Posted: September 1, 2010 at 9:42 pm
By News Editor
Fonterra has rented a big new warehouse just down the highway from its United States headquarters near Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
Fonterra has taken 46,500 square metres of space in the Heartland Corporate Centre at Shorewood, 66km from Chicago and is expected to channel significant amounts of its billion-dollar exports to the US through the site.
The warehouse has been vacant for several years but its owner, ING Clarion, is installing a new security fence to meet conditions of a Partnership Against Terrorism Act that requires cargo handling areas for imported products to be protected.
“It’s nice to get a huge client out there,” said a Shorewood Village trustee, Gary Fitzgerald, who heads its planning committee. “The drought has ended,” he told the Joliet Herald-News.
The warehouse was built in 2007 as the start of a projected 63ha business campus.
Product will be shipped from New Zealand to US ports, and sent by rail to Chicago, which is considered a central point for US distribution.
Two years ago Fonterra USA opened a $4 million research and development site – its Chicago technical centre – near O’Hare Airport, and moved its corporate headquarters to Rosemont, the suburb adjoining the airport.
The technical centre’s processing equipment and sample analysis lab are planned to be developed into a major sensory application centre to work directly with North American customers for dairy proteins and other ingredients, including HP Hood, Nestle and Unilever.
Bright Dairy, a China-based dairy company, will be investing in New Zealand dairy company Synlait Milk.
Bright Dairy will own 51 percent of a new company, which will specialize in making infant and whole milk powder for Chinese consumers. Synlait will continue to own and operate its Synlait farms in Canterbury through a separate company.
Bright Dairy is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and says it “holds the leading position in value-added consumer dairy products in China and is China’s third largest dairy company by volume.”
The company, a subsidiary of Bright Food Ltd, has a market capitalisation of approximately NZ$1.7 billion and reported revenues of approximately NZ$1.63 billion for the 2009 calendar year.
Synlait Milk’s chief executive John Penno said work had already begun building a second large scale milk powder processing plant capable of producing high specification milk powders alongside the company’s existing facility at Dunsandel near Christchurch. This plant will be commissioned in time for the 2011/12 season, more than doubling the capacity of the site.
All across the world, dairy farmers are leading their finest dairy cows across the show ring tanbark. But, what does a blue ribbon compare to being crowned the 2010 Baileys® Irish Champion Cow?
The dairy cow contest is sponsored Baileys® Irish Cream in Dublin. Over 20 groomed and pampered ‘cowtestants’ from all over the island of Ireland will wear their county sashes with pride as they parade in front of the judges at the Virginia Show, in County Cavan on July 31 for the title. Superior milk production is a must for short-listing but final judgment on the day will be on looks alone with marks going for shapely legs, an elegant neck, good-shaped back and well proportioned udders.
For dairy breeders, winning ‘the Baileys®’ is like having a horse win at the Grand National. Widely acknowledged in agricultural circles as the most prestigious dairy livestock event in Ireland and Britain, this is of course serious stuff for the dairy breeders.
“Never mind the World Cup, the only cup the entrants will be interested in winning this summer will be our Virginia Milk Products Cup! quipped Competition Director Brendan Smyth, “because for dairy cow breeders, winning ‘the Baileys®’ is like having a horse win at the Grand National.”
275 million litres of milk per year from over 35,000 Irish cows across 1,400 farms is needed to make Baileys®. Together, they contribute to the 2,300 glasses of Baileys® that are drunk every minute of every day across 130 countries and this prestigious event is only open to the best bred ‘supermilkers’ amongst them, that is cows producing over 11,000 litres of milk a year. For all their hard work in the making of Baileys’ quality cream ingredient, it makes perfect sense that the world’s no. 1 liqueur should recognize and reward the queen of them all.
Source: PRWEB
Instead of listening to presenters from the Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech, let’s hear from some of the participants. I spoke with many of them but only interviewed four. I think they give you a pretty good sense of how international this conference is.
Let’s start with Georgios Valergakis, Greece. He attended since he thinks we live in an “era of efficiency” and believed this type of gathering would be very useful. I asked him if the economic problems we hear about in Greece translate to the dairy industry but he says that it “is not that bad.”Georgios Valergakis Interview
Next up we have Johann Gasteiner from Austria. Johann was interested in nutritional disorders and the topic of SARA brought him to the symposium. He says it’s a big topic and “everywhere.” Johann Gasteiner Interview
Another participant was Christof Fry from Germany. He works at a feed mill so it was interesting to hear that he was attending to find new ideas to improve the products his company offers to their customers. He says the information he collects will be helpful in the long run for his business. Christof Fry Interview
And finally I spoke with Uldis Ositis, Latvia. He says the symposium has provided him with the information he was looking for. He found the presentations to be at a very high scientific level. Uldis Ositis Interview
The Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech has come to an end. It has been two days packed with presentations on a very specific topic that is of growing importance to the industry, Rumen Health: A 360 Degree Analysis. I think we did look at the subject from just about every angle possible.
I started my coverage of the conference with a preview interview with Sylvie Andrieu, European Ruminant Technical Manager, Alltech. So what better way than to wrap it up in the same way?
Sylvie says it was a wonderful symposium, especially the discussion opportunities and interaction between people from a large number of countries. She also notes how interesting it was that some of the researcher presenters questioned the SARA concept and think that it should perhaps be renamed. It was clear that what is called SARA is more diverse than was thought. I concur with Sylvie that the feedback I heard from attendees has been very positive. Hopefully this means the symposium goals were achieved.
I’ll have more interview posts after the U.S. holiday weekend so until then . . .
Dr. Andre Bannink, Wageningen UR Livestock Research, conducted a presentation titled, “Variation in rumen fermentation and rumen wall during transition period” during the Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech. I spoke with him about his topic during our gala dinner reception.
He is a “modeler” which means he develops mathematical models which predict how the animal responds on a diet. He says there’s a big debate on rumen acidosis here at the symposium and a lot of questions being asked. For a solutions symposium he thinks more questions have been raised than answers. His presentation focused on how well a high yielding early lactation dairy cow rumen can adapt to a big increase in feed intake. He conducted a test comparing two groups of dairy cows. One received a very quick increase in feed and the other was “steamed up” (his term) much more slowly. The main conclusion was that the rumen wall was very capable of adapting to either strategy with very little difference between the two. They compared 10 days to 20 days. So now he thinks further work should be done to see if there is a limit to how fast you can “steam up” a dairy cow.
The final day of the Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech, was started by Dr. Ad van Vuuren, Wageningen UR Livestock Research. We sat together on the bus from our hotel this morning and I asked him about the session he would be moderating.
His session focused on rumen adaptation and animal health. He says “rumen fermentation in dairy cows is one of the main contributors to the feed efficiency of dairy cows so it’s very important to maintain good, healthy rumen fermentation not only from the point of view of the environment or animal welfare but especially from animal production.” He says that practical nutritionists often over simplify solutions when answers to rumen health problems are more complicated. So he sees a need for more out of the box thinking and encourages new ideas which is what the symposium is hoping to do.
Dr. Juan Tricarico brought the history of yeast research to the audience at the Dairy Solutions Symposium. He is Research Manager for Ruminant Nutrition for Alltech. He says there is a lot of information about yeast and its mode of action. He hopes that participants in the symposium will leave with a better understanding of how yeast affects rumen function and improves the ruminal environment as a whole so that it can be used more effectively. This will give the dairy farmer a bigger bang for their buck when they invest in yeast products.
“Modifying the rumen to reduce the risk of acidosis” was the title of Prof. Sergio Calsamiglia’s presentation at the Dairy Solutions Symposium. He works in the veterinary school at Universitat AutÒnoma de Barcelona.
He says research shows that acidosis is not just a pH problem but related to the type of feed you’re using. There is evidence that although using bicarbonate helps, it doesn’t solve the problem. Conversely, there are feed additives that don’t impact pH but help the problem. He says he thinks the term acidosis may mislead people since there are products like yeast that can help the problem even though it is not a buffer. The bottom line is that good nutrition and animal care is the most important thing to work on.
Prof. Joachim Kleen, Alta Genetics Germany, told us all about SARA in dairy herds at the Dairy Solutions Symposium. SARA is sub-acute ruminal acidosis and becoming a real problem. Understanding it better and what is being done to reduce or control it was the subject of his presentation.
As most dairy farmers might think, proper nutrition and animal care is the best way to decrease the impact of this rumen fermentation disorder. I spoke with Joe before his presentation to get his take away message for participants of this Symposium.
He says that it’s a subject we know a lot about but “we do not know a lot how ruminal acidosis is working, what it’s effects are.” He says he’ll be happy if symposium participants take away from his presentation that there are conflicting aspects to this problem.
The Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech, was opened by Prof. Wouter Hendriks, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. There are 250 attendees at this year’s event being held at Utrecht University.
The overall topic for the Symposium is rumen health in dairy cows. I spoke with Wouter just before we got started. He says that the good rumen health will result in lowered methane emissions and greater animal welfare and this conference will focus on innovations and research being done to accomplish this.
The presenters for the Dairy Solutions Symposium 2010, sponsored by Alltech, got together for dinner this evening. I’ll be interviewing most of them over the next couple days.
To get a preview of what this conference is all about I spoke first with Sylvie Andrieu, European Ruminant Technical Manager, Alltech. She says that the initial idea for this conference came from the idea that most give you a “little bit of everything” instead of more in-depth information. So they’ve selected one central topic for all the presentations to focus on. In this conference the focus will be on rumen health. There are 250 registered participants and the hope is that they will go home with practical solutions.
Post Update: I didn’t have a photo of Sylvie when I first posted this but now I do after she presided over the first afternoon session.
Hello from Utrecht, Netherlands where I’ll be attending the 2010 Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech. Just got in this morning and after a short nap went for a walk. Right away I came to an outdoor market and was very pleased to see dairy products on display.
For lunch I had a really good brie and vegetables sandwich. I figure I’ll be eating pretty well the next couple days so it was strategic thinking to start out on the light side. Hopefully I’ll get to sample more of the cheeses made here in this region. I’ve just started a photo album for this event and have some photos from my walk in it: Dairy Solutions Symposium 2010 Photo Album
This evening I’ll be attending a dinner for speakers and others involved with the Symposium and we’ll get started officially tomorrow morning.
Yakult, a drinkable probiotic yogurt brand, will be building a production plant in the U.S. This is the first American factory for the Tokyo-based Yakult Honsha Co. The plant is planned in Fountain Valley, Calif.
The facility, which will produce around 250,000 bottles of Yakult per day, is expected to begin operations in 2012.
“We are looking forward to the completion of the Yakult California factory since it will allow us to provide our product to more people across the country,” said executive vice president and COO Teruo Tabuchi. “Fountain Valley is ideal because it is in close proximity to Los Angeles, which is our biggest market now.”
Yakult USA will subsequently look to expand the drink’s coverage in the country beyond its current markets of California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico.
The company will continue to import the beverage from Guadalajara, Mexico, the closest plant to US borders, until the factory opens.
This is where I’ll be this week. The fifth annual Dairy Solutions Symposium put on by Alltech and the Centre for Animal Nutrition will take place this week and I’ll be there to cover it. It will be held at Utrecht University on Thursday and Friday. You can look for the first posts sometime on Thursday.
Rumen health is of critical importance for efficient transformation of dairy cows diets into nutrients. As such it is a major cause of economic losses in the dairy industry and important in maintaining the health and welfare of the animal.
This two day symposium, Rumen Health: A 360 degree Analysis, aims to bring together leading scientists in dairy nutrition to discuss a variety of topics including the impact of rumen pH on ruminal digestion, occurrence and prevention of sub-acute rumen acidosis, maintenance of an optimum rumen function and Ruminal adaptations during the transition period.
For you Twitter fans and I know there are a lot of you in the dairy business, follow the conference hashtag: #AlltechDSS
Troy Hudgson has been named the Vice President, Category Development for Fonterra Ingredients North America. Fonterra is a cooperative based in New Zealand.
Mr. Hudgson will be based at Fonterra North America’s corporate headquarters in Chicago, Ill. He will oversee Fonterra’s regional growth strategies for categories, including bars and snack foods, ingredients for cheese, cheese for meals, cultured foods, pediatric nutrition, organics and functional beverages. In addition, he will create annual marketing and innovation plans to support consumer and customer insights in the United States.
Mr. Hudgson is transitioning from his role as the Marketing and Channel Development Manager for Fonterra’s Global Foodservice division, and will report directly to Martin Bates, President of Fonterra Ingredients North America.
“Troy has been recognized as playing a key role with his successful work in global foodservice that align well to our category development strategies in the United States,” said Martin Bates, President, Fonterra Ingredients North America. “His work has resulted in the creation of a marketing strategy that has resulted in the growth of the global foodservice business. We are confident that Troy will effectively be able to implement this knowledge into his new position and positively support Fonterra’s innovative products development pipeline.”
Prior to his foodservice role at Fonterra, Hudgson worked in business development at Genesis Research and Development, and CSIRO Health Sciences and Nutrition in Australia.
The following information was released by the International Dairy Foods Association:
The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) today applauded the announcement by China granting the U.S. 30 days to work with Chinese authorities to secure agreement on a new health certificate for food-grade dairy exports to China. Industry leaders also praised the Chinese government for its recognition of the need to allow trade to continue while resolution of this complex issue is addressed by technical staff.
On April 21 the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) sent a letter to the U.S. government notifying them that due to the lack of an agreed-upon health certificate, China planned to no longer accept U.S. food-grade dairy products as of May 1. There had been no ongoing discussions related to an inadequacy of U.S. certification language prior to the notification.
Swift action by the Foreign Agriculture Service, in close coordination with the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office (USTR), the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed the market to remain open and enable trade to continue to flow uninterrupted. The U.S. dairy industry exports billions of dollars of dairy products all around the world; foreign sales last year totaled $2.3 billion. As global trade is one of the most critical components of our industry today, policies that maintain and grow returns to the U.S. dairy sector play a critical role.
IDFA, USDEC and NMPF indicated their intent to work closely with the U.S. government to ensure successful resolution of this issue over the course of the next month and urged attention to the need for careful coordination among the relevant U.S. agencies in order to secure agreement on new certificate language during this period.
Source: U.S. Dairy Export Council, International Dairy Food Association and National Milk Producers Federation
Chinese scientists have reported that the world’s first genetically-modified cow with high level of Omega-3 fatty acid has turned nine-months old, is healthy and expected to produce milk rich in the fatty acid essential for human health.
According to Li Guangpeng, chief of the program, two embryo-cloned and genetically-modified dairy cows were born on June 23 last year.
One of the cows has been found to have an Omega-3 fatty acid level 10 times higher than a normal cow.
“We did not announce the birth of the clone cows until now because it has taken time to check the cows’ effective genetic traces,” said Li, head of the Biological Technology Lab at Inner Mongolia University.
Li said that it takes 14-15 months for a cow to become sexually mature, and another nine months to produce milk.
“We expect the cow to be able to produce milk with high Omega-3 content next year,” he said.
He said that the cows have been fed with normal cow feed.
Dubbed a “good fat”, Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid necessary for human health.
But, it cannot be made by the human body. It is abundant in walnuts and coldwater fish like herring, mackerel and sturgeon.
“Another two cloned cows with the ‘fish oil’ gene were born on Tuesday. It will take time to see whether they are healthy,” Li said.
Li said that the program involved a team of experts from China and the United States, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Lai Liangxue and the University of Pittsburgh’s Yifan Dai.
Posted: February 5, 2010 at 6:24 pm
By News Editor
A video showing how to properly open milk in a bag has gone viral! Americans – tell us what you think, milk in bags: weird or smart?
In the video, Sheryl Ng lays out a bag of 2%, a jug and a pair of scissors. She runs through the milk drinker’s skillset: the proper triangular cut, the cautious first pour, preventive measures to keep an overfull bag from collapsing. Collectively, the viewing world outside Ontario leaned back in its seat and said, “What the hell is that?”
Apparently not. Ontario, the world has seen your milk drinking habits, and the world now thinks you’re a weirdo. Ng posted her milk-drinking video as a way of illustrating the differences between Canadians and Americans. They drink milk out of jugs. We drink it out of bags. She titled the whimsical instructional, “Milk in bags, eh?”
Bagged milk also hits an impassable imaginary wall at the 49th parallel. Almost uniformly, Americans are jug/carton people. Wisconsinites, people who know something about dairy, buck that trend. Among other forward-thinking nations that have warmed up to the plastic udder — South Africans, Argentines, Hungarians and Chinese. Those latter also bag beer, which means we have some catching up to do. The Soviets used milk bags, though central Europeans rushed to embrace the carton once the Wall came down. For ten shekels, Israelis can buy a Kankomat — a bag-holder that includes its own cutting device.
Posted: February 5, 2010 at 5:28 pm
By News Editor
New Zealand’s Fonterra dairy is in negotiations to lease land in China by mid-year. The land would be used for two New Zealand-style dairy farms in the world’s largest emerging dairy market.
Fonterra China managing director Philip Turner said with the firm’s pilot farm in Hangu, in Hebei province, performing profitably ahead of schedule and producing record levels of milk, the time was right for further investment.
The China dairy market is forecast to show double-digit annual growth over the next 10 years. The domestic dairy industry was developing quickly but the current supply of high-quality fresh milk could not keep up with demand, Mr Turner said from Beijing.
Milk safety in China is of high public concern after deliberate melamine poisoning of milk supplies two years ago caused the deaths of several babies and made thousands of infants ill with kidney problems. The melamine was added to raw milk supplies to processing factories to artificially increase protein levels, thereby drawing a higher price.
Fonterra’s joint processing venture SanLu was involved in the crisis, along with more than 20 other plants. SanLu was bankrupted and Fonterra is no longer involved in processing in China but is expected to announce a new venture soon.
The planned new farms would be of a similar size and carry around 3300 milking cows.
They would be a mix of cows imported from New Zealand and those raised on Fonterra’s pilot farm, Mr Turner said. Tangshan Fonterra Farm is producing its second generation of China-born heifers. Half of the herd has been raised from the original imported friesian herd.
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