Nutreco expands calf and beef cattle research

Nutreco will invest in a new research unit in the Netherlands. The facility will strengthen Nutreco's capacity in the field of calf and beef cattle research. It expands the trial capacity for developing innovations and will enable Nutreco's animal nutrition business to increase its presence in the global market for ruminant nutrition. The unit is scheduled to open in the first half of 2015.

In the context of a growing world population and limited resources, there is a demand for new nutritional solutions that increase animal performance, support animal health and for instance also reduce the need for antibiotics. This investment is part of Nutreco's animal nutrition research focus areas which it sees as vital in this perspective: young animal nutrition, health & welfare, feed efficiency and application solutions.

LifeStart

The Calf and Beef Research Centre will also contribute to LifeStart, Nutreco's new dairy calf nutrition programme that will be launched in October. The development of young calves is crucial for them to reach their full potential in later life.

There is a large unmet demand by dairy farmers in this field. A thorough understanding of the mechanisms behind young animal nutrition allows Nutreco to develop new and innovative feeding programmes. By stepping up in beef cattle research Nutreco can expand its leading position in this segment to the growth geographies of Russia, Asia, Latin America and Africa. 

Research capacity

Construction is scheduled to start in the second half of this year and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015. It will be located in Boxmeer, the Netherlands.

After completion researchers of the ruminant team will have access to a facility with 160 calf places and 80 beef cattle places. This is in addition to our existing dairy cattle research units in the Netherlands and Canada. The research unit will have the latest equipment to monitor feed intake and animal performance for both individual and group-housed animals. These include automatic feeders and special housing, which will make detailed metabolic studies possible.

Last year Nutreco opened its renewed Swine Research Centre in Boxmeer. In total Nutreco operates 11 animal nutrition and fish feed research centres worldwide with over 250 employees. We have over 60 collaborations with universities and research institutes and invest € 25 million in R&D annually.

END OF PRESS RELEASE

Note to the editor (not for publication)
This press release is also published in Dutch. In the event of differences, the English language version shall prevail as the authoritative version.

Driving sustainable growth
Nutreco's strategy 'Driving sustainable growth' is to grow and improve profitability by providing innovative and sustainable nutritional solutions for its customers. This will be realised by focusing on a higher value-added portfolio of nutritional solutions such as premixes, feed specialties and fish feed, and by expanding into the growth geographies of Latin America, Russia, Asia and Africa, which will see the largest increases in both production and consumption of animal protein food products.

Nutreco
Nutreco is a global leader in animal nutrition and fish feed. Our advanced feed solutions are at the origin of food for millions of consumers worldwide. Quality, innovation and sustainability are guiding principles, embedded in the Nutreco culture from research and raw material procurement to products and services for agriculture and aquaculture. Experience across 100 years brings Nutreco a rich heritage of knowledge and experience for building its future. Nutreco employs approximately 10,000 people in 30 countries, with sales in 80 countries. Nutreco is listed on the NYSE Euronext stock exchange in Amsterdam and reported annual revenue of € 5.2 billion in 2013.

www.nutreco.com

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The full press releases in English and Dutch are attached in the pdfs below.