Alltech has recently partnered with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Dairy Extension and Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and Outreach to develop a free, online training program that is available in both English and Spanish. “The Bilingual Training and Education Program to Improve Practices That Affect Milk Quality” has been designed to help dairy farm employees better understand the how’s and why’s of handling and milking cows.

“The dairy industry is dependent on an immigrant labor force that needs to be educated so they can be efficient in their jobs,” said Jorge Delgado, the on-farm dairy specialist responsible for Alltech's Training, Talent Development and Retention Program. “Better education and training also help increase employee retention. Education satisfies an employee’s drive to comprehend and is critical for dairy employees to be capable of doing their jobs correctly. No matter the experience level, proper training improves skills and reduces mistakes or actions based on either misinformation or a general lack of information.”

After completing each training module by viewing the short accompanying videos and resource materials, participants will complete a quiz to receive a certificate of completion for each module. Each training module includes videos presented in Spanish with English subtitles. The quizzes are offered in both English and Spanish, and the Spanish quizzes include audio translation. The videos include demonstrations of on-farm practices to emphasize key milking and management techniques.

“The employees who manage the milking should thoroughly understand the milk production cycle, the milking procedure, and the importance of bedding material and animal hygiene to improve milk quality and udder health,” said Jennifer Bentley, dairy specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach. “Results from previous surveys indicate that employees are more successful in their jobs and employee retention is higher if the training is (offered) in their native language. This milker training resource will provide producers and employees with the tools needed to make positive changes in milk quality and cow health and well-being.”

“By utilizing this resource, farms have the potential to increase employee retention and motivation while also reducing turnover and increasing employee efficiency and dairy profitability,” said Delgado.  

The online training is a free resource and is available at https://go.iastate.edu/MILKERTRAINING and a preview video is available in English and Spanish. For more information about Alltech’s on-farm dairy support program, visit alltech.com/dairy-on-farm-support.

Attracting and retaining workers is one of the biggest challenges facing the dairy industry. Jennifer Bentley, dairy field specialist with the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Program, and Jorge Delgado, Alltech on-farm specialist, join the Ag Future podcast to discuss an exciting new program that provides producers and employees with valuable resources to attract and retain employees. 

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Jennifer Bentley & Jorge Delgado hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Tom Martin:             We’re joined from Minneapolis by Alltech on-farm specialist Jorge Delgado.

                                 Welcome, Jorge.

Jorge Delgado:        Thank you, Tom.

Tom Martin:            And online with us from Decorah, Iowa, is Jennifer Bentley, a dairy field specialist with the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Program, where Jen develops an educational program for dairy producers and the industry.

                                 Hi, Jennifer.

Jennifer Bentley:      Hello. Thanks for having me.

Tom Martin:            So, question for each of you. I guess we’ll begin with Jorge. What are — what would you say are the most important issues and challenges that confront farming management and labor?

Jorge Delgado:        Yes, Tom. That’s a great question. You know, like everywhere else right now in agriculture, you know, finding people and retaining people is the number-one problem in farming — especially in the dairy industry.

                                The labor pool for agriculture has been shrinking, and the industry is now facing the reality of finding many ways to try to attract and retain employees due to the lack of understanding or how to keep employees motivated in an environment where, you know, there (are) long hours and the lack of benefits is very challenging.

                                So, the producers are, for the most part, are really not prepared to face the reality. Milking is one of the most labor-intense areas on the farm, on a dairy farm. So, to produce high-quality milk products and keep animals healthy, we have to consistently have, you know, milking the cows in a very consistent way, even two or three times a day. So this is vital to the farm.

                                So, keeping these guys motivated is a big, big problem. So, this challenge is the number-one problem not only in the dairy industry but agriculture in general.

Tom Martin:           Jen, what do you see?

Jennifer Bentley:      I would agree with much of the same of what Jorge has mentioned, just that labor pool for finding people in agricultural positions — and, you know, we’re getting further and further generations removed from working on agricultural farms. And so, it takes that motivation and takes that training to get those employees engaged and — and to stay on these farms.

                                 And so, I think (he’s) definitely right, you know: We’re trying to attract employees, and we also want to be able to keep our cows and calves healthy through all that.

Tom Martin:           To what extent is the ag industry dependent on immigrant labor?

Jorge Delgado:        Very high. The percentage is very, very high. In agriculture, I mean, if you — if you see — if you travel to California, where a lot of the, you know, produce comes from, you’re going to see a lot of immigrant labor performing all those tasks by hand.

                                You know, you look at strawberry fields, lettuce fields, tomato fields, (and) it’s going to be — it’s going to be very, very dependable on, you know, immigration.

                                So, and we see this because they are — for the most part, they are the only ones willing to do these kind of jobs. The circumstances for working at a, you know, there are no fair conditions for work. So, we estimate that around 60% of the milk produced in this country depends on immigrant labor. So, all those dairy farms, you know, at least for milking cows and many, many more positions in those roles in the dairy are dependable, highly dependable, on immigrant labor.

Tom Martin:            You mentioned earlier that retaining talent, retaining workers, is one of the number-one challenges facing the industry. Why is that?

Jorge Delgado:        I think one of the things that we see is that, you know, like I mentioned, right now, it’s, you know, the — it is hard to work on agriculture. It’s really hard to work on there. It’s long hours, you know; we have to — you know, the cows, they never stop milking. We have to milk cows, like we mentioned, two or three times a day, you know, seven days a week for 365 days of the year. So, it’s not easy, and somebody has to do it.

                                So, coming to this industry, with those long hours and not presenting the workers to, you know, a fair work condition is really — it really makes it really, really hard.

                                And nowadays, you know, there are so many openings outside of agriculture that we are competing with, with many other businesses, like construction, landscaping, hotels, restaurants, for the same kind of pool (of) labor that agriculture is dependable on, so it makes it really hard.

                                Plus, agriculture doesn’t receive a lot of payment for what they do. You know, milk is a product that doesn’t receive high payment compared to, you know, the products like construction or hotels. So, there are a lot of competition for the same kind of labor. So, first is environment and the second is, of course, the payment. It’s really hard to compete with that.

Tom Martin:            And you have mentioned that producers might want to be thinking about other approaches, like safety and education, as a way of keeping people. Can you elaborate on that?

Jorge Delgado:        Yes. One of the ways that — and this is the reason why, why we’re here and why they were working with Jennifer, is because we are creating a platform where, through education, we’re trying to retain people coming into agriculture, and mainly (the) dairy industry.

                                Many of these guys, they feel like there’s no motivation besides their, you know, not being taken, not being paid, you know, fairly. One of the things that we believe with Jennifer is that through education, these people will see the dairy industry as a place where they can be listened to, they be — they will be reliable, and they will taken care of.      

                                So, we just want to transform them, and we want to see producers to — and doing that: just being proactive on retaining employees through education and through safety and just improve the management skills.

Tom Martin:            You advocate for educating farm workers so they can be good at what they do, which is also, of course, good for the farm. What sorts of education do you recommend?

Jorge Delgado:        Well, we have to be very, very visual, Tom, and hands-on. As you mentioned before, you know, agriculture depends a lot on immigrant workers. So, when we talk about immigrant workers, you know, we talk about countries mainly for, like, Mexico or Central America. We see more and more people coming here from Nicaragua, Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

                                 And, unfortunately for these people coming here, these countries, they have a lack of education and investing in these kind of people, and that’s the reason why they are here.

                                So, when they come here, they come here with low levels of education, and the expectations from these guys are very high. So, because of the lack of education and lack of understanding, you know, working with the cattle industry situation, we have to, have to lower the expectations on how they receive education and training. So, we have to create a lot of visual materials, such as posters, movies, animations, and a lot of hands-on training and practices that these guys can understand.

                                 And in some cases, some — in many cases, even the guys coming now from Guatemala or even South Mexico, they don’t even speak Spanish as a first language, you know; they speak dialect. And dialects are really, really hard to understand and really hard to translate, so we need to start thinking about even doing more, more visuals, or maybe through animations or creating materials like that, so people that don’t know how to read and people that speak dialect, they understand what are we trying to do, so they feel reliable when it comes to, you know, performing the work.

Tom Martin:           Jen, that must present some challenges to you and what you do.

Jennifer Bentley:     Most definitely. I think we’re seeing a very high need for additional resources in training employees, whether they’re Spanish-speaking or English-speaking. And that kind of brought us to partnering with University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Alltech, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach to develop the three online trainings that could be accessed to producers, to employees who want to be able to better train themselves, to better train their dairy farm employees, to help them better understand their “hows” and “whys” that they’re handling their cows — you know, why are they milking cows a certain way; why are they moving cows a certain way. Because we know that when employees understand the “whys” of their job, they’ll more than likely perform their job at increased efficiency and (have) a more motivated ability to do their job.

                                So, with this training program that we developed, it is actually an online training program. And so, an employee or a dairy farm manager would log into this online training, and within that training site, they’re going to be able to walk through or view some learning modules.

We’ve developed eight different learning modules within milk quality, and so those include understanding mastitis, understanding udder health when we take a look at teat evaluation, singeing udders, understanding winter and cracked teats, taking care of how to evaluate milk quality — so, understanding how to read a CMT or collect a milk sample, going through the recommended milking procedure, what that looks like visually. So, walking through and looking through a video and understanding each one of those steps.

Understanding how we handle those animals when removing them to and from the milking parlor. So, we want to be able to handle these animals in a calm manner. And so, how do we properly handle those? So that’s another module that we walk through.

And then, also, things that happen out in the barn. So, not only is it important to understand what happens in the milking parlor, but also, when we’re out in that barn, bringing those cows up, what does the freestall barn look like? What type of bedding surface are they on? Are they clean and dry? In the summertime, do they have access to sprinklers and water? Things like that.

So, kind of bringing in the whole process of taking care of those animals and bringing it back down to the milking parlor and the milking system, where they’re actually going to be doing the majority of their job. So, those eight learning modules will walk through that, and they do accompany (those modules) through videos and resource materials.

So, if you’re logged into the online training, participants will be able to complete a quiz at each of — at the end of each of these learning modules. And if they complete those quizzes, then they’re eligible to receive a certificate of completion for each of the modules.

So, it’s something that they can print off and show their employer that, “Yes, I’ve, you know, completed these training modules; I’ve received some education about how to handle these animals.” And each of these training modules are presented in Spanish with English subtitles, and the quizzes are offered in English — both English and Spanish. And the Spanish quizzes also include some audio translation.

So, we’ve made it accessible for people to easily interpret the information. And the videos include demonstrations of on-farm practices that we really emphasize, key milking and management techniques.

So, along with those videos, we’ve also created some additional resources that they’d be able to print off and keep, maybe, in their break rooms, or if they’re having a milker training that day, they could review — print those off and review those as part of their, as part of their education to have there.

We’ve also created some animations that have really helped to explain more details of why cows or how cows develop mastitis. And so, when we can visually see somatic cells going up into teat ends and understand how that affects the cow, then they can interpret that as trying to better manage their milking protocols within the parlor, talking about hygiene, the milking process, the milking procedure.

But also, the other animation that we’ve created is from food to milk. So, kind of understanding the whole — the whole process of when that cow is eating or trying to keep that cow healthy by providing the right nutrients but, also, how she converts that food or feed into milk and why she is such, you know, a powerhouse for creating that milk and how that milk process happens.

So, those two animations really kind of show how we can produce a high-quality product.

Tom Martin:           Jorge, what sorts of tools are needed to make positive changes in things like milk quality and cow health and well-being?

Jorge Delgado:        Well, Tom, you know, sometimes, when people ask that question, you know, people (are) asking directly, too, you know, what we need to do, you know, to improve that, you know, the milk quality of that cow or coming from that cow for the well-being for, like, that cow.

                                And most of us will respond like, “Well, that cow needs proper nutrition, you know, biogenetics, and the right management.” But I — we think that, you know, there’s a lot of people behind what — what’s happening, you know, behind the animals behind these cows.

                                So, I think it’s all about the people behind the animals. So, we believe that in order to improve or, you know, make positive changes in things like milk quality and well-being, I think we need to work with the employees and take care of the employees first, because they are the ones behind the cows.

                                So, we think that providing the employees with the tools that they need to do their job successfully is the first thing. And in these things, we can include, you know, well-maintained equipment, for example. You know, some — many times, you know, we go to a parlor in dairy farms, and these guys, they want to do the right job; they want to know those cows; they want to get it done; they want to do it the right way.

                                But many times, the milking equipment is not working. So many times, you know, the winter climate Jennifer mentioned, it is very cold, you know; sometimes, the cows are more comfortable than people in the parlor.

                                           So, we have to think about the people first if we want to change to conditions. And one of the ways that we can do this is just to provide the right tools and, also, showing signs of appreciation, like, you know, pizza parties when you are doing a meeting with the employees to — when you’re training them, you can provide pizza, snacks or something like that.

                                Remember these guys on Christmas times or their birthdays. Those are very important for their culture. Or even branded clothing or clothes for the dairy.

And mainly, I think — and, again, we’re repeating this over and over again that, you know, providing safety trainings and other educational resources will really make the difference behind milk quality animal welfare, because if we educate them, if we train these guys, those things will come after these.

So, and it’s important to know that that we rely on these guys. These guys are the first guys looking at those cows, milking these cows, moving these cows, breeding these cows, taking care of these cows. So, if we treat these guys right, then these guys will feel that they are part of the business, they will feel like a partner of the business, and then they will come with feedbacks and solutions with ideas that will improve all these things — all these things that you’re asking as far as milk quality and welfare.

So, in our opinion, things start with people behind the cows first.

Tom Martin:            Jorge, your work in dairy goes all the way back to Ecuador, and so you’ve been around the industry, you’ve been around cattle your whole life. And I’m just wondering: is — do cows pick up on human stress? If everybody in the, in the milking parlor is stressed out, are the cattle picking up on that?

Jorge Delgado:        You bet. That’s an excellent question. They do. You know, their brain is smaller than our brain, so they have to use a lot of the senses. Their senses are very developed. And one of those senses is smell, so they use it a lot. So, they can pick up on, you know, our hormones, you know, being released over stress and anything. As they stress from other animals, from picking up from the smells from their urine or excrement, whatever, they will do the same with — with humans.

                                So, they will read through our body language, and they will read through our — their senses that we are not comfortable in our situation, that we’re stressed, that, you know, we have anxiety, and the animals will react to that. And they don’t want to be approached by humans in those situations, so they will flee from us.

                                So, it will make very hard to work with, with animals when we are, you know, under a lot of pressure. So, it will be very, very hard to handle and move those animals.

                                 An example of that is when we’re trying to milk a fresh cow or a fresh heifer — a heifer that has, you know, the first calf (for) the first time that’s never been in a parlor before, in the milking parlor. So, when she enters, the parlor is going to be a new situation, a new environment, because she is scared; she’s very, very scared. And instead, what we do is we react, you know, by pressuring that animal, and then she starts smelling that — that reaction from us, so it’s going to be harder and harder.

So, and it happens to all the animals, to other cows; they can sense that, too. And we have to be very patient when it comes to milking cows especially, so we have to be in situations where we don’t cause a lot of stress.

Tom Martin:            Back to the subject of employees and keeping them comfortable and on board. What makes a farm successful in developing and also, then, retaining good employees?

Jorge Delgado:        I think, you know, like Jennifer explained, everything starts with — with a good training program. The training is really, you know — some people think that payment is the number-one reason why, you know, people stay in job, especially in agriculture. And it is, but it’s not totally. You know, I think motivations through training, through education, through understanding is what really makes these guys (want) to — to develop the employee.

                                So, what these guys, they want is from the owner or the manager of the farm to explain to these guys how to do the job properly. And that’s the way that you explain that is explain the “whys” and “hows” on how they have to do protocols for tasks. So, that’s very important.

                                So, the other things we have to remember that, like we say before, many of these guys, they don’t have experience with cattle. If they have experience with cattle in the past, coming from countries that — poor countries, like (in) Central America or Mexico, they might milk, you know, one or two cows for survival, but here, it’s a total different experience. We’re milking 200 cows, 500 cows, thousands of cows, and we expect a lot.

                                           So, for these guys, to start driving feed loaders or to deliver a calf is very, very new, so we have to start with the right things to avoid any — any kind of expectation where they go feel frustrated and leave the work.

                                 So — and besides training, also, (provide) continued education over and over again and provide a good environment for work, recognize these guys, make them relevant to the dairy industry.

Sometimes we forget that, you know, they are not just milking cows; they are feeding this nation. So, when you are having milk with your cereal or cheese in your burger or cheese in your pizza, we have to remind these guys that, you know, they are not just milking cows, but they are feeding people like you and me and your family and my family. So, make them feel relevant and important and proud of what they do and just, you know, have clear and understandable goals.

Many times, we set up goals that are — that these guys don’t understand, so we need to clarify those goals and make them easy for these guys to understand.

We mentioned pay conditions. They have to be fair conditions where they feel safe to work in the, in locations where they are milking cows. And just remember that this is an ongoing process. Some people think that this is just a one-thing deal where you train them once or you make them feel relevant once, but this is something that you need to keep going over and over and over again all the time.

And that’s where, you know, many, many of us, we fail, because we start thinking about other things and we forgot about the data. So, these guys, they need to be reminded about the training, the education, the culture, the safety, and the importance of what they do in a regular basis, all the time. So, that’s what we need to do.

Tom Martin:            Jennifer, there are some surveys out there that show how training and education make a difference. Can you tell us about those?

Jennifer Bentley:     Sure. You know, over the course of years in the dairy industry, extension dairy teams have done surveys on farms to kind of get an idea of managers, employees and how that relates to jobs and employee retention. And a lot of these surveys are coming back (saying) that employees are more successful in their jobs and they’re retained at a higher rates if there is training offered, and particularly in their native language.

                                So, if we can offer more training resources more regularly, like Jorge was saying — just, you know, ongoing all the time — we’re better able to retain those employees.

                                 And as mentioned before, you know, it’s not just the monetary value that employees are getting — employees are getting out of this, but the education really satisfy — satisfies that employee’s drive to comprehend and, you know, be a critical dairy employee on the farm, being able to do those jobs correctly no matter what the experience levels these people are coming in at or proper — or what training levels they’ve been at before.

Offering them very consistent programs as they develop their skills is going to be able to challenge them and motivate them to want to learn more and, hence, retain their jobs.

Tom Martin:            I’d like to ask each of you to give us three things that can be done today to improve on-farm culture. You want to go first, Jorge?

Jorge Delgado:        Yes, Tom. Thank you. I think the first thing that we need to do is to start with a mission statement that involves the workers. You know, many, many employee handbooks, they have really nice written mission statements, but when it comes to the mission statement, they don’t link the workers to these; they don’t make them part of these.

Like, (it might be a) good mission statement, but the workers need to be part of it. They — he needs or she needs to feel part of the mission statement, that “why,” and find a “why” for him and “why” for her and “why” for the producers.

The second thing is I’d say that you need to involve your worker in your decision-making. When I was working on a dairy, you know, one, one day, the owner of the dairy decides to change the new liners to milk cows, and we were never consulted to do that. And we were the ones — or I was the one in charge of milking cows, and he decides to make that change. And to our surprise, those things were, you know, something that we didn’t like. We didn’t know how to use them, and it was — they were not good for the cows.

                                 So, I think, (in) my experience, you know, in every decision that we make, we need to involve the workers, because they know that they are the ones who are in front of the cows and working with the cows.

                                           And the third thing is, many dairies, they don’t have a culture. So, there might be an existing one, they don’t realize that there’s already one, and they, they — the first thing that they need to do is just start creating one. And they way that they can start doing that is by start asking questions.

                                One thing that we do with the farmers is we do an internal survey that, you know, workers, they answer to several questions, and they don’t write their names down. But it’s a way to find the strengths and find also the weak points of the — of the farm, so you can improve or you can maintain what you have. So, I think the first thing is just to create the culture.

                                So, those are my three things.

Tom Martin:            Jen, from you, three things that a producer can do to make for a better on-farm culture?

Jennifer Bentley:     Sure. Well, I concur a lot with what Jorge has already said. And you know, our ultimate goal is to make positive changes in our dairy operations: to improve milk quality, overall cow health and well-being, and just have a general sense of positivity with our dairy farm employees, too.

                                So, really providing those employees with the tools that they need to do their job — and that can mean a lot of different things, right? So, depending on the time of year, whether that’s summertime or wintertime, you know, providing employees with the type of clothing that they need to be outside so they feel protected and they feel safe doing their jobs.

                                If they’re in the parlor, you know, making sure that the milking system has been maintained so they can do their jobs efficiently. If we’re expecting them to be in a skid loader, have we maintained, you know, the oil changes, the upkeeps, the maintenance that’s required with the machineries that they’re operating? So, you know, making sure that they’re getting the tools that they need to complete their jobs efficiently is very important.

And then, providing continuing education, and I also think that starts on day one of their jobs. So, you know, day one, they’re coming into this job — what are those expected things that they should be aware of when they walk onto the farm? You know, what should I wear? Should I bring my lunch? Where should I park my vehicle? What documents do I need? What should I not bring to work? What will I do on my first day of work?

So, kind of relieving that anxiety or that tension of, you know, their first day on the job and then, continuing that throughout their whole career on that farm. So, as they have questions, being there to help answer those questions and make sure that they — they feel like they’re a part of the whole dairy operation. As Jorge was saying, you know, just involving those workers with your decision-making process.

And then, as we mentioned before, showing signs of appreciation. I think that really drives home the whole kind of — the whole atmosphere of the dairy farm operation, for involving them with the day-to-day things on the farm, the day-to-day decision-making. But then, also, showing our signs of appreciation for the things that maybe they’ve gone above and beyond to do, or they’ve maintained things where — where you like them to be, such as, you know, somatic cell count. So, we want to maintain a consistent or low level of somatic cells.  

And if they’re doing the things properly, maybe we are giving them a bonus or we’re giving them a pizza party, those types of things, just to show some gratitude within our jobs.

Tom Martin:            I guess the bottom line is, as a morale booster, nothing beats that feeling that you’re valued.

Jennifer Bentley:      I would say, yeah. Just, you know, any job that we walk into, we want to be treated with respect. So, from the very beginning, we want to be able to make sure that that employee gets started off on a good foot.

Tom Martin:            All right. We’ve been talking with Alltech on-farm specialist Jorge Delgado, with us from Minneapolis.

                                Thanks, Jorge.

Jorge Delgado:        You’re very welcome, Tom. Thanks for the invitation.

Tom Martin:            And from Decorah, Iowa, Jennifer Bentley, now on her twelfth year as a dairy field specialist with the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Program.

                                Thank you, Jennifer.

Jennifer Bentley:     Thanks for having me on today.

Tom Martin:           This has been Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Ciudad de Serdán, Mexico] – On April 5, Alltech took steps to advance its leadership in sustainability through the company’s first global renewable energy project, a photovoltaic solar energy system, located in its production plant in Serdán, Mexico. The plant also presented its new source of compressed natural gas, which will help to considerably mitigate its environmental impact.

During the event, which was attended by local authorities, industry representatives and Alltech’s president and CEO, Dr. Mark Lyons, it was highlighted that this new energy system — designed by the company Iberdrola — will cover 46% of the Alltech Serdán plant’s energy needs. This will result in an energy savings of 22% in the first year, and an annual reduction of 20% of its CO₂-eq emissions (665 fewer tons of CO₂-eq emissions).

 “Alltech strives to have a positive impact in the 350 global communities in which we live and work, and our team in Serdán has long been exemplary in this regard,” said Dr. Mark Lyons. “Today, they have taken a tremendous step forward in advancing our efforts to reduce the environmental impact of our operations.

“The milestone completion of these energy projects was also a celebration of this team’s long-standing spirit of ‘making a difference.’ The products produced at this facility are at the core of our Planet of Plenty™ vision, which aims to improve animal welfare and feed efficiency, while ensuring nutrition for all and reducing environmental impact. For example, the Serdán team is committed to replanting yucca plants — three for each one harvested in the production of our De-Odorase® product — and they consistently put the community at the forefront of their endeavors. This facility and our local team members are truly a testament to our vision of Working Together for a Planet of Plenty™.”

Alltech Serdán also inaugurated a new system for the use of compressed natural gas, a more environmentally friendly fuel, which will further contribute to a reduction in its environmental impact. Designed with the company Enepres, this new energy source, unlike liquified petroleum gas, emits 30% less carbon dioxide (CO₂) and 65% less carbon monoxide (CO). The result is an annual reduction of 17% of its CO₂-eq emissions (570 fewer tons of CO₂-eq).

"These projects readily demonstrate Alltech's interest in investing significantly in energy efficiency and renewable energy," said Paul Kilgallen, Alltech Serdán plant manager. "The initiatives support our efforts to offer sustainable solutions that optimize the productivity of livestock producers, and at the same time, uphold the social responsibility we have as a business and as an industry."

Alltech Serdán’s new energy system and transition to natural compressed gas are also representative of Alltech’s efforts to achieve its emission reduction goals by 2030, deliver on its commitment to several UN Sustainable Development Goals, and achieve its vision of a Planet of Plenty™.

The Alltech ONE Conference (ONE) will feature tracks that will uncover the challenges and opportunities in agriculture, business, health and wellness, and professional development. Now in its 38^th year, Alltech’s global agri-food conference continues to be an invaluable resource, uniting thought leaders and changemakers in an exploration of the power of science, sustainability and storytelling. This annual flagship event will be held May 22–24, both in person in Lexington, Kentucky, and virtually on a first-class platform, with live-streaming keynote and select on-demand track presentations available to ensure accessibility to everyone, everywhere.

Many topics* are slated for discussion at ONE, including:    

Aqua

• Holistic Gut Health: The Latest Improvements in Fish Nutrition
• Inside Out: Developing Healthy Skin, Guts and Gills
• Wave of the Future: Exciting New Developments in Aqua-Tech
• Aqua Investors: The Big Bad Wolves — or Our Rescuers?
• Aqua On Top: Building on Aquaculture's Unfair (Sustainable) Advantage

Beef

• Beef and Global Food Security: Resource-Use Efficiency for Protein Production
• Looking Ahead: Consumer Trends and Beef Production Systems
• Beef x Dairy: A Growing Link in the Supply Chain
• Beef and Global Food Security: Resource-Use Efficiency for Protein Production
• Better Connection: Why This Telecommunications Company Invests in Beef
• Better Beef: Exploring the Need for Innovation in the Beef Industry
• A New Day for Beef: Turning Sustainability Challenges Into Opportunities
• A Blueprint for Success: Getting Team Buy-In for New Products
• Organic Trace Minerals and Their Impact on Fetal Programming

Crop Science

• Little Bugs, Big Impact: Soil Microbes and Fertility
• Planting the Seed: Growing Through Strategic Partnerships
• The Growing Field of Crop Science: Performance, Sustainability and Innovation
• Bridging the Gap: Merging Conventional and Biological Innovations to Drive Crop Productivity
• Soil Biological Analysis: A Simple Tool for On-Farm Soil Health Assessments

Dairy

• Dairy Market Trends: Making Predictions During a Pandemic
• Dairy Gone Digital: Sustainability and On-Farm Technologies
• Planning for Success: Animal and Human Welfare on Dairy Operations
• Crème de la Crème: Large Herd Management in the Desert
• Predictions and Positioning for the Next 10 Years
• Chewing the Cud: Transparency and Communication in the Dairy Industry
• Sharing the Plate: Exploring Byproduct Utilization
• Bringing Data to Sustainability: Alltech E-CO₂
• Lessons Learned: Sustainability Goals for the Dairy Industry
• Transition to a Successful Lactation Cycle

Equine

• Exceptional Equines: All About Regenerative Medicine for Horses
• Taking Flight: Finding a Niche in the Horse Business
• Forage Quality: How Is It Measured, and Why Is It Important for Your Horse?
• Recipe for Success: How Mrs. Pastures Became the Top Horse Treat in America
• Achieving Greatness: Olympic Dreams — and A Lot of Hard Work
• Start 'Em Young: Building the Equine Bone Matrix
• Not Just a One-Trick Pony: 10 Great Social Media Strategies
• The Significance of Selenium: Exploring A Decade of Research

Pet

• The Golden Years: Strategies for Senior Pet Health
• Your Pet and You: Pet and Human Crossover Trends and Insights
• Brain Power: Supporting Our Pets' Cognitive Health at All Life Stages
• The Truth About Pet Food Mergers and Acquisitions: Revelations from an Industry Insider
• Planet-Friendly Pets: Sustainability Hot Topics in the Pet Industry

Pig

• The Zinc Oxide Ban: Nutritional Ramifications and Global Implications
• Caring for Disease-Challenged Pigs: Can Changing Nutrient Sources Affect Their Performance?
• The Buzz About Xylanase: Is It Here to Stay?
• Transformational Trends: How Can the Swine Industry Meet Consumers' Demands?
• Pork Producer Panel: The Challenges and Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
• Long Live the Sow: Protecting Your Herd
• Sustainability in Pork Production: The New Normal
• Developing a Productive Gilt: How Nutrition Affects Lactation
• Sow Mortality: Addressing an Industry-Wide Issue
• Smart Farms: Integrating AI and IoT Into Commercial Pig Operations

Poultry

• Protection Through Immunity: A Holistic Approach to Poultry Production
• Leveling Up: Improving Sustainability at Each Stage of Poultry Production
• Knowing Poultry Consumers and Delivering What They Want
• Antibiotic Resistance: A Hidden Problem for Poultry Production
• We're All in This Together: How COVID-19 Impacted the Poultry Industry
• Poultry Innovations: Where Are We Now, and Where Are We Going?
• Driving Demands: Shifting the Focus to Poultry Welfare
• Efficient, Sustainable Performance: The Impact of Organic Trace Minerals
• Balancing Animal Welfare and Sustainability: A Global Panel Discussion
• Understanding Coccidiosis: A Proactive Approach to a Major Poultry Challenge

Business

• The Power of Why: Aligning Business With Purpose
• Price Pressure: Doing Business During a Pandemic
• Business as (Un)usual: Embracing New Models
• From the Great Resignation to the Great Re-Engagement
• From Soil to Slainté: Making Irish Whiskey
• Echoes of War: The Global Impact of Conflict
• Making Moves: Turning a Vision Into Reality
• Partnering for Success: Why Business is Better Together

Health and Wellness

• The Science of Happiness: How to Make it Work for You
• Eating for Health and the Planet: A Guide to a Sustainable Diet
• Managing Stress and Overcoming Burnout: How to Live With Intention and Purpose
• It's Not Just Your Genes: Understanding the Equation That Drives Your Health
• Migraines and the Diet: The Myths vs. the Facts
• The Promise of Health Through Agriculture

Neurogastronomy

• Neurogastronomy: A Road to Global Health and a Planet of Plenty
• The Neuroscience of Flavor and Flavor Manipulation
• Extraordinary Eating: Enhancing Food Health and Flavor Through Neurogastronomy
• Food, Farming and You: What Neurogastronomy Can Teach Us About the World
• How We Eat is Who We Are: Gastronomy as a Shared Destiny

Stay Curious

• Redefining Resilience: Know Your Achilles Heel
• Crossed Wires: Culture and Communication
• Pitch With a Purpose: Innovation Driven by Compassion
• If I Can: Limitless Potential In Practice
• Pulling Up a Chair: Inclusion as a Key to Success
• Safety First: The Non-Negotiable of Psychological Security
• Do Things, Tell People: The Power of Personal Branding and Social Media Storytelling
• The Power of Purpose
• Meaningful Career Connections
• XYZ: Leading the Alphabet Soup of Generations
• Winning Body Language for a Successful Career

*Topics are subject to change. Some track topics are virtual or in-person only. Check the agenda for details.  

In addition to the many track topics, ONE attendees will be inspired by keynote speakers who have unleashed the power of innovation and courageous leadership to make a positive impact, including:

• Mick Ebeling, founder and CEO of Not Impossible Labs and author of “Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn’t Be Done,” will take the ONE mainstage in person, and his presentation will also be live-streamed for those joining virtually.
• Paul Polman, presenting virtually at ONE, has been described by the Financial Times as “a standout CEO of the past decade”. While serving as the CEO of Unilever, he stopped reporting quarterly earnings to focus on a long-term strategy that would successfully double revenues while reducing the company’s environmental impact by half.   
• Heather White, author, founder and CEO of “OneGreenThing,” will present on the mainstage at ONE, and her presentation will also be live-streamed for those joining virtually. She brings two decades of environmental advocacy work and national nonprofit leadership to life with her joyful and practical book, "One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet".
• Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech, will welcome all ONE attendees, both in-person and virtually. Based on Alltech’s belief that agriculture has the greatest potential to shape our world’s future, he launched the company’s vision of Working Together for a Planet of Plenty™ in 2019. He has called for collaboration to improve nutrition, human and animal well-being, and the replenishment of natural resources.
• Nikki Putnam Badding, will present in-person and virtually during ONE about the crucial importance of making nutrition accessible to all. As a registered dietitian nutritionist, she brings human health expertise to her role as managing director and chief dietitian of Acutia, Inc., an Alltech company.

• Dr. Karl Dawson, scientific advisor with Alltech, will join the keynote lineup in person and virtually to discuss how animal agriculture can be part of the solution to improving sustainability.

As the Alltech ONE Conference returns live to Lexington, Kentucky, after being a virtual-only event for the past two years, it will also feature a weekend of fun-filled activities for all. For more details about the ONE Weekend activities and tours, visit one.alltech.com/one-weekend.

Registration for the Alltech ONE Conference is open at one.alltech.com. Join the conversation across social media with #AlltechONE.

In fewer than 100 days, the Alltech ONE Conference (ONE) will return to Lexington, Kentucky, for a collaborative exploration of the challenges and opportunities in the agri-food industry and beyond. Alltech, a global leader in animal health and nutrition, announced that their 38th annual flagship event will be held May 22-24 both in person and virtually on a first-class platform, with live-streaming and on-demand presentations available to ensure accessibility to everyone, everywhere.

Reflecting the most relevant topics impacting the agri-food industry, the key themes of the discussions held at ONE will include science, sustainability and storytelling.  

“The opportunities are abundant for the global agri-food sector to shape the future of our planet,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “We can deliver nutrition for all, while fuelling economic vitality and replenishing our Earth’s resources. The potential for impact is profound, but it requires a higher level of commitment and collaboration from every one of us. ONE is much more than a gathering; it is an invitation to step forward and share in a vision of promise for our ONE planet.”

ONE attendees will derive inspiration from keynote speakers who have unleashed the power of innovation and courageous leadership for positive impact.

Mick Ebeling, founder and CEO of Not Impossible Labs and author of “Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn’t Be Done,” will take the ONE mainstage in person, and his presentation will also be live-streamed for those joining virtually.

Ebeling was recently named by Fortune Magazine as one of the Top 50 World’s Greatest Leaders. He is a recipient of the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian of the Year Award and is listed as one of the world’s most influential creative people by The Creativity 50s. Ebeling has sparked a movement of pragmatic, inspirational innovation, and as a career producer and filmmaker, he harvests the power of technology and storytelling to change the world.

Presenting virtually is Paul Polman, who has been described by the Financial Times as “a standout CEO of the past decade”. As CEO of Unilever (2009-2019), he stopped reporting quarterly earnings to focus on a long-term strategy that would successfully double revenues while reducing the company’s environmental impact by half.   

Prior to joining Unilever, Polman served as CFO and vice president for the Americas at Nestlé and as president for Western Europe at Procter & Gamble. He was a member of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel, which developed the Sustainable Development Goals and which he continues to champion, working with global organizations to push the 2030 development agenda.  

Paul’s new book, “Net Positive,” is a call to arms to courageous business leaders, outlining how to build net-positive companies that profit by fixing the world’s problems rather than creating them. He serves as the chair of IMAGINE — a social venture dedicated to systems change — and of the Saïd Business School. He is vice-chair of the UN Global Compact and is a B Team leader and honorary chair of the International Chamber of Commerce, which he led for two years.  

While the world-class keynote speakers at ONE will offer universally valuable insights, the subject- and species-specific tracks will explore emerging opportunities in aquaculture, beef, crop science, dairy, pig, poultry, equine, health and wellness, business, and brewing and distilling. Confirmed speakers are currently listed on the ONE website, with more to be added.   

Virtual attendees of ONE will have access to live-streamed keynotes and pre-recorded track presentations that can be viewed on-demand. For in-person attendees, the ONE experience will extend into beautiful downtown Lexington, Kentucky, with special events, dinners and tours.   

To learn more about the Alltech ONE Conference, including how to register, visit one.alltech.com. Join the conversation across social media with #AlltechONE.

Since 1985, Alltech’s annual conference has drawn leaders, innovators and changemakers within agri-food to Lexington, Kentucky. In 2020, Alltech reimagined the event in a virtual format to ensure that its ideas and inspiration could reach everyone, everywhere. Last year, the virtual event drew more than 10,000 people, including over 400 media, from 101 countries.

Data collected from 11 ^th annual survey estimates world feed production increased by 2.3% to 1.235 billion metric tons

Top 10 countries produce 65% of the world’s feed

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – The 2022 Alltech Agri-Food Outlook was released today, highlighting global feed production survey data. The global COVID-19 pandemic has had major impacts on the agri-food sector, contributing to supply chain challenges and accelerating the adoption of new technology and environmental sustainability practices.   

“The results within our 2022 Alltech Agri-Food Outlook reinforce our confidence and optimism about the future of the agri-food sector,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “We see the resilience of the agri-food sector against the challenges of COVID-19, disease and supply chain disruption, and, even more importantly, there is evidence of growth, modernization and the adoption of more sustainable practices occurring in parallel.”

The eleventh edition of Alltech’s annual feed production survey includes data from more than 140 countries and more than 28,000 feed mills, and based on this data, it is estimated that international feed tonnage has increased by 2.3%, to 1.235 billion metric tons of feed produced in 2021. The top ten feed-producing countries over the past year were China (261.424 mmt), the U.S. (231.538 mmt), Brazil (80.094 mmt), India (44.059 mmt), Mexico (38.857 mmt), Spain (35.580 mmt), Russia (33.000 mmt), Turkey (25.300 mmt), Japan (24.797 mmt) and Germany (24.506 mmt). Altogether, these countries produced 65% of the world’s feed production, and they can be viewed as indicators of the trends in agriculture. Additionally, when combined, the feed production of these countries increased by 4.4%, compared to the overall global growth of 2.3%.

Key observations from the survey:

• The country with the largest increase in feed production by tonnage was China by 8.9% to 261.424 mmt. A key trend resulting in this growth was the continuation of the consolidation and modernization of the country’s feed industry. Swine farms and feed production have moved from utilizing food waste to contracting with professional feed mills. As a result, commercial feed tonnage increased, driven in particular by the growth and continued modernization of the pig sector.  
• Feed production met local expectations in about half of the surveyed countries while falling short of expectations in about 25% of countries due to continued restaurant closures, high raw material prices and/or African swine fever (ASF). The remaining 25% of countries exceeded expectations, mainly due to recovery from COVID-19 lockdowns, including increased exports to re-opening restaurants.  
• Over the past year, there has been strong focus on the environment, as governments worldwide have made renewed commitments to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. In Europe and Asia, government policies have been the main drivers in most markets, whereas in the Americas, the main drivers have been consumers and private industry.  In some markets, there’s a strong focus on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and in other markets, the focus is more on the expected nitrogen regulations. 

Notable species results:

• The poultry sector experienced a slight reduction in layer feed tonnage (down 1.4%), whereas broiler feed production increased (by 2.3%).
  • The layer business has been facing challenges in many countries due to the high costs of raw materials, combined with flat/low retail prices for eggs. Animal welfare concerns are also a driver, as cage-free and free-range production are on the rise in many countries. In Europe, the most significant decreases occurred in Norway, Russia, Ukraine and Poland. Asia-Pacific also saw a decrease, while tonnage in Australia grew by 4%.  

• • Factors that have aided the broiler sector include an increased demand for easy-to-cook proteins as restaurants closed during the pandemic and an affordable protein option, as the prices of other meat proteins increased. China and India accounted for the most significant increases in Asia-Pacific. In Latin America, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay and Mexico contributed significantly to the region’s 5% increase.  

• Pig feed production increased significantly, by 6.6%, which was primarily boosted by Asia-Pacific’s recovery from ASF. Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and China demonstrated just such a recovery from ASF, but Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam continued to feel the impact of the disease. In Europe, countries where ASF is not or is no longer a problem were still impacted by a pork surplus due to a reduced demand from China. 

• Dairy feed tonnage increased slightly, by 1.9%. Asia-Pacific saw the biggest increase, which is mostly attributed to growth in India. As COVID-19 lockdowns eased around the world, the reopening of the hospitality industry and in-person classroom education helped boost milk consumption overall. In Australia and New Zealand, dairy feed tonnages were down 6.7% and 2.5%, respectively.  

• Beef feed production shrunk by 1.9% globally. The industry continues to be challenged by GHG regulations and perceptions of environmental and health impacts. European markets are especially focused on reducing GHG emissions in an effort to align with COP26, the EU Green Deal and the FEFAC Feed Sustainability Charter 2030. The U.S. experienced an increased steer and heifer harvest due to carryover from 2020, as well as a record demand for beef exports. Argentina saw a significant reduction due to reduced exports, and high inflation and the devaluation of the local currency are also affecting Argentinians’ purchasing power, although export regulations are easing and could impact Argentina’s outlook for 2022. 

• The aquaculture industry continues to grow in many markets and increased by an impressive 3.7%. Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are becoming more prevalent, and consumer demand for fish is on the rise. Markets with ASF challenges saw additional growth due to their reduced pork supply. India saw a significant increase in its aquaculture feed tonnage of 9%; additionally, Indonesia accounted for 10% of Asia-Pacific’s growth. In Latin America, Chile, Brazil, Honduras and Ecuador contributed to the regional growth of 5.6%. 

• Pet feed production had the highest increase among the sectors, with an 8.2% rise in production. This significant increase is largely due to the rise in pet ownership amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While some regions remained flat, there were no reported decreases in any region around the world.    

Notable regional results:

• North America saw steady growth of 1.9% over the last year, and the U.S. remained the second-largest feed-producing country globally, behind China.

• Latin America experienced moderate growth of 0.5%, and Brazil remained the leader in feed production for the region and ranked third overall globally.

• Europe saw a decrease of 1.2% in its feed production due to issues such as ASF and high raw material costs, combined with low end-product prices, declines in ruminant feed production and COVID-19-related government regulations.

• Asia-Pacific saw the largest regional growth of 5.7% and is home to several of the top 10 feed-producing countries, including China, India and Japan.

• Africa saw growth of 2.4%, despite challenges caused by high raw material prices, foot and mouth disease and geopolitical tensions that have impacted the exports of foods of animal origin and caused raw material shortages in some areas.

Alltech works together with feed mills and industry and government entities around the world to compile data and insights to provide an assessment of feed production each year. Compound feed production and prices were collected by Alltech’s global sales team and in partnership with local feed associations in the last quarter of 2021. These figures are estimates and are intended to serve as an information resource for industry stakeholders.

To access more data and insights from the 2022 Alltech Agri-Food Outlook, including an interactive global map, visit alltech.com/agri-food-outlook.

Derek Wawack works as Alltech’s dairy forage quality expert. He has consulted on farms throughout North America, focusing on everything from feed quality’s impact on animal performance to storage forage management and mold, yeast and mycotoxin management. He regularly visits farms for routine quality monitoring and to help with troubleshooting challenges.

You may wonder what a day in the life of an on-farm forage specialist looks like, so I’m here to share my story. The late founder of Alltech, Dr. Pearse Lyons, always said everyone is in sales, and that is very true.

We come from all types of backgrounds: Some grew up on farms; some didn’t. Some live far away; some live next door. I may not be a typical salesperson, selling products as I travel from farm-to-farm, as I’m more focused on providing a service and sharing information about products that can bring value to you as the end user.

Life on the road

My day may start a little different than most corporate salespeople, but similar to them, I spend more than 100 nights a year in hotels across the country. I wake up hoping to catch the free continental breakfast if I didn’t have a 3 a.m. farm visit scheduled, as we all know when working with animals: They don’t understand clocks. My truck is my office, and it greets me each morning with a smell I can’t really put a finger on, even though it is thoroughly cleaned each week if not daily. Sometimes the hotel will even leave a hose and bucket out for me when I arrive. My driver’s seat has a perfect fit to my backside, as I crank out 50,000-plus miles per year down the highways and gravel roads meeting new people, visiting customers and seeing the country through the windshield.

A typical day for me will include multiple farm visits and many miles on the road. The first farm could be a forage audit where I’ll be checking the overall quality of the feed for the cows. This would be scheduled as a routine visit, and I’ll stop by every few months to make sure the feed going to the cows is clean and the cows are performing to the best level they can with what they have. I’ll spend some time evaluating the forages, looking and digging through feedstuffs looking for potential issues. We use correct infrared (IR) imaging for organic material to look for invisible hot spots, such as the growth of molds and yeast. I may have to shake out the forages or TMR to check processing and take manure samples to compare how the diets look to how it comes out the back end. After a brief talk with the owner of the operation about production and the upcoming harvest, samples may need to be pulled and sent off to the various labs to look deeper for any issues.

Expecting the unexpected

The next stop may be last-minute and unscheduled, as a vet or nutritionist saw my truck at the gas station and needs a second set of eyes on why a group of cows had a hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS) outbreak or a butterfat crash, or maybe weights on the feedlot steers took a slump and the pens are all getting loose and they went off-feed. Troubleshooting has become a big part of my day-to-day work. Spending many years watching, learning and working with other experts and understanding why certain contaminated feeds cause specific issues, you become an expert your customers can call on and trust. Now sometimes Mother Nature can throw a curve ball into feed quality, and that’s where all the travel can come into play. I have been fortunate to see things all over the continent, even the world, and work with an extensive group of international colleagues, so when an issue arises that may not be common in your area, and suddenly it is, hopefully I can be of help.

After a busy morning and a few farm visits, it’s lunchtime. Sometimes I’ll enjoy lunch at a small-town cafe with good home-cooking instead of fast food, and sometimes I’ll be joined by a manager, vet, nutritionist and/or other experts for a working lunch to discuss challenges and issues we’ve been seeing.

Part-time pilot

After lunch, I’m off to fly a drone. I have been flying drones commercially for over three years, focused on forage inventories and crop quality checks. Working with cloud computing systems, I utilize high-end technology and bring it to the farm level to gain a better understanding of silage tons in a pile or shrinkage from harvest on. Then, while I’m at the farm, the owner might mention they are planning an expansion and are wondering if they need to build a bigger feed pad, what the layout should be and what can fit. After taking measurements, 3D modeling and elevations with the drone, I can put together a plan for future feed pad needs.

After leaving that farm, I realize I haven’t had a great cell signal all day and, as I make my way down the road to the new hotel for the night, a bunch of phone calls, voicemails and emails from multiple time zones come in, so I start returning calls. The day doesn’t end with a late arrival to the hotel because all of the work that went into today now has to be recorded and sent back in reports and follow-ups to the customers. Cows need milking, cattle need growing, and time doesn’t stop to get the needed information out to each operation.

At the end of the day, I hope the services and information I share can bring some value and support to your farm. Your livelihood is in your operation and your animals, and if it wasn’t for hard-working producers, our tables would be empty. You are the ones who grow the food to feed the world, and I can’t imagine doing anything else other than working with the greatest folks out there, you the farmer.

Originally published by Progressive Forage.

I want to learn more about nutrition for my dairy.

Yeast supplementation is a common practice to improve the efficiency of feed utilization and performance in dairy cows. It is well-known that supplements containing live yeast can improve rumen fermentation and the digestive process by stabilizing rumen pH and stimulating the growth of beneficial microbial populations. These positive changes can be attributed to growth factors, including peptides, and the effect on the rumen anaerobiosis to create optimal conditions for the rumen microflora.

Good rumen function will ensure optimal feed intake and digestive efficiency in dairy cows, while poor rumen function can negatively impact feed intake, health and overall cow performance. Formulating the ration correctly and understanding how the individual ingredients in the ration work together can help keep the dairy cow’s rumen and digestive system functioning properly.

How can you ensure that good formulations will lead to the expected results?

Published research and decades of use in the field suggest that most dairy diets respond positively to Yea-Sacc^®, a yeast culture based on Saccharomyces cerevisiae that stimulates the growth of fiber-digesting and lactic acid-utilizing bacteria in the rumen. These microbial changes directly result in:

• A stable rumen pH, which is conducive to better fiber digestion and a reduced risk of rumen acidosis
• Improved feed intake
• Enhanced milk yield and components

However, not all formulation strategies react the same way. As a result, there may be instances in which supplementation with Yea-Sacc does not yield the expected results.

To quantify the efficacy of Yea-Sacc for improving rumen fermentation and nutrient utilization for specific dairy TMRs, allowing for greater precision when feeding Yea-Sacc, Alltech created the Alltech IFM™: Yea-Sacc^® Value Test (YSVT^®).

The response of dairy TMRs to Yea-Sacc supplementation may vary depending on the feedstuffs. Formulation models are limited in predicting the effects of non-nutritive feed additives on rumen fermentation, which limits the precision of ration formulation and the prediction of the efficacy of a given additive. A quick lab-based test that evaluates the potential of Yea-Sacc in a particular situation can help improve the nutritive value of a given TMR.

Building on Alltech IFM, an in vitro rumen fermentation model used to characterize feed digestion kinetics, YSVT is a unique approach to rumen fermentation analysis. Standard in vitro rumen simulation techniques are usually conducted over a shorter period spanning 48 to 72 hours of fermentation. As a result, these techniques do not allow for an accurate evaluation of the efficacy of yeast supplements, as the effects of yeast on rumen populations are not readily evident until supplements like Yea-Sacc have been included in the diet for at least 4 to 7 days.

As the animal adapts to the presence of Yea-Sacc in its diet, the rumen microbial population changes to comprise higher concentrations of fiber-digesting and lactate-utilizing bacteria. YSVT utilizes rumen fluid both from animals that have been adapted to Yea-Sacc and their counterparts that are fed the same basal ration without Yea-Sacc. This allows for the adequate adaptation of the rumen microbial populations to Yea-Sacc without the need for long-term incubation in the lab.

The YSVT test measures key fermentation indicators, including:

• Digestibility
• Lactic acid concentration
• Useful energy (i.e., energy produced from the fermentation of carbohydrates)
• Rumen energy efficiency (i.e., useful energy per pound of feed digested)

To date, more than 200 dairy TMRs have been analyzed using YSVT. More than 93% of the samples showed a positive response to Yea-Sacc supplementation in terms of useful energy and rumen energy efficiency, with an average response of +13%.

In approximately 50% of all samples, the increase in the useful energy released was not correlated with improvements in digestibility. This indicates that Yea-Sacc increases the efficiency by which feed nutrients are converted into useful energy for the animal, most likely through a more efficient and healthier microbiome. The lactic acid response was more variable, with more than 60% of the samples showing decreased concentration, indicating a reduced risk for a lower rumen pH and acidosis.

In conclusion, the YSVT helps nutritionists and producers understand the value of yeast in improving rumen fermentation. As a result, feed additive supplementation strategies can be tailored to maximize the energy produced from rumen fermentation and improve digestive efficiency in dairy cows.  future developments of this tool will focus on better understanding the interaction of ingredients, the nutrient composition of the TMR and the response to Yea-Sacc — and on developing predictive models to quantify the expected animal performance based on the outcome of a given fermentation profile.

I would like to learn more about the Yea-Sacc Value Test.

There is an increasing awareness of biochar among the agricultural community and beyond, but what is it? David Butler, head of sustainability at Alltech, joins Ag Future to discuss the history of this porous piece of carbon, its application in agriculture and how it's now being used in products ranging from asphalt to jet fuel.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with David Butler hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Tom Martin:            I’m Tom Martin, and I have some questions. What is biochar? How is it made? How is it used in agriculture? And how can it help with climate change?

All questions for David Butler, head of sustainability at Alltech. Thanks for joining us, David.

David Butler:           Thanks for having me, Tom.

Tom Martin:            So, let’s begin with those basic questions — and first, what is biochar, and how is it made?

David Butler:            Well, biochar is very similar to charcoal, really, but charcoal is specifically used as a fuel and biochar is not. It has lots of other uses. But it’s biomass that has been baked at a really high temperature in the absence of oxygen, so it’s essentially kind of crystallized carbon. All the volatiles are driven off and you’re left with this very, very porous piece of carbon.

Tom Martin:            Any idea who had the “eureka” (moment), for whom the light bulb went off, (or) how the process was discovered?

David Butler:            Well, I think people have been making charcoal for thousands of years, probably, as a fuel. But also, there are a lot of places in the world — especially in the Amazon — where you can find that biochar was used as a soil amendment.

                                And it might have been an accidental discovery. They would kind of bury and burn their waste, so they would be burning waste without oxygen, because they were burying it. And you find soils there that are very rich and black, even hundreds and/or thousands of years later, and that’s called terra preta soil, black soil.

                                And that’s, really, how they fed a very large population there: by enhancing the very poor Amazon soils with biochar.

Tom Martin:            So, they burned their trash and then buried it, and it continued to burn. Is it possible for that to happen without so much oxygen?

David Butler:           Yeah. That’s a really good question. So, it doesn’t actually burn in a lack-of-oxygen environment; it undergoes a process called pyrolysis. And what that involves is kind of breaking down this organic material, driving off the volatiles and reducing it, pretty much, to carbon and minerals. So, it’s not burning, because burning does require oxygen, and at the end of it, you’re just left with carbon dioxide and ash.

Tom Martin:            Huh. So, when you dig it up, what does it look like? What are its properties? What can it do?

David Butler:            Well, it really looks just like charcoal. And you know, there could — you could have relatively large pieces, or it could be almost, you know, microscopic size.

                                 And if you look at it under a microscope, you’ll see that it’s very, very porous. And if you think back to high school, maybe you looked at plant cells under a microscope, right? And so, you know what that looks like. There are all these kinds of spaces that are — they’re mostly liquid in the middle of the cell, and then you have the cell walls.

                                Well, you can imagine, if you baked that at hundreds of degrees, you would drive off all of those, all of those liquids and volatile compounds, and you would be left with kind of the skeleton of the plant matter — and that’s really a major, important property of biochar, is that it’s so porous, because it’s this organic-matter kind of crystal carbon skeleton.

                                And in addition to being very porous, or because it’s very porous, it has a huge surface area. So, it can hold a lot of water, but it can also hold nutrients like nitrogen, calcium, potassium and phosphorous. It can even hold toxic metals and kind of bind those up.

                                And it’s also a great home for microbes. It’s kind of like a little apartment complex for microbes.

Tom Martin:            [laughs] So, lots of implications there. Let’s look at a big one here.

According to the International Energy Agency, global warming could be kept to 1.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels if all the pledges and the promises that were made at that recent summit in Glasgow are kept. Scientists have said that warming needs to be kept at 1.5 degrees or below that to avoid the most disastrous climate consequences, but 1.8 degrees is still big news, given that, right now, we’re actually careening toward a 2.7-degree rise.

                                So, to what extent can biochar play a role in helping us get a handle on that rate of increase in (global) warming?

David Butler:           Yeah. That’s a really good question, Tom. And I think that a lot of people are trying to figure that out right now, because even though biochar is a very, very old technology, the biochar industry is relatively new and growing, and there are a lot of exciting things happening with the industry, but it’s still in its infancy, really. It’s still kind of tiny.

                                So, estimates for the amount of carbon that could be sequestered by biochar range from 1 gigaton to 35 gigatons per year. And that’s a huge range.

Tom Martin:            Yeah. What about agriculture? There are indications that it’s already being used in farming; is that correct?

David Butler:            Yes. And you know, it’s been used for a long time by farmers, and I think it’s getting more awareness now, and it’s starting to spread. And one of the fascinating things about biochar is that, because of its properties, it has many, many uses. So, there are a lot of ways to use it in agriculture.

Tom Martin:            Well, let’s explore that a little bit. When biochar is worked into the soil, let’s say, what are the benefits to the farmers?

David Butler:            Well, I mentioned that it holds water and nutrients, and it also is a place for microbes to live; it’s like a little ecosystem for microbes. So, all of those things are beneficial for the soil.

                                 And, first off, if we talk about water, if you have all these little pieces of biochar in the soil that kind of act like little sponges, and they hold water, which means that under times of drought, you have all of the water that’s been saved in the biochar. But also, when it rains very hard in an extreme weather event, then the soil can hold more water, so there’s less runoff and there’s less erosion.

                                So, it really helps with resilience on the farm, especially as we’re seeing more weather extremes due to climate change.

Tom Martin:            We hear so much about these large lagoons, especially in swine production. And so, what about manure management? How can biochar make a difference there?

David Butler:           Well, there’s kind of two ways to look at that.

For one thing, you can take the manure and convert the solids from the manure into biochar. So, that’s huge, because it allows you to stabilize all the carbon and the nutrients in that, in those manure solids, and you’re reducing the volume of them, and so you have a lot less material to deal with.

                                 And once you’ve converted it to biochar, of course, there’s no odor — it’s not going to leech any nutrients — and you end up with this very valuable product as a result: you have the biochar. And you can take that biochar and put it on your manure lagoon. You can use it in your bedding for cows or — you can use it in your bedding for cows, and that helps keep them dry and helps with hoof health and things like that.

And then, you can also take it and spread it on the fields. And it’s great to, you know, mix it in with the liquid portion of the manure that’s going to be injected into the fields, because it helps to absorb methane and hydrogen sulfide and, most importantly, ammonia — it keeps that manure from off-gassing ammonia, which means that you’re keeping the nitrogen in the manure, which makes it a better fertilizer, which means you don’t have to use as much synthetic fertilizer.

Tom Martin:            It sounds as though we’ve finally found a way to literally make a silk purse out of sow’s ear.

David Butler:           Yeah. I think that’s a good analogy.

Tom Martin:            Well, there seems to be a lot of excitement about biochar in the dairy industry. What’s driving that enthusiasm?

David Butler:            Well, I think one really exciting thing (is that) there are some people working on projects where they build small biochar kilns on the dairy, and they take the manure solids and they convert those to biochar. And in the process, they get renewable energy, because when you heat the manure, you also get synthetic natural gas. You can get bio-oils, and then you can take those and burn them to make renewable electricity, or you can convert them to diesel fuel or natural gas for heating or for transportation fuel.

                                There are even some companies working on a biochar process to produce green jet fuel.

Tom Martin:            I’m just sitting here listening to that, David, and thinking about the broad implications of what I’m hearing, and it sounds to me as though we’re talking about the possibility of an alternative to fossil fuels and a renewable energy source that could be in abundance and could be quite helpful in approaching this whole climate change issue.

David Butler:            Yeah. It’s certainly a very exciting piece of the puzzle. You know, I don’t know that it’s going to solve all of our problems, but it’s a technology that’s, you know, it’s available right now, and we just need to scale it up.

                                And in sustainability, people love to talk about things that are a win-win. Well, biochar is kind of win-win-win-win. There are so many benefits to it, and you’re getting renewable energy as you produce it.

Tom Martin:            Once you’ve created biochar on the dairy farm, are there other ways to use it?

David Butler:            Yeah. You know, so I mentioned that you can add it back to the manure, and of course, you can use it as a bedding material for dairy cows, but there are also people (who) use it as a feed supplement for their dairy cows, and that’s not currently allowed in most of the U.S. There probably needs to be a lot more research on that, but there are many countries where that’s being done, and some people report good benefits from that. And I’ve read that that can even reduce methane emissions from cows. I think, you know, there are a lot of kind of anecdotal solutions that claim to reduce methane emissions from cows, so there needs to be a lot of research done on that before we can really hang any hopes and dreams on that.

Tom Martin:            You touched on this earlier, but let’s explore this question for just a moment, because it tends to be kind of overwhelmed by all the discussion around climate change, but it’s equally as important to our well-being, and that’s water. How does the use of biochar improve water quality?

David Butler:            Yeah. That’s a really great question, because agriculture does have or can have an impact on water quality. So, we can look at that in two different ways.

When we talk about, you know, a field of crop land, then you want to make sure that your fertilizer is not running off every time it rains and ending up in the stream. And you know, if that happens on a large scale, then you can get algae blooms in streams but especially in lakes or even in estuaries in the ocean. So, it’s very important to keep those nutrients on the field and not allow them to escape into the waterways. And it also economically makes sense to keep your fertilizer on the field.

                                 So, biochar — because it holds nutrients, it prevents them from being leeched and washed away in heavy rain. And it holds them in such a way that the plant is able to extract the nutrients from biochar when they need it. So, you don’t have to use as much fertilizer, and that’s an important thing, too, because synthetic fertilizer has a very high carbon footprint. It takes a lot of energy to make fertilizer.

Tom Martin:            That is a pretty big implication, because runoff is pretty pervasive in so many ways.

David Butler:           Yeah.

Tom Martin:            We’ve talked about its agricultural applications, but can biochar be used to make other useful things?

David Butler:            Yeah, absolutely. And I think, (for) the biochar industry, a few years ago, the biggest focus was on agriculture, but it can be expensive to get biochar out onto a large-scale farm and work it into the soil. And so, there are other industries where it can be a lot cheaper to use biochar as an alternative product.

So, it can be used as an ingredient in asphalt. It can replace a certain amount of the sand or portland cement in concrete — and both of those substances have a really high carbon footprint. So, as those industries try to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, they would love to take a carbon-positive portion of their product and replace it with a carbon-negative ingredient.

                                 It can also be used in plastics, cosmetics — just lots and lots of different products. But you know, the potential to put it in our roadways is huge. And the nice thing about that is if you’re using it in construction materials, then you can use biochar that’s maybe not of the same quality that you would need if you’re going to use it as a soil amendment. So, you can make biochar from sewage sludge, for instance — and that may have a lot of contaminants in it; you probably don’t want to put that in the soil.

Tom Martin:            Well, this seems, David, like one of those moments when something has been discovered that has so many applications, and important ones, in terms of our environment, our well-being. Do you feel that way? Do you feel like we’re on the — at the beginning of something really important here?

David Butler:            Yeah, I do. I think it’s very, very exciting, and I think that the biochar industry is really going to start to accelerate.

One reason for that is that, last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change came out with a report saying, you know, “Here are some of the methods that we can use to draw carbon out of the atmosphere,” and biochar was listed as one of those. So, it provided legitimacy to this growing industry. And now, because of that, biochar is being added as a method to a lot of different carbon-offset markets.

Tom Martin:            So, it’s an alien term at the moment. Do you see the day when we’re going to be talking about biochar as something just normal in life?

David Butler:            Yeah, I think so. And another good indication that that’s coming is that Microsoft and Shopify recently included biochar in their net-zero plan. They’re buying biochar credits already.

Tom Martin:           How about that. Well, let’s keep following this.

David Butler:           All right.

Tom Martin:            All right. That’s David Butler, head of sustainability at Alltech. Thanks for joining us, David.

David Butler:           Yeah. Thank you, Tom.

For more than 40 years, Alltech has focused on scientific research to provide solutions and products for the global animal health industry. This focus has continued with the publication of a white paper entitled, “Organic Trace Minerals: Enhancing mineral bioavailability through chelation” by Dr. Richard Murphy, director of research at Alltech. There are many options when it comes to formulating trace minerals in livestock diets, and this paper focuses on organic trace minerals (OTMs) as a more bioavailable mineral source than their inorganic counterparts and other inferior organic products.  

“From a sustainability point of view, we can’t continue to supplement diets with inorganic materials at the current very high inclusion levels without having negative consequences,” said Murphy. “Our research with organic trace minerals is looking at using less to get more for the livestock producer and the environment.”

OTMs can be produced through numerous mechanisms, depending on the trace mineral product being manufactured. The process of complexing or chelating elements, such as copper, iron or zinc, typically involves reacting inorganic mineral salts with a suitable bonding group, such as a peptide or amino acid, after which the mineral becomes part of a biologically stable structure. The higher the stability of an OTM, the greater its bioavailability is likely to be.

The chelation strength between the mineral and bonding group will define OTM stability and, ultimately, play a significant role in influencing bioavailability. Carefully considering the factors necessary for chelation can help producers distinguish between the many products available on the market based on their stability and efficacy. OTMs with high stability are more likely to be effectively absorbed by the animal and reach the target sites required for immunity, growth and reproduction. They are also significantly less likely to react with and inhibit the activity of other feed components, such as vitamins, enzymes and antioxidants.

For more information, click here to download the white paper and visit Alltech.com.