April 28, 2015
 

Lallemand-Texas A&M AgriLife partnership focuses on beef and ruminants 

 

 

Lallemand Animal Nutrition and Texas A&M Agrilife Research have announced a collaboration to be launched at the McGregor Research Center in McGregor, Texas, US.

 

This collaboration is one of two dedicated to product applications for beef, dairy and small ruminant animals. The work focuses on continual documentation on the mode of action, biomarkers of efficacy and benefits of existing yeast and bacteria strains. Researchers are also working toward a better understanding of the microbial ecosystems, solutions and applications to support sustainable animal production, said Dr Mathieu Castex, the global research and development director of Lallemand.

 

"In particular, we are aiming to document microbial solutions that can help to answer the modern challenges of dairy and beef production - maintaining optimal production while enhancing animal well-being," Dr Castex added.

 

Dr Kerry Barling, Lallemand's global manager of beef technology, helped select Texas A&M AgriLife Research for the partnership based on a shared vision for supporting animal agriculture.

 

"The research completed at the McGregor facility, along with our other Ruminant Centers of Excellence, will be a combination of strain selection; identification and characterisation; as well as in vitro and in vivo testing," Dr Barling said. "With this new partnership with AgriLife Research, we can complete more field validation work and real-life monitoring with a GrowSafe System to measure individual animal feed intake and behavior."

 

The McGregor Research Center provides a full spectrum of scientific and informational resources to support Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, and Texas A&M University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

 

"At our McGregor Research Center, our primary goal is to help develop sustainable solutions for beef cattle producers in Texas that can have global utility," said Dr Craig Nessler, the director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research. "Working with industry partners like Lallemand gives us the opportunity to (cooperate) in characterising products and identifying knowledge gaps so that innovative solutions can be identified, developed and deployed."

 

Lallemand has established partnerships worldwide as part of their Research Centers of Excellence programme as well as their Forward initiative to advance the development and innovation of microbial solutions.

 

"We're at the forefront of providing modern yeast, bacteria and microbial solutions, and collaborative partnerships. Our Centers of Excellence provide the opportunity to evaluate our technologies in real-life situations," said Dr Castex.

 

"We research and develop specific solutions that are uniquely different and have the ability to advance overall animal production and well-being. It's the Forward-thinking we put into our research that results in quality products with practical application."

 

Lallemand Animal Nutrition Centers of Excellence, which are dedicated to ruminant and silage research, are located in the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA, Clermont-Ferrand and Theix, France), the William H. Miner Agriculture Research Institute (Chazy, New York, US), and the Biotechnology Research Institute of the National Research Council (Montreal, Canada).