June 2, 2016

Nutriad helps sponsor 2015-16 US scholarships

 Nutriad, along with various other corporate sponsors, has sponsored "Targeting Excellence", contributing to the funding of excellence awards to students in agriculture.

Across the US, scholarships were awarded to 58 students enrolled in two-year, four- year, graduate and veterinary programmes with a focus on food animal agriculture.

The mission of Targeting Excellence is to sponsor events that bring together professional leaders of agricultural businesses, production systems, and institutions of higher education - with students - for the purpose of building personal relationships, exchanging ideas, and improving communications, while raising funds for scholarships.

David Funderburke, president of Targeting Excellence said: "Targeting Excellence is not just another agriculture student scholarship programme.  While the scholarships are an integral part of the organisation, the events are also important as they create an environment where students can learn more about career opportunities in food animal production while spending face-to-face time with leaders of the industry".

The need to support students in agriculture careers is a crucial cause, according to Nutriad.

A 2010 Ag Careers study reported that in the next 15 to 20 years, 77 million baby-boomers will retire with only 44 million generation-Xers to backfill their jobs.

Many retiring baby-boomers are builders and leaders of agriculture and, in particular, the current food animal production. To ensure there is no shortfall of qualified students, the leaders of Targeting Excellence are being pro-active and "Focused on Feeding the Future."

Grady Fain, senior vice president of Nutriad USA, stated: "We are proud to support the future of our agricultural industry in the US. Through initiatives as brought forward by Targeting Excellence and by hiring talented professionals directly, we invest in developing our industry and help develop the answers to tomorrow's challenges."