.

Tom:                          Let's say there's a new feed supplement out there on the market and you want to determine its value as quickly as you possibly can. Can nutrigenomics do that?

Karl:                            Absolutely. That’s one of the most exciting examples I have right now. Several years ago, we were asked to come up with an alternative antioxidant to help us address the shortage of vitamin E. We took a nutrigenomics approach to that issue and developed what we thought was a new material to serve as a booster for vitamin E activity. Normally, to evaluate a new antioxidant system like that, we would have done it over a period of several years. It takes time to grow the animals, look to see what the vitamin E is doing, to harvest the meat product and evaluate the way that is responding to oxidative stress.

                                    With a nutrigenomics approach, we were able to do the same types of evaluation, but we can look at gene expression as our measure. In doing so, we could shorten that two-year period to about six weeks. We could actually evaluate what that new ingredient was doing during that very short time.

Tom:                          By applying this tool, you're gaining a lot of information, a lot of knowledge. How does that information influence the way you think about nutrient requirements?

Karl:                            We’ve changed a lot in terms of nutrient requirements. We talked about selenium a minute ago. We used to have a fairly standard idea of what selenium requirements were. Using nutrigenomics, we’ve been able to redefine that, and found that by changing the form of selenium — by putting it in the form of a selenium yeast, for example — we could decrease its requirements by about 50 percent.

                                    We’ve gone on to look at all sorts of different minerals. We know that we can cut back on a lot of the requirements we expect for copper and zinc in the diet. We can cut those by as much as 75 percent. So, we have really started to change that. Instead of asking what a mineral is doing, we look at the form of that mineral as well as how much we're providing it. Again, it’s turning things upside down. The old requirements we had for some of these minerals have really changed.

Tom:                          How is nutrigenomics being used to demonstrate the effects of maternal nutrition on the growth or development and the disease resistance of offspring?

Karl:                            This has been another very exciting area. We did some studies several years ago in pigs — looking to see what would happen to the offspring if we fed a particular carbohydrate or supplement to the sow. We fed the sows a particular carbohydrate called Actigen^®, which is a yeast product. Then, we looked to see what was happening in the piglets. To our surprise, by looking at the gene expression in those piglets, we could easily differentiate the piglets that came from the sow that was fed that material. In fact, we found some very specific genes were being changed. One of the more interesting effects was to the hormones that influenced the ability of that young pig to eat.

                                 We could stimulate intake in those young pigs, not by feeding the young pigs the material, but by feeding the sow. That changes what we think in terms of overall production, because now we have a different animal to work with. They have different gene expression patterns and, in fact, different nutrient requirements. Their resistance to specific diseases has changed.

Tom:                          Does this enhance that consistency that we were talking about earlier across generations?

Karl:                            Yes. That's the idea. We've always thought that consistency occurs, and we have evidence of it in the human population — that you are what your mother eats. Nutrigenomics actually gives us the tools to see what is changing specifically, and to program that into the production process.

Tom:                          We've been talking about animals here as though they were something separate and apart from us, but we're animals as well. Does nutrigenomics influence the way that we think about human nutrition?

Karl:                            Absolutely. We’ve really projected into the human population from what we've done in animals with nutrigenomics. One of the star programs that we have right now is a set of compounds that we've developed to provide a preventative for Alzheimer's disease. This program came directly from our observations of what was happening to gene expression. We realized that the genes that were being expressed — or not being expressed — in Alzheimer’s patients were, in fact, associated with Alzheimer’s and the development of neurological tissue. We were able to track that relationship down, and it’s in clinical studies today.

                                 We've done similar things with some of the yeast products that we’re using. We know that they influence animals. We are now doing the same types of nutrigenomic studies in humans to evaluate how these might be useful to address health issues.

Tom:                          I know from past conversations with you about the science of nutrigenomics that you feel that it holds a lot of promise. What is your take home message about this science?

Karl:                            That this is an extremely powerful tool. It probably gives us more information and more precision for feeding animals — and probably even humans — in the future. It’s going to be a very powerful tool for changing the way we develop our feeding strategies. So, my take home message is, “This thing is going to be something that will influence the way science changes our nutrition.”

This year at the Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show, Alltech sponsored the Mineral Myths Forum, which featured industry representatives and their discussion on the myths behind mineral supplementation. We interviewed two experts who were present at the forum to hear their takeaways from the event.

Mineral quality over quantity

Dr. Vaughn Holder, ruminant research director at Alltech, was interested in the discussion surrounding the levels of minerals in supplements.

“The key point to take away from this forum is that you cannot judge a bag of mineral supplements by its cover,” said Holder. “The fact that a certain bag has higher levels of minerals in it does not mean it should be worth more to your enterprise. It is more about the quality of the components that are inside of the bag, and sometimes you can get away with using much lower levels of quality minerals and actually achieve better results. Remember, sometimes less is more!”

The saying “less is more” is one that we hear often, but not always when it comes to mineral supplementation. Holder emphasizes the fact that some companies focus strictly on quantity of minerals, not necessarily quality. However, in a University of Florida study featuring Alltech’s Bioplex® and Sel-Plex® organic trace minerals, it was found that, even when included at lower rates than their inorganic counterparts, Alltech organic trace minerals still managed to outperform the standard mineral in various areas, including weaning weights, pregnancy rates and even colostrum quality. For a full recap of this study, which was featured in the February issue of Progressive Cattleman magazine, click here.

Mineral antagonists

Another point discussed during the forum was the concept of “mineral antagonists,” a complex-sounding topic that is actually very simple — something that blocks or decreases the absorption rate or metabolic function of a nutrient. We pulled in Mark Robbins, manager of research and technical services at Ridley Block Operations (the makers of CRYSTALYX®), to speak on the issue.

“If you have mineral antagonists, which is where you have situations in which inorganic trace minerals aren’t your best option, the Blueprint® program that we have formulated with Total Replacement Technology™ using organic trace minerals is the way to go,” he said. Research has shown that certain organic trace mineral complexes resemble those found naturally in plant proteins, and this may be the reason that they do not act as antagonists in the ration.

We hope you enjoyed the Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show as much as we did this year, and if you didn’t get a chance to attend, visit our Facebook page for recaps of the event. We hope to see you next year in New Orleans, Louisiana!

Panelists Dr. Vaughn Holder, Dr. Tanya Covey, Mark Robbins and Dr. Matt Hersom at the Alltech Mineral Myths Forum during the 2018 NCBA conference. 

Have a question or comment?

The following is an edited transcript of Tom Martin’s interview with Dr. Kristen Brennan, a research project manager at the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

Click below to listen to the podcast:

                                    Dr. Kristen Brennan is a research project manager at the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition in Nicholasville, Kentucky. In this interview with Tom Martin, Brennan helps us gain a better understanding of her field, nutrigenomics, and its role in sustainable agriculture.

Tom:                            What is the science of nutrigenomics?

Kristen:                        The easiest way to think about nutrigenomics is to break the word down into what it is: “nutri" and “genomics.” What we're aiming to study with nutrigenomics is how nutrition — whether that’s nutrients, forms of nutrients, diets, timing of diets — influences the animal's genome. So, we’re not changing the genome, but influencing the activity of all the genes of that animal’s genome.

Tom:                            Is this an outgrowth of the human genome project, or has it been around a lot longer than that?

Kristen:                        Nutrigenomics is something that's been around forever. From the time the first living organism evolved, it needed nutrients, and those nutrients had influence on the activity of the genes within that animal or cell. The thing that we've done within the last several years is to figure out how to capture that information. It's always been there, we just never had a way of measuring it before. Technologies like genome sequencing are the core foundation for measuring what we're seeing.

Tom:                            Is there a point in time when we realized that nutrients were having an impact on genetic expression?

Kristen:                        I think we’ve known for a long time the importance of nutrition. Centuries and centuries ago, they had an idea that nutrition had a vital role. I don't know if we knew at that point, really, what DNA was and what genes did, but we knew that nutrition could influence the outcome, or a phenotype of an animal — what we're seeing on the outside — and how important it was for good health.

Tom:                            What are the advantages of nutrigenomics in animal studies?

Kristen:                        What I think makes this field so exciting is that, first of all, when we’re dealing with actual sampling, we need a very small sample amount. We can do this with, for instance, a small draw of blood from an animal, or we can take a small biopsy. So, you're not having to euthanize an animal to get tissue.

                                       Even more of an advantage is the amount of information we get. If you think about most genomes, you're talking about thousands of genes. We can measure in a single snapshot how every one of those genes is behaving in response to a diet or nutrition. That is an amazing amount of information.

                                       The other advantage is that it can be really rapid. From the time we get a sample to the time we have an output of data, it can be as short as just a few days in the lab. So, a lot of information, small input and a ton (of data) in a very rapid way.

Tom:                            And are you able to understand why some animals respond differently than others to the very same nutrients?

Kristen:                        Yes. We can use this information to understand that. An example would be healthy versus diseased animals and why nutrition may play a role in how they respond to that illness. More and more, we're starting to understand how differences on a genetic level — different breeds of animals, different production states, things like that — can influence how that animal responds.

Tom:                            Are you able to dig down into it and figure out how nutrients and bioactive components in the food turn on or turn off certain genes?

Kristen:                        Yes. The biggest amount of information we get is just a simple “Do they or do they not turn genes on or off?” So, how does each individual gene activity respond to what you're feeding? As we’re understanding that more and more, we can take a step back and start to understand how they're doing it. They are what we call signaling pathways, which are like, if you set up a row of dominoes and you hit the first one, it sets everything off. It’s the same thing with gene activity. There is a series of molecules that are responsible for regulating or activating other ones. And we can start to decipher how we get from the nutrient that we’re feeding or the diet we're feeding to that endpoint, that last domino in the line.

Tom:                            You can actually target issues that call for some kind of nutritional intervention?

Kristen:                        Yes. And that's obviously one of the most exciting applications of this research. We can use this to define precision nutrition.

                                    One of the challenges with feeding animals, or people in general, is that there are so many environmental factors that influence how an animal responds to diet — things like illness and disease, but also production state, where they're living, what their basal diets are. And so, we can use this technology to get precise information on how we can use nutrition to get the best performance or best health out of that animal.

Tom:                            How do you carry out your research? What goes on in Kristen Brennan’s laboratory?

Kristen:                        It’s magic! This research is done in several steps. It’s really a team effort. The simplest study we have is between two groups of animals, and because so many things could influence gene expression, we want to make sure that those two groups of animals are as identical as possible — same breed, sex, age, production state, and they’re housed in similar environments. The only thing we want different between those two groups is the nutrient we’re interested in.

                                    For instance, if we’re looking at a form of a mineral like selenium, we might have one diet that contains selenium in the form of sodium selenite, and we might have the exact same diet for the other group that has selenium in the form of organic selenium like our Sel-Plex® product. Once we have fed these diets for a given amount of time — it just depends on what we're interested in looking at, what tissues and what nutrients we’re evaluating — then we obtain a sample. It can be as simple as just a very tiny muscle biopsy or a few milliliters of blood. We bring that to the lab, and our laboratory technicians will essentially take that tissue, rupture the cellular membranes and then the nuclear membranes and purify what we call the mRNA, or the transcripts, that are located within the nucleus. We make sure that transcript, or a total RNA, is of super high quality and purity because these assays are so precise. We have high standards for what we can use.

                                       And then we use a commercially available DNA microarray. And what that allows us to do is profile. It has probes for each gene on the animal's genome — for example in the case of a chicken, it has something like 18,000 probes — and that allows us to measure whether the mRNA, or the transcript, for each of those genes has been increased or decreased in response to the nutrient that we fed.

                                       At the end, we get a long spreadsheet that says gene A is increased, gene B unchanged, gene C is decreased.

                                       Then the tough part comes, and that is the data analysis. So, we have all of these data points — you’re talking about thousands — and it is sort of like taking one of those huge puzzles. If you took that box of puzzle pieces and threw it on the ground, you would just have a giant mess, right? When I get that Excel spreadsheet of thousands of rows and columns, that’s what it’s like, essentially. So, we need help to try to piece those puzzle pieces together. If we took one piece out, we might find a corner and that's really important. Just like if I look at that spreadsheet, I might find a gene that's very important, that's very highly increased or decreased. That's a starting point.

                                    What we really need to do to see the big picture is piece those puzzle pieces together. We use what we call bioinformatics — essentially biological statistics — and we use software programs that say, okay, these 100 genes are related, they all have a common biological function, and based on their activity, we predict that biological function to increase or decrease. And that helps us make sense of this information.

                                    So, just like piecing those puzzle pieces together, we get that big picture of what's going on inside an animal that results in what we're seeing on the outside like improved growth, or improved feed efficiency, or improved markers of health.

Tom:                            I'm under the impression that the “Holy Grail” for you would be to find and establish a link between nutritional genomics approaches and applied nutritional research. Can you explain?

Kristen:                        Sure. The ultimate goal, at least in my view, for nutrigenomics is when we do traditional nutrition studies, we take an experimental diet, we feed it to an animal and we look at a phenotypic output. So, what do we see in the whole animal? That might be body weight change, growth rates, feed efficiency — things we can measure in the whole cow or by just looking at the animal. We might look at blood markers, stuff like that. What often is lacking and what we can use nutrigenomics for is, how do we get from point A to point B? How do we get from feeding this diet to the response in the whole animal?

                                       What nutrigenomics gives us is a tool to look at a molecular reason for those changes. We can use nutrigenomics to figure out, are we affecting energy expenditure in the cell? Are we affecting protein translation in the muscle? Things like this can help us explain what we're seeing in that animal instead of just guessing on how something works.

Tom:                            Does this technology, nutrigenomics, reduce our reliance on large-scale animal studies, and is it less invasive than the traditional approach?

Kristen:                        I think so. When we do these studies, we can work with a much smaller number (of animals) per treatment. So, where you might need hundreds of animals to get, say, carcass quality measurements that are significant, we can use six or 10 animals per treatment and still get some of the same information that would explain why we see changes in a large animal. Obviously, they're complementary, but we use this technology to minimize the number of animals we need per treatment.

                                      The other advantage is the obtaining of samples. We don't need a whole kilo of skeletal muscle to do our analysis. We need a tiny amount. So, that really is noninvasive. We can use a simple blood draw that is noninvasive and get this information out of that.

Tom:                            The 21^st century farm is a changed place compared with that of the previous century. A big reason for that is the arrival of a lot of science, technology and big data. If we were to take your science, nutrigenomics, out of the laboratory and into the farm, how would producers use what you've learned?

Kristen:                        I think one of the major ways they can use it is precision nutrition — really formulating diets to meet the actual needs of an animal. And also to understand the form versus function of different nutrients. So, how do we get the best that we can get out of an animal through nutrition? Nutrigenomics gives us that tool to understand how.

Tom:                            To carry that further, beyond helping to determine what will work for an animal's genetic type, is nutrigenomics helping explain why we need to find what works for a given animal?

Kristen:                        Absolutely. And I think it really helps push the idea of precision behind nutrition. For so long, we've overfed nutrients. We haven't really paid attention to form versus function. Nutrigenomics is giving us reasons why form is so important in nutrients, and why precise levels are important. We're taking the guessing game out of animal nutrition.

                                       I think as our population grows and the need for food continues to increase, that really optimizing nutrition based on an animal’s genetic potential is going to be really, really important.

Tom:                            How can this genomic information help us better understand nutrition and nutrient science?

Kristen:                        That’s a great question. This gives us a good understanding of the hidden effects of nutrition — the things that we don't really understand; why we see the changes. Why are we seeing increased energy efficiency with different forms of selenium, for instance? If we just look at our traditional nutrition research, we have no idea. But we use nutrigenomics to say, “Okay, well, the genes that control, say, mitochondrial growth in the skeletal muscle in the animals are turned on by Sel-Plex, and that explains why we see changes in energy expenditure.”

                                       That’s the type of stuff that we can get through traditional animal nutrition research, and nutrigenomics really helps push that information ahead and gives us a better understanding of how nutrients function — things that we can't see by just looking at an animal.

Tom:                            One final question: Among the things that you're working on right now, what really interests you and excites you?

Kristen:                        Everything, as a true scientist! One of the areas that I'm completely fascinated by, and have been for years — and we've done quite a bit of work on it, but it's just something that I start to think about and almost gives me a headache — is the idea of nutritional programming. This is the concept of how early life nutrition — whether that's in a neonatal animal or even in the gestating diet, looking at offspring — how nutrition early in life influences an animal throughout its lifespan.

                                    We've done a lot of work to look at some of the things that happen, like gene expression changes that occur. When we change the diet of an animal in the first 96 hours of life, those patterns and the changes stay with that animal throughout its lifespan, and that completely fascinates me.

                                       I think that's an application that is something that can be applied through all different species of animals, whether that’s livestock or even humans. We think about how you are what you eat, but you're also what your mother ate and what her mother ate and then maybe what her dad ate. It starts to really fascinate you. So, that’s probably one the most exciting areas that we work on.

Tom:                            Dr. Kristen Brennan is a research project manager at the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Thank you for joining us.

Kristen:                        Thank you.

Looking for more information on the science and business of agriculture? Click here. 

Discussion topics to include blockchain technology, beef in China and value-added opportunities  

Register before March 31 at one.alltech.com for savings of $400

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE18), held May 20–22 in Lexington, Kentucky, will bring together producers and industry experts from around the globe to share insights and solutions to today’s most pressing issues within the beef industry.  

ONE18 beef focus sessions include*:

• The Chinese Border is Open for Beef: Now What?

After 14 years, U.S. beef is back on the shelves in China, creating new opportunities in 2018. To succeed, you need to know the key players in the global beef market and hone your strategy — after all, the right message and the right product can make or break a sale.

• Kerchin: Breaking Down the Beef Blockchain

“Blockchain” is a word everybody hears but few understand. Hear from Chinese beef producer Kerchin on how they have broken down blockchain into the building blocks of beef’s future in China. Discover how modern technology can optimize your operation today.

• Blueprint for Beef

Integration has happened for the pork and poultry industries. Why not for beef? Some say our industry is too big and too segregated — but is it? Maybe we just need a few new ideas. Learn how Alltech is redesigning the way cattlemen support animal health throughout all phases of production with Blueprint^®, a beef nutrition program designed to maximize cattle performance and profitability.

• Mineral Myths: Mining the Truth About Organic Trace Minerals

Why are we still using inorganic minerals? Science has spoken and the message is clear: Organic trace minerals mean less inclusion, less waste and better meat quality. What mineral myths prevent you from embracing the future? Uncover the truth and learn how a simple change in your ration can have a big impact on your bottom line.

• The Abscess Obsession

Liver abscesses are a major issue in feedlot cattle at slaughter and represent a significant economic cost to the producer, the packer and, ultimately, to the end consumer. Yet pushing “hotter” cattle rations is key to increased performance. Join us to discover the real science behind this problem and how one scientist is blazing an innovative new trail.

• From Ivy League Student to Feedyard Foodie: Anne’s Journey

Before she became a cattle farmer and one of ag's leading voices, Anne Burkholder was a competitive swimmer and distance runner, and then an Ivy League student. Listen as she shares her incredible journey and offers valuable insight into how modern cattle management can transform the way consumers see, hear and experience food.

• Making Money in Value-Added Programs: How It’s Done

We’ve all heard about the explosion of natural, antibiotic-free and European beef programs, but where does the money really come from? And how can you get a cut of the action? Join us as we get into the nitty-gritty details of value-added programs and how your operation can qualify for them. With just a few key changes, learn how to make the extra profit and score a bigger return.

*Topics subject to change as the schedule evolves.

Now in its 34^th year, Alltech’s conference is attended annually by nearly 4,000 people from over 70 countries. Whether producers are navigating a fundamental change within the beef industry or just need a little inspiration, they’ll learn about real-world opportunities and solutions at ONE18.

Learn more and register at one.alltech.com for a savings of $400 before March 31. Join the conversation with #ONE18 on Twitter, and follow the ONE18 Facebook event page for updates.

There is significant pressure on the beef industry to eliminate or reduce the use of antibiotics. Producers have to balance those efforts with protecting animal welfare. Does the concept of programmed nutrition offer a solution?

Luther:                        We’re talking with Dr. Vaughn Holder, research project manager at Alltech, where he heads global nutritional research in beef species. Also with us is professor Maurice Boland, European research director at Alltech. Dr. Holder, let’s start with you: Give me your thoughts on programmed nutrition. Can you tell us more about this idea?

Vaughn:                      Programmed nutrition is a nutritional concept that came out of our nutrigenomics and epigenetics laboratory — which we set up about 10 or 12 years ago — that basically looks at the interaction between genes and nutrition, and the effect that nutrition has on gene expression. Rather than the traditional concept of changing gene sequences by either breeding or artificial means, programmed nutrition was a program set up to evaluate the effects of nutrition on the expression of those genes without changing the gene sequences.

                                    When you have the power to evaluate the effect of nutrition on every gene in the body simultaneously, it really gives you a powerful tool to fast-track research in the nutrition of both animals and people.

Luther:                        How do we apply this concept to animal nutrition?

Vaughn:                      That’s a very important question to ask because a lot of the technologies that we use in terms of the epigenetics — the gene chip technologies — are somewhat difficult to understand, very difficult to put your hands on. It’s very important that, down the line from that nutritional work that you do, that you put together programs that are fed to animals. So, that’s a very important part of the program.

Luther:                        Does that mean that nurture wins out versus nature in the nurture-versus-nature debate?

Vaughn:                      That is also a very interesting question, and you can’t say one over the other because you need both. Quite frankly, you do need a set of genes to start off with. That’s the nature part. Gene sequence is obviously very important because that’s the blueprint for what can be done within the body. The nurture part tells you how what happens to the animal affects what will actually happen. A very simple example of that is all of us may have the potential to be a super athlete, but unless you work out every day and practice those things, you won’t be an athlete. And (that part) lets you nurture those genes.

Luther:                        You say that “you are what your mother ate.” Tell us what you mean by that.

Vaughn:                      “You are what your mother ate” means that whatever the diet your mother ate when you were in utero will affect, eventually, what you become. A great example of that is, after World War II, the famine that occurred in the Netherlands. The caloric intake of most of those folks was reduced to about 400 to 800 calories (per day), whereas usually you would be eating about 2,500 calories. The women who were pregnant during that time, the offspring of those women ended up being much more likely to develop diabetes, to have metabolic syndrome and to be obese by the time they were in their 50s.

                                    That just showed that, even though the diet of those people wasn’t any different from any of their compatriots, the fact that the mother was nutrient-restricted when they were in utero affected the person that their offspring became. So, we start to understand these really powerful effects of multigenerational nutrition and what the nutrition of even successive previous generations — of your ancestors — might do to what you actually become.

Luther:                        Can we overcome our genetic issues through nutrition?

Vaughn:                      In certain circumstances, yes. I think that there are obviously a lot of severe genetic mutations that cannot be overcome by nutrition, but certainly nutrition can play a very important role in modulating what types of genetics you actually have at the end of the day. If we listen to Ronan Power's talk in the main session as well, you’ll see some pretty profound things that you can do with nutrition in some disease models.

Luther:                        Do we need to rethink the process of taking beef products to the marketplace?

Vaughn:                      It seems clear that we’re not going to have a choice in that matter. The pressure from consumers to do things like remove hormones and antibiotics from beef rations is quite strong right now. There’s also quite a lot of financial incentive for producers to do those things. That being said, we need to find ways to do that without sacrificing the welfare of the animals themselves. This is a very critical part of the story.

                                    Everyone wants us to remove antibiotics from animal rations, but if an animal gets sick, you need to treat that animal with antibiotics. That’s pretty clear. The same as if your child got sick. You would send them for antibiotics. But certainly, with the power of nutrigenomics and being able to select a blueprint for that animal, we can do things with nutrition that upgrade immunity, that improve performance the same way that traditional technologies can but that might not be looked upon so favorably. You can do that with specialized nutrition processes.

Luther:                        Given the rising billions from China, from other areas of Asia, India and Africa growing into a middle class, is programmed nutrition the key to meeting the demand of the future?

Vaughn:                      I heard a statistic the other day: The middle class of China has the same estimated population size as the entire population of the U.S. That’s expected to increase with countries getting richer, like India and probably eventually Africa; there certainly need to be means to increase the production of all protein sources. Beef is an important one because a large part of the lifecycle of the animal consumes feedstuffs that no other agricultural species uses in terms of grasses. Beef will remain an important protein source in these places, and finding ways to produce it without having any of the other negative effects, whether on the environment or people themselves, is very important.

Luther:                        You talk about the importance of blueprinting. What do you mean by that?

Vaughn:                      Blueprinting is a concept that came about when we developed this programmed nutrition concept. I do like the comparison to the blueprint because you can have several different blueprints for different parts of a building and you may not actually end up using all of them. So, the blueprint is the genetics of the animal, and then what you end up expressing — or building — becomes what you see in reality. The blueprint is very important and an expression of that blueprint.

Luther:                        Can you discuss bypassing conventional pharmaceutical and antibiotic practices? How is that accomplished?

Vaughn:                      We have to be quite careful about how we phrase that, and a lot of people will talk about whether we’re talking about replacements for antibiotics or substitutes for antibiotics. That’s not necessarily the case. I think that most of the time, when we are designing programs that allow for the removal of those types of technologies, we’re just promoting another process within the animal. Oftentimes, with antibiotics, it’s about promoting immunity naturally and then reducing the actual need for the use of antibiotics, at the end of the day. So, usually the mechanism by which that happens is completely different. Our technology is focused more on prevention rather than coming around afterward and talking about treatment.

Luther:                        How does Alltech’s EPNIX® program fit within that?

Vaughn:                      I would say Alltech’s EPNIX program is one of the first true mainstream commercial successes that have come out of the programmed nutrition program. It was originally a programmed nutrition program designed from nutrigenomics, but we have since gone through some pretty largescale commercial work as well.

                                    Like I said earlier, it’s important that you can use this stuff out in the field and get results in the animals themselves. And that’s always going to be the natural progression of these types of programs. They start as theoretical programs in the laboratory, and you do need to carry those through all the way to commercial success. That’s what EPNIX has done at the moment.

Luther:                        Professor Boland, there is a claim being advanced by some that cattle have reached maximum efficiency and that carcass weight cannot be increased. What are your thoughts on that?

Maurice:                     My thoughts are that that is certainly not the case. If we look at the work rate — or the metabolic work rate — of a steer, and compare that with a dairy cow, which is, again, part of the cattle population, it’s not nearly as efficient or as productive as the dairy cow. I believe that we can achieve an awful lot more. We need to understand a little bit more about the mechanisms that contribute to that and, as Dr. Vaughn has said, the epigenetic effects are going to be crucial.

                                    We know that you can modify the lifetime performance of an animal, whether in terms of reproduction or in terms of growth, by what happens either very early during the pregnancy period or later on in the last trimester of pregnancy. There’s still a lot that we can do to enhance the overall efficiency of the beef animal. One of the things that we need to be very careful about is to ensure that we have those animals in the optimum health condition.

                                    If we can get the animals into the right health status, then everything else in terms of their productivity will be enhanced and will be more efficient than we have at the moment.

Luther:                        Alltech conducted a two-year experiment at Cactus Feeders, where they investigated this. What were their findings?

Maurice:                     Their findings were very clear that they got healthier animals, that they got more productive animals and that they got better weight gain. They got better carcass weights at the end of that trial period. It’s very clear that the program that Dr. Vaughn has spoken about already, the EPNIX program, can deliver benefits to the producer.

                                    If we can deliver benefits to the producer, then ultimately we’re going to deliver better benefits to the consumer. Hopefully we will be producing a healthier animal, and a healthier animal should then lead to healthier meat. We’re going to be looking at better health benefits for the consumer. I think there is a big effort now in relation to human health to look at how the whole nutritional program can influence that, or be of benefit to the consumer.

Luther:                        Is this experiment continuing, perhaps even being expanded into new directions?

Maurice:                     We will be building on the information. In fact, it was Dr. Holder who set up that program. We will be building on that to expand into more areas in the world. We’re looking for opportunities using natural products to enhance the health and the productivity of the animals. So, obviously, we will be taking that out on a wider scale.

Luther:                        What are the implications for the industry from these studies?

Maurice:                     The implications for the industry are, number one, that it can become more efficient in various parts of the world. The beef industry is under significant financial pressure. If we can make those animals healthier, if we can make those animals more productive, if we can get higher carcass weights, then that’s going to be of benefit to the producer. I think that we can also look at how we can modify the composition of the diet to ensure that we have got a product that is of more health benefit to the consumer. So, what we’re striving for all of the time is to look at what does the consumer want and how can we deliver the product for that consumer.

Luther:                        What do you think the future holds for the industry?

Maurice:                     I think the future for the industry is bright. I think there will be challenges. I think there will be a lot of technology coming into that industry over the next five to 10 years that will revolutionize, in many ways, the production efficiency.

                                    One of the things that we’re always interested in is, not only the composition of the diet, but the structure, the makeup of the diet that will go into both the beef and the dairy industry. With our KEENAN technology, we can enhance the output from those animals, make the utilization of the raw materials, whether it’s fiber or protein or whatever, more efficient and therefore more beneficial for the animal.

                                    Again, I come back all the time to that healthy animal. A healthy animal is a productive animal and will be of tremendous benefit to the consumer.

Luther:                        You just mentioned the use of KEENAN to analyze that. Can you give us some background on that?

Maurice:                     Yes. The KEENAN technology was purchased by Alltech just over a year ago, and we have made, again, a lot of progress during that period. But one of the things that we have is called InTouch. That is a piece of equipment on the side of the mixer wagon. It will not only tell the farmer what ingredients should be mixed, the rate at which they’re being mixed and what goes into the diet, whether it’s of the dairy cow or the beef cow, but more importantly, we will get feedback at our headquarters, such as output on milk production and how the animals are performing. We can then go back and modify, or interact with the farmer, to ensure that he is getting the optimum performance from that system.

Luther:                        Dr. Vaughn Holder, research project manager at Alltech, and professor Maurice Boland, who is the Alltech European research director. Thanks for joining us.

Maurice:                     Thank you.

Dr. Vaughn Holder and professor Maurice Boland spoke at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference (ONE17). To hear more talks from the conference, sign up for the Alltech Idea Lab.

The following is an edited transcript of Luther Andal's interview with Randy Lamontagne, general manager of Cowtown, a retail chain aquired by Alltech. 

Luther:                       Alltech is in the animal feed business, crop business, beverage business, and now, Western wear business. Yes, that’s right: When Alltech acquired Masterfeeds in Canada in 2016, a small retail chain called Cowtown was included. Here to tell us his story, and the Cowtown story, is general manager Randy Lamontagne. Welcome.

Randy:                        Thank you.

Luther:                       Tell us more about Cowtown.

Randy:                         I’d start by saying Cowtown is about a 20,000-square-foot retail store in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. We sell Western wear, tack, saddlery, animal health, feed supplies, and pet food and pet supplies.

Luther:                       That’s quite a bit of diversity there. What is the history?

Randy:                         In about 1994, a fellow named Ray Haykel built a feed mill in Regina and started tacking on an office. He decided as he was building the office — he was in construction ­­­­— to expand it a little bit and put in a pet food retail store. Sometime during construction, which I suppose lasted maybe six months or so, he was down in Texas and ran into a big Western wear store. He called home and said, “You know what? Halt the construction. I want to build up a second level and put a Western wear store on top.” He was an entrepreneur with some big dreams, and he just kept dreaming bigger and building as he went. That’s how it started.

Luther:                       Some people may know Cowtown as a Western wear retailer. But, as you’ve pointed out, it didn’t start that way — it’s more diverse than that. Can you give us an idea of products and how they’re used?

Randy:                         I think the biggest thing that makes us successful is the diversity. We’ve got quite a lot of consumables, and when you consider the pet food and the feed for livestock — I use the term “consumables” because it’s something that people need on a frequent basis — and that helps drive Western wear sales. Consumables help drive sales of all the other products that we carry. You might see a typical Western wear customer once every two to three months, for example. But, if they’re buying pet food or feed from you, you can increase the repetition. You increase the frequency of visits to your store, and maybe you’re seeing that same customer two to three times per month instead of once every two to three months. By having that consumable, you also expose them to your clothing lines and some of your other soft-good lines on a more frequent basis. They’ll buy because they see something they like — not so much because they need it, but because they’re buying based on emotion. They may see something they like or see a staff member wearing something they like.

Luther:                       Tell us a little bit about your background — I know it’s an interesting story ­because of where you came from and how you came to be general manager at Cowtown.

Randy:                         It’s a very long story, and I won’t go through it all, but I grew up on a family farm in southeastern Saskatchewan. We had land spread out over two separate areas. We farmed grain, cattle, pigs, chickens and horses. We’re a mixed farming operation.

                                    In the mid-`70s, we bought a service station in our small town — a community of 600 people — right between our two farm areas. We started operating that service station, and my dad decided that we could get more customer traffic if we built onto it. So, we built a grocery store, and then a sporting goods and guns and ammo store was added. Later, we added farm-ag belts and bearings. We just kept building and expanding with opportunities and needs.

                                    So, I kind of grew up in retail. I also worked oil rigs after high school. At one point, I owned a bar and restaurant and a hotel. I’ve sold cars. I took an engineering class and got my power engineering tickets. Just when I was starting a new job in the power engineering career, I happen to meet Ray Haykel in an auto body shop and —  like the old “The Godfather” quote, “I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse” — he got me to manage his Western wear store. That was about 21 years ago. I started that, and I found my niche. I really found that what I enjoy is just dealing with people. I find this industry to be down-to-earth. I have a lot of fun with the customers, the staff, everybody. It’s been a great experience.

Luther:                       Let’s bring it back to Cowtown. What’s the breakdown of sales look like with all these different groups?

Randy:                         I would say about 35 percent of the business is on the pet side, about 30 percent is on the Western wear side and the rest is animal health and feed.

Luther:                       Do you tailor the products that you offer in each store based on the location and the community that they’re serving?

Randy:                         Absolutely. You have to get to know your customer and get to know the area you’re in. Any time we start a new store in a new area, we do a little homework, a little research. But then you’re constantly changing and you’re constantly evolving. Your customer, to a certain degree, dictates that. I always ask our staff to keep a notepad by the till. If a customer asks you for something — whether you have it or not is immaterial at that time — write it down. Offer the service or advice. If you don’t have the product that they’re looking for, recommend another option, even if it’s for a competitor. Recommend where they can get it, because you’re still helping that customer. You’re still providing them a service, even if it’s just an answer for where they can get it and even if it’s not from you at the time.

                                    As you make those customer notes on a daily basis, you’ll start to see trends. I’ll pull those notepads from the till every once in a while and check through them myself. When I start seeing the same thing written down two to three times, I think, okay, here’s an opportunity — here’s something our customers are asking for.

Luther:                       It sounds like customer service is a big aspect of Cowtown.

Randy:                         Absolutely. You know what? It’s almost cliché: Everybody says, “Customer service. The customer is number one. The customer is first.” But unless you really believe it and are passionate about it, it’s meaningless. You really have to focus on it. I think in these days, with competition being so fierce for everyone’s hard-earned dollar, shopping to me is almost a form of entertainment.

                                    There are two types of shoppers: There’s the guy that needs something. He knows exactly what he needs. He just wants to get in your store, get his product and get out with no hassle. For the other type of customer, shopping becomes a form of entertainment. They’re looking around, and they’re taking their time. That’s not me. I’m not that guy. I’m more the guy who wants to get in and out and get what I want. But you have to provide an experience for customers.

                                    I’ve always said if you can put a smile on somebody’s face, they’ll remember you. If you can accomplish that, then you get that customer talking about you — talking to his friends and neighbors and recommending you.

Luther:                       It’s becoming increasingly difficult for small businesses to compete against big-box stores. You’ve highlighted the customer service and entertainment aspects. Are those key strategies in competing against the big-box stores? How does Cowtown do it?

Randy:                         In a sense, they are key strategies. You use the term “big-box,” and I like to think outside that box — get outside the box and do things that are creative. I use the term “shock and awe.” I like to look for things that create a little shock and awe. There’s an area in the brain called Broca’s area. It’s about the size of your thumbnail, and it’s kind of the gatekeeper to what makes sense to you or what you’re going to pay attention to or listen to.

                                    I use radio ads heavily. That’s 90 percent of my advertising campaign. It’s intrusive if it’s done right. If you have creative ads that are catchy, and there’s something about the ad that makes you pay attention, that’s shocking the Broca. You can use that in radio ads. You can use that in displays. You can use that all kinds of ways.

                                    For example, a customer asked me one day if I could deliver some product to him. He had bought some Hi-Hog gates — panels for a horse penning he was making. I said, “Sure, I can deliver them. Where do you live?”

                                    He said, “Well, if you’re in west Regina and driving down Highway 11, once you see Exit C, turn right and pull into my lane.” I wasn’t sure where Exit C was. He said, “You live out that way, don’t you?” I did — I lived in Regina Beach at that time. He said, “Well, you’re passing Exit C twice a day, then. There’s a sign: Exit C.”

                                    I drove by that sign every day for probably seven or eight years and never realized there was an Exit C. There’s also an Exit A and an Exit B, but I never paid any attention because I really didn’t care. I had no interest in that. But if I’d seen a deer out in the field, I would take notice of that, and I could tell you where I had seen that deer two days later. That’s shocking the Broca. That deer was not supposed to be there. He’s not there every day.

Luther:                       In terms of bringing that home to maybe a Cowtown ad —  I’m not going to ask you to sing a jingle or anything like that — how do you apply that to a Cowtown ad to make it stand out if it’s a radio ad, for instance?

Randy:                         The biggest thing is that our ad campaign is based on a long-term branding campaign, which is how I like to brand or advertise our products. We don’t advertise sale prices so much — the “our manager is going away” sale or the “Boxing Day” sale — all those phony sales, because that becomes background noise on your radio. It’s no different than the commercial on television when, while you’re watching something you’re interested in, a commercial comes on that doesn’t pique your interest. That’s usually the time you’re taking a washroom break or getting up to grab another beverage, and you just don’t pay attention to it. Radio is no different.

                                    A commercial becomes background noise if it’s like everybody else’s. So, in our campaign, we actually use our mascot —  our spokesperson. It’s a cow. It’s a male. I guess it’s a bull, but his name is actually Cow. He has his own personality, and then there’s a “straight-and-narrow man” that has his own personality. If you’re familiar with hockey in Canada, you know the Don Cherry and Ron MacLean duo, who has one guy who is “out there” and another guy who is more on the straight-and-narrow keeping him in check.

                                    We just have fun with their commercials —  we make people laugh and put a smile on their faces, but all the time you’re branding your business. I always use the example of, if I wanted to put a saddle on sale, I could put an ad in the newspaper and say my saddles are $100 off today. The only guy who is going to see that is the guy who’s actually in the market for a saddle that day. So, I can spend $1,000 on a newspaper ad to try and sell a saddle, but if I’m the customer and I’m flipping through the newspaper, I’ll only stop and look at that ad if I’m interested now. If I’m not interested in it today, I flip right over that page.

                                    Radio is planting the seed on a consistent daily basis with their messages. Consistency is very important — you’re planting the seed for the future so that when that rancher wakes up one morning and decides today is the day to get a new saddle, he says, “I have to go to Cowtown.” That seed has been planted so many times that when he decides he needs a saddle, or a pair of boots, or a pair of jeans, whatever products that we sell, his first thought should be: I have to stop at Cowtown.

Luther:                        So, it sounds to me like what you’re saying with your ads is that you’re entertaining rather than informing.

Randy:                         Yes. Actually, both. I guess you’re informing by entertaining, if that makes sense.

Luther:                       What advice would you give to smaller businesses that are more localized retailers and they’re attempting to compete with the big-box stores out there?

Randy:                         To me, passion is the key. If you’re not passionate about the business, get out of it. Don’t fool yourself. You also need a proper business plan. You need to be committed going into it. We have a bit of a unique store. When people are around it, people come and see our store and they get involved a little bit. There’s a draw and a little bit of a love of the industry. We’ll have people actually come to us and say, “Hey, I’d like to do a Cowtown franchise” or “I’d like to start a store.”

                                    Okay. What’s making them think that? They’ll say, “Well, I see you guys selling lots of stuff at these trade shows.” Or, “I come into your store, and it’s busy, and everybody is happy and things are fun, and you have Western wear.” And, “I know people that have horses. We have friends who have horses, and we’d like to start a store.”

                                    Well, that’s not a real business plan, you know? It’s not that easy. You have to live it, breathe it, eat it, sleep it and think it nonstop. You have those people who are passionate about it in that way.

Luther:                       How is Cowtown responding to the move to digital for many retailers out there? Customers are online, shopping from mobile devices, researching through mobile devices. How is Cowtown responding to that, or do you see your customers moving to digital, or are they still preferring that in-store experience that you offer?

Randy:                         I think there’s probably some of both (preference for digital and in-store experiences) going on in the industry, and there’s room for both. I think customers are getting more savvy as far as researching products online, but I feel like they still want the experience of coming into the store and dealing with a person — not a website or someone on the phone. They like the personal contact.

                                    If you’re coming in to buy a saddle or a pair of boots, you want to make sure they fit. Yes, you can order them over the internet, but there’s a good chance that they’re not going fit properly when you get them and then you’re going to send them back. Or, you can come into our store and get personal attention and have someone fit a boot to your foot properly.

                                    So, I think there’s room for both (digital and in-store experiences) in our industry. We’re starting to use Facebook, Twitter and our website for more interaction with the customer. It still boils down to interaction with the customer. Ultimately, we hope that (digital) leads the customer to visit our store because that’s where we can make the biggest impression: one-on-one with the customer.

Luther:                        How many locations is Cowtown in currently?

Randy:                         We’re in seven right now. We’ve been growing in the last few years. We started with the one store in Regina when Masterfeeds bought us in 2001. We weren’t part of the core business for Masterfeeds. They were a 75-year-old feed company at the time of the acquisition. I don’t think it was originally in the plans for Masterfeeds to have a retail store. So, we needed to prove ourselves, and they gave us that opportunity and that chance. When I first came to Cowtown, I remember looking at that business, and to me, it was like seeing opportunity in blinking Vegas lights. That’s how I see this business —  there was so much opportunity to grow this. We got a couple years under our belts with Masterfeeds, and they gave us that chance to grow, and now we’re seven stores and growing. Now with Alltech behind us, I see huge opportunity for growth again.

Luther:                       Well, speaking of growth, what other things do you think the future holds for Cowtown? Is it just growth? Is it different products? Is it digital?

Randy:                         Yeah. I suppose all of the above. I really do see opportunities for everything there.

                                    Just in our own area, we have plans for stores in other markets where we think we can really serve the markets we know well. Overseas, I think there’s huge opportunity for growth in stores. We’ve sold overseas for a number of years now. We’ve sold to people in Australia, for example. And usually, it starts with, again, that personal contact. You get some young guys visiting from Australia on the rodeo circuit. At some point, they get to our store and they buy jeans or boots. When they get home, they start telling people in Australia about us, about our store. Then we get calls and we end up shipping stuff to Australia. Again, it was from that original personal contact — making that first impression with the customer. So, I think there’s opportunity to grow overseas, possibly down here in the States and definitely back home in Canada. The website will, of course, become a bigger tool. Digital media is going to become bigger for us in the future. This is my first kick at a podcast. I’ve heard about them but never knew what one was until today.

Luther:                        Well, welcome to the podcast.

Randy:                         There you go. Yeah!

Luther:                        What’s something that you wish customers knew about Cowtown?

Randy:                         I just hope to instill in every customer who comes in the door that we’re passionate about our business and we’re passionate about our customers. We look to make relationships with our customers — relational sales versus transactional sales. There’s always going be that transactional sale for the customer who comes in and just buys a pair of jeans because they happen to be there. But long-term relationships are what keep customers coming back and what keeps customers coming to your store rather than the next store.

                                    If I look at our pet food category — that’s one that everybody is in. You can buy pet food from a big-box pet store, from a grocery store, service station, Walmart, Costco or Canadian Tire. Everybody is in that market, yet it’s our fastest-growing sector of the business at Cowtown. I firmly believe it’s because we go the extra mile, we pay attention to our customers and we try to get to know our customers to the point of getting to know their dogs or their cats. When that customer walks in and he’s got Sparky on a leash and you acknowledge the dog and give the dog a treat, it’s like picking their kid up and giving them a hug. That pet is part of the family, and it really becomes personal.

Luther:                        Randy Lamontagne is the general manager of Cowtown, a retailer with seven locations in southern Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, Canada.