Demands around the world to restrict greenhouse gas and nutrient emissions from all forms of livestock mean feed formulators need to ensure that animals are efficiently pulling all they can out of both macro and micro-nutrients to reduce the amount of harmful substances that end up in the air, water and soil.

“They look at livestock and see pollution,” said Melissa Dumont, executive director of the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada, summing up widely held public and government attitudes toward agriculture.

Those attitudes result in both scrutiny of and demands upon the feed industry that are relentless and sometimes wrongheaded, some researchers and scientists said.

“The pressure on us … is absolutely immense,” said British feed scientist Emily Burton of Nottingham Trent University.

“It’s the assumptions that annoy me most as a nutritionist.”

Within the livestock and feed industries there is much pride over the ever-increasing efficiency of meat production, with per-kilogram greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact significantly falling over time.

For example, the U.S. hog industry claims it now has an eight per cent smaller environmental impact, uses 75 per cent less land, consumes 25 per cent less water and runs on seven per cent less energy than 50 years ago, despite producing much more meat.

Each healthy pig or steer today now produces more pounds of gain with fewer emissions than ever before, while preserving grasslands and consuming materials that would otherwise be waste.

However, millions of people around the planet believe livestock production is a primary cause of climate change, water pollution and soil degradation.

While some have pushed back against what they consider misperceptions of net livestock emissions, virtually all feed companies and researchers now include “sustainability” as a key metric when considering advances and characteristics they are trying to build into feed sources and practices.

Before the official opening of the main ANCC sessions, a full morning was dedicated to researchers who are focused on boosting livestock sustainability with better feeding.

Getting to “net-zero livestock production” and turning pledges into concrete sustainability results for pig and dairy cattle producers were the lead-off sessions for the symposium, which drew more than 400 attendees.

American and Dutch experts challenged the feed industry to take more seriously micro-nutrient impact, efficiency and waste, which they said is generally ignored.

“Most of us don’t (pay attention to micronutrient impacts),” said Terry Engle of Colorado State University.

There’s great stress on researchers to improve livestock sustainability, but fortunately for the industry, it appears there is a stream of young researchers keen to get into the industry. Dozens of graduate students from across Canada, many from non-Canadian backgrounds, attended the conference.

The student researcher presentations, both in posters and from the stage, were popular with more seasoned researchers, and the conference sprinkled student participation through the event.

One organization making its appearance at the conference was African Youth in Canadian Agriculture, which is a new national organization attempting to connect African students in Canadian high schools and universities to opportunities in agriculture, which most young urban people are unaware of and have no clue of how to access.

An example of how African-origin researchers are finding places in Canada’s feed industry was seen in University of Saskatchewan graduate student and researcher Roseline Ogory, who presented her work in incorporating Ahliflower seed and cake in chicken diets to produce better omega 3 content in eggs.

The notion that there are still radical gains to be made in livestock feeding efficiency ran through the conference. Micronutrients are not the only element of livestock feeding that is likely being supplied inefficiently and possibly counterproductively. University of Saskatchewan swine nutrition scientist Dan Columbus highlighted the relative lack of study on sow nutritional needs and the crude manner in which sow diets are supplied, mostly ignoring the cyclical needs of the animal.

Engle, an expert in copper, acknowledged his favourite element befuddles him, despite decades of study.

“I love copper, but it confuses me,” said Engle.

Researchers feel much pressure to feed animals more sustainably, but many also feel optimism that feeding sustainability and efficiency have major gains waiting to be discovered.

That tension between demands for sustainability and optimism about sustainability dominated the conference.

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The closures highlight the pain for global agriculture companies from the outbreak of African swine fever in China, the world’s top hog producer and pork consumer.

African swine fever, for which there is no cure and no vaccine, kills almost all infected pigs, though it does not harm people.

The disease has killed more than a million pigs in China since the nation’s first reported case last August, cutting demand for feed ingredients such as soymeal and pre-mixes, which are blends of vitamins and other nutrients sold by Cargill and other suppliers.

“This is not a six-month trend for China to recover,” Chuck Warta, president of Cargill’s animal nutrition and pre-mix business, said in an interview. “This is a 24-month, 36-month kind of resetting of the world’s population of animals.”

The outbreak accelerated closures of Cargill feed mills in coastal regions of China that were also prompted by a westward shift over the past decade of the areas in which livestock are raised, Warta said. Most of the facilities will not be re-opened even if China gets African swine fever under control, he said.

Cargill closed three feed and animal-nutrition plants in the second half of the fiscal year that ended on May 31, representing an approximately 150,000-tonne reduction in capacity, according to the company.

But Cargill still sees a bright future for its animal nutrition business in China, Warta said. The company said it is spending US$65 million to replace a pre-mix plant in Nanjing and is also buying land for a similar facility in Henan province.

“We’re idling some assets, but we’re shifting those resources into a different type of production that is more positioned to serve the market,” Warta said.

Cargill reported on Thursday that reduced hog feed demand in China, along with the ongoing U.S.-China trade war and flooding in the U.S. Midwest, led to a 41 per cent slide in adjusted quarterly profits.

For the first six months of 2019, China’s soybean imports dropped 14.7 per cent from the same period last year as African swine fever curbed demand for hog feed, Chinese customs data showed on Friday.

Expectations for China to boost meat imports after losing hogs has caused some livestock producers in exporting countries to feed animals longer so that they grow bigger, Warta said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Tom Polansek in Chicago and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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The gains in protein offset a weaker year-on-year result for Cargill’s origination and processing unit as huge global grain stocks weighed down commodity prices and minimized market volatility, limiting trading opportunities.

Cargill and rivals — including Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge and Louis Dreyfus, known as the ABCD quartet of global grain trading giants — have been trying to diversify and lift earnings amid a global grains glut that has squeezed margins and dragged down profits.

Cargill’s diversification push has centered around its proteins business, with expansions in feed production and aquaculture and divestitures of its U.S. pork business and several cattle feedlots.

The privately held company said net income rose to $973 million in its first quarter ended Aug. 31, from $852 million a year earlier (all figures US$).

Excluding one-time items, Cargill reported quarterly net income of $888 million, up from $827 million a year earlier.

Revenue came in at $27.3 billion, slightly up from the $27.1 billion it posted last year.

The company’s animal nutrition and protein segment was the largest contributor to profit in the quarter, as low beef prices fueled demand while ample beef cattle supplies boosted margins. Global poultry earnings were down slightly from the year-earlier quarter.

Cargill’s food ingredients and applications unit was the second-largest earnings contributor in the quarter, led by gains in cocoa and chocolate products and sweeteners and starches, the company said. It was the fifth straight quarter of higher year-on-year results for the segment.

Origination and processing results fell below a year ago despite good soy processing results in Brazil and China and strong exports from Brazil. Slow farmer grain sales in South America created headwinds, the company said.

Industrial and financial services results were also lower than a year ago.

— Karl Plume reports on agriculture and agribusiness for Reuters from Chicago; additional reporting by Taenaz Shakir in Bangalore.

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Revenue for the privately held company declined for the eighth straight quarter.

Minnesota-based Cargill reported net income of $15 million for the fourth quarter ended May 31, compared with a net loss of $51 million a year earlier (all figures US$). Revenue fell five per cent to $27.1 billion.

Excluding items such as inventory adjustments and gains or losses from sales of assets, the company posted an operating loss of $19 million, compared with a year-earlier profit of $230 million.

Cargill’s report was the latest in a series of disappointing financial statements from agriculture-focused companies.

Last week, rival agribusiness Archer Daniels Midland reported a sharply lower quarterly profit due to volatile grain prices and weak trading and processing margins. Bunge, another Cargill rival, posted higher earnings but warned of near-term headwinds due to tightening margins.

After ample global crop supplies limited trading opportunities for large grain companies earlier this year, a weather-related harvest shortfall in South America riled markets this summer and caught traders wrong-footed.

Cargill is in the midst of a restructuring aimed at bolstering margins and making itself more responsive to commodity market swings.

“We have about $28 billion of equity in the books and about $1.6 billion in earnings on an adjusted basis. That’s around the five per cent mark and that’s obviously not where we want to be,” chief financial officer Marcel Smits told Reuters in an interview.

In the past year, Cargill has spent $3 billion on expansions of existing facilities and acquisitions such as fish feedmaker EWOS and divested nearly $2.4 billion in assets, including its U.S. pork business and some cattle feedlots. It said it has realized more than $625 million from new products and services and from efficiency gains.

“We’re making progress in terms of positioning ourselves for a future that is meaningfully more profitable,” Smits said.

The food ingredients and applications unit, bolstered by the recent acquisition of ADM’s global chocolate business, posted stronger results in the quarter, as did the animal nutrition and protein business.

But Cargill’s origination and processing segment lost money due to losses in soybean trading and volatile oilseed crush margins.

Industrial and financial services recorded a losing quarter, due to a charge taken for counterparty risk in its ocean shipping business.

— Karl Plume reports on agriculture and ag commodity markets for Reuters from Chicago.

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The Minnesota-based company’s grain and oilseed supply chain and energy businesses were standouts in the quarter ended Aug. 31, in stark contrast with several rival agribusinesses that have struggled in the commodities market downturn.

Cargill, which holds major stakes in Canadian grain handling, beef packing and food processing, reported net earnings of $512 million for the fiscal first quarter, compared with a profit of $425 million a year earlier (all figures US$). Revenue declined 17 per cent to $27.5 billion, from $33.3 billion.

“Our team ably navigated the quarter’s weather-driven agricultural commodity markets, as well as the effects of more volatile emerging markets, currency fluctuations and other macroeconomic uncertainty,” CEO David MacLennan said in a release.

Cargill’s origination and processing unit, which buys, sells, stores and processes crops such as corn and soybeans, was its largest contributor in a quarter marked by falling prices and tepid global demand.

Soybean processing profit strengthened amid bumper crops in North and South America, Cargill said.

Rival agribusiness Louis Dreyfus Commodities last week said first-half profit fell by half due to falling commodity prices and faltering growth in major markets such as China and Brazil.

Archer Daniels Midland and Bunge, which along with Cargill and Dreyfus are known as the “ABCD companies” that dominate global grain trading, report results in the coming weeks.

Results were down in Cargill’s animal nutrition and protein segment as high cattle and beef prices steered consumers to cheaper pork and poultry. The company sold its pork business to meat packer JBS this summer.

Cargill’s food ingredients segment also posted lower quarterly results, pressured by weak profits in sweeteners and starches, which slumped amid historically low sugar prices, the company said.

Lower operating earnings after the closure of its hedge fund arm Black River Asset Management this summer weighed on results in Cargill’s industrial and financial services segment, only partly offsetting stronger returns in energy trading.

— Karl Plume reports on agricultural commodity markets for Reuters from Chicago.

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