August Business Update: What’s new in the world of poultry?

Novus supports broilers with new Scale Up Program

Novus International has debuted a new program aimed at enhancing the financial success of broiler producers. The Scale Up Program for Broilers focuses on 3 areas – performance, meat quality and carcass yield, and sustainability and animal welfare. Mintex Bis-Chelated Trace Minerals serve as the foundation for the program. Meanwhile, the program’s strategies include Mintrex Zn and Mintrex Cu trace minerals, and the Reduce and Replace strategy, which is shown to reduce the excretion of zinc (up to 37%), copper (up to 41%) and manganese (up to 35 %). The program also offers technical support, laboratory analysis of feed, and access to Novus‘ Xpert Link Network. The program has launched in the Americas and will be available in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa later this year.

Avara Foods and Beakbook partner to support poultry welfare using AI

Funded by Innovate UK’s Transformative Technologies Award, Avara Foods and Beakbook have partnered in a pilot project that aims to forecast animal welfare with 98% accuracy and without human intervention. The project will span 5 months with the aim of introducing AI compliance software to improve welfare and productivity on poultry farms within the Avara supply chain. In the pilot, Beakbook’s AI technology will predict the body weight of poultry. The pilot will analyse data from over 400 million chickens and complete a 3-month live trial. Predicted stocking density values, automated via the AI solution, will be compared to the actual recorded stocking density of the chickens to confirm the effectiveness of the machine learning algorithm. Upon successful completion, Beakbook plans to launch in Q2 2024 across the UK and Europe.

Zinpro joins the Global Feed LCA Institute

Zinpro has announced its membership in the Global Feed LCA Institute. Terry Ward, global director of sustainability at Zinpro, highlighted the significance of partnering with GFLI in accelerating sustainable feed solutions: “Joining forces with GFLI allows us to leverage their unparalleled expertise, specialized resources, and dedicated team of experts, empowering us to further our commitment to sustainability.”

Berg + Schmidt Animal nutrition opens new company in Dubai

Berg + Schmidt Animal Nutrition has unveiled a new subsidiary in Dubai, Berg and Schmidt Middle East Trading LLC, which it says will allow the company to respond to the growing demand for feed additives and offer clients enhanced customer service in the Gulf Cooperation Council states. The company says that the Middle East feed market is rapidly expanding, especially for broilers, aquaculture, dairy and beef.

Modelling climate change impacts on agricultural systems

It is believed that more must be done to protect the livelihoods of farmers worldwide during the climate crisis. An emerging area of interest to achieve this are modelling techniques to assess the impact of climate change on agriculture, as well as the efficacy of climate change mitigation measures. A new book published by Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing promises to be the ‘go-to’ reference on this topic.

Bühler and Entocycle partner to deliver on insect farming

Processing technology company, Bühler, and a UK insect technology company, Entocycle, have joined forces to provide solutions and expertise to drive the large-scale production of black soldier fly (BSF) globally.

DSM-Firmenich announces latest World Mycotoxin Survey (Jan – June) results

DSM-Firmenich’s World Mycotoxin Survey, which the company says is the longest-running and most comprehensive data set on mycotoxin occurrences and contamination, identifies mycotoxin risks based on time, animal species and location. Until June 2023, 10,199 samples were collected from 78 countries worldwide. The results concluded that the Fusarium mycotoxins fumonisins, deoxynivalenol and zearalenone are most frequently found, with the highest region of mycotoxins found in North America, South Asia, China and Taiwan. The survey includes further details on prevalence levels for each mycotoxin in each region, global and local risk levels for each mycotoxin, risk levels posed to each species, a comparison of prevalence levels from January-June 2022, and more.

Weltec Biopower constructs 3 biogas plants in Greece

Recently, 3 biogas plants were built in Greece, manufactured by the German manufacturer Weltec Biopower and designed together with Greek partner Tetoros Machinery. Of these, 2 are in the Epirus region in northwestern Greece: a 1-megawatt plant in the town of Arta, which processes 150 tonnes of cattle slurry and 50 tonnes of dry chicken manure daily, and a 500-kilowatt plant in Ioannina, where 100 tonnes of cattle slurry and 30 tonnes of dry chicken manure are processed daily. The third one, a 250-kilowatt biogas plant project, was realised in Serres, in central Macedonia. Here, an upgrade of the CHP plant to 750 kilowatts is also being implemented. Here, a substrate mix of 40 tonnes of cattle manure and 10 tonnes of energy plants enters the stainless-steel digester daily.

Hamlet Protein appoints commercial director

Hamlet Protein has announced the appointment of Simon Martyn as commercial director at the company’s Denmark headquarters. Martyn (UK) is a graduate of Bicton College and comes with a strong international background and management experience in global companies. He takes over from Jan Kamphof, who recently joined Schothorst Feed Research as their new director.