June 5, 2023

 

BASF's Dr. Sven K. Weber: Enzymes lead the way for sustainable animal production

More than 30 years ago, BASF created the first enzymes for animal nutrition and introduced them into feed solutions for pig, poultry and aquaculture productions.

 

"As feed enzymes pioneers, we have been innovating and refining them ever since," Dr. Sven K. Weber, the vice president of Feed Enzymes & Feed Performance Ingredients at BASF, tells eFeedLink.

 

Dr. Weber shares more about enzymes in animal nutrition and BASF's role in this market.

 

Dr. Sven K. Weber, BASF's vice president of Feed Enzymes & Feed Performance Ingredients

 

In your new role and capacity, what do you envision to implement and achieve in promoting and expanding BASF's feed enzymes business and portfolio?

Dr. Sven K. Weber: It is well known that BASF is a pioneer in the use of enzymes in feeding. We introduced enzymes into animal nutrition more than 30 years ago and there with gave all animal producers a boost in terms of utilising nutrients from feed. Accordingly, we have a profound knowledge of the effectiveness and application of enzymes like no other. But we do not stand still and have continuously developed our enzyme products over all these years to maintain and expand our leading position and offer a compelling portfolio to the market. Today, our portfolio includes the feed enzymes Natuphos^®E (phytase), Natugrain^®TS (xylanase + glucanase) and the recently launched product Natupulse^®TS (ß-mannanase). With this extensive product range, we cover the most important enzyme products that can be used beneficially in feeding.

We are constantly working to further improve our enzymes, both in terms of their efficacy in different animal species with numerous feeding trials and their technical properties. We can refer here to the higher thermostability of Natuphos^® E in powders (85°C) and granules (95°C), which allows greater flexibility in pelleting. Especially to be emphasised here is the superb product shelf life of 24 months for solids (granulates/powder) and 18 months for liquid grades, reflecting the exceptional stability of Natuphos^® E.

In the future, we are determined to accelerate innovation and grow faster than the market by building on our breakthrough know-how. It is our goal to grow profitably with our customers, while simultaneously strengthening our leading market position to continue creating value for the animal feed industry. To achieve this, we are constantly investing in our production platforms, further developing our product portfolio as well as driving the sustainability transformation. This puts us in line with the key priorities of our customers.

 

In recent years, many feed additive producers have pivoted toward service-based solutions, instead of the conventional product-focused approach to address animal producers' needs. BASF is the world's largest chemical company and a major feed supplement manufacturer; please share with our readers your proposition for the feed and livestock sectors.

Dr. Sven K. Weber: As BASF, our commitment to the animal nutrition industry is to create feed ingredients like vitamins and enzymes on a scientific basis, conducting several feeding trials to confirm their effects and developing application concepts. This is what makes BASF Animal Nutrition stand out: The science of sustainable feed that succeeds. Thus, our focus will remain on bringing high-quality feed ingredients to the market and likewise ensure that our customers can use them successfully. We are convinced that by investing in our value chains for vitamins, carotenoids and enzymes, in people and sustainability, we will best serve the market.

 

The global feed enzyme market is huge. Beside the major established international producers (like BASF), local country producers (for example, in China and India) are gaining market share in their home countries and increasing their exports. Is there a difference in production technology or application? What is BASF's competitive advantage?

Dr. Sven K. Weber: Our main competitive advantages in feed enzymes are: Our expertise and knowledge, a complementary product portfolio and many services that both support our customers and strengthen our position as one of the leading enzyme suppliers. Serving our customers, we stand by our commitment to high-quality feed ingredients and world-class production standards.

We at BASF are specialists in research and development of high-performance enzymes for animal nutrition and other industrial applications. In our dedicated enzyme research facility in San Diego, California, we harness an enzyme discovery platform that allows us unprecedented access to the diversity of enzymes found in nature.

After identifying enzymes with the desired beneficial properties, our proprietary protein evolution technologies enable us to customise a range of highly differentiated enzyme products to address the specific market needs. Enzymes from BASF help animals make the most of feed. Not just by enhancing nutrient digestion or reducing the quantities of raw materials required, but also by improving gut health and promoting animal vitality by helping balance intestinal microbial populations. All are highly effective and proven by numerous feeding trials. All have robust shelf-life and high storage stability, both in premixes and compound feed. They are thermostable even in difficult conditions, such as the higher temperatures and humidity present in pelleting, and they are well supported. They are backed by high levels of service, as well as digital support, expert consultancy and free product for field trials.

According to various market studies, the demand for feed enzymes will further grow globally by 3-5% p.a. [CAGR, or compound annual growth rate] in the coming years. As a pioneer and one of the leading suppliers of feed enzymes, BASF has prepared itself for this market development by expanding its production capacities at an early stage to meet a significant part of this demand.

In developed European and North American farms, most animal producers are integrated operations. But in some developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America, small-scale producers, or backyard farms, still dominate. Are BASF's feed enzyme and feed performance ingredients geared to serving these producers to aid their growth? How can they benefit from BASF's service solutions?

Dr. Sven K. Weber: With our feed ingredients business built on proven, high-performing, and sustainable solutions, we aim to shape the future of the industry – thereby, we strive to fulfill the needs of all kinds of different customer groups.

 

In this period of high energy costs and challenges from climate change, how can BASF's enzymes and performance ingredients as well as service solutions offer a more sustainable approach for animal producers to mitigate costs and improve feed efficiency?

Having a look at the animal and feed production chain, feed still accounts for 50-70% of the total costs in animal production. Improving nutrient utilisation and converting feed into food more effectively thus remains a key lever for reducing costs in livestock farming. Feed ingredients are a proven tool. For example, enzymes allow a more efficient use of resources, with fewer inputs for the same or higher output. The nutritional value of even the best feed mixture is only realized if the animals can digest the inherent nutrients properly. Enzymes help making naturally indigestible feed components digestible for the animal. Thus, you can literally produce more animal protein with less feed.

Take for instance, our latest ß-mannanase product, Natupulse^®TS, that has proven to increase the profitability of animal production. In an average of eight broiler trials, Natupulse^®TS decreased the production cost per metric tonne gained bodyweight by US$8.7/mt versus the control. In addition, Natupulse^®TS showed a high return on investment (ROI) of over 13. We believe this is especially beneficial to broiler producers during the current high-cost situation.

By improving feed conversion rates, feed ingredients can help producers to become more efficient and resilient in the face of current economic challenges. And there is another positive side effect: Any reduction in feed inputs for animal protein production goes a long way toward conserving resources and reducing carbon emissions. "More from less" highlights the key efficiencies of our enzymes. We enable the production of feed that animals can digest far more easily. Promoting animal vitality and profits with the reduction of environmental impacts and costs.

This way, the difficult market environment also brings about an opportunity for the animal nutrition industry in the sense that it can accelerate the development towards a more sustainable production of animal protein, where an economical use of resources is one of the defining principles.

 

In today's knowledge-based, highly connected world, producers are aggregating data through various means, including on-site monitoring sensors and the implementation of systems to interpret information and turn them into actionable insights to deliver solutions to end-users. We would like to hear from you on the role data would play in the animal nutrition and animal health sectors.

Dr. Sven K. Weber: Innovative digital tools can be of tremendous help in optimising daily operations, minimising inefficiencies, and thus increasing margins along the whole animal protein value chain. Let me give you three examples.

With Opteinics™ BASF offers a digital solution that offers dynamic environmental footprinting of feed and animal protein. This digital solution was developed to analyse and minimise the environmental impact of animal protein with a focus on animal feed production. The composition of the feed alone can positively influence up to 80% of the total ecological footprint of animal protein such as milk, meat and eggs.

The mobile Near Infrared Spectroscopy solution from BASF's subsidiary trinamiX is a lab in the pocket for nutrient analysis in feed and it delivers value where it matters most: in the field. Farmers, feed mills, integrators and consultants are now equipped with a powerful handheld device and app for on-the-spot analysis of finished feed, feed ingredients and forage. It is easy-to-use, robust, and resistant to water, dust or dirt. A powerful, cloud-based combination of handheld device, smartphone app and customer portal.

Cloudfarms is the first fully cloud-based swine management system for highly productive and efficient livestock farming. In our opinion, this is the smartest way to manage pig production. Our easy-to-use mobile app and software was developed to address the requirements of modern pig farms. It supports all processes and is suitable for farms of any size. The insights gained through digital solutions by analysing and linking data along the value chain help increase efficiency and helps to make data-driven decisions.

 

As per capita meat and milk consumption continues to grow in Asian economies, please share with our readers what are the plans that BASF have for the region. Are there any Asian-specific development plan for the feed enzyme and feed performance ingredients portfolio that you can share with us?

Dr. Sven K. Weber: A few years ago, our customers in Asia have given us feedback that they use both soy and corn in their feed and thus would need to apply both NSP and phytase in their feed formulation. They told us that if we can develop a product that has both phytase (Natuphos®E) and NSP (Natugrain^®TS), it will help them save time and effort in the application. With that in mind, we have developed the Natuphos^®E 5000 Combi G/L, a unique 3-in-1 combination product, which is a mixture of Natuphos®E (hybrid 6-phytase) and Natugrain^®TS (endo1,4-xylanase and endo-1,4-beta-glucanase) that facilitates stock management and application by enabling our customers to use one additive instead of two at the inclusion level of only one.

Another product that was "Asia-inspired" was Natupulse^®TS, BASF's latest enzyme innovation with ß-mannanase that can improve digestion and support animals to get maximum nutrients out of the feed. Many of our customers in Asia use corn-soybean meal-based diets in their poultry feed, but they constantly face difficulties to improve feed efficiency as up to 30% of the nutrients in feed remain undigested by broilers. One of the reasons is the presence of non-starch polysaccharides (NSPs), which are known to be antinutritive factors (ANFs) that can potentially decrease nutrient utilisation and impair the performance of animals. In soybean meal, one of the main NSPs is the ß-mannan galactomannan. Adding ß-mannanase to feed hydrolyses dietary ß-mannans and can reduce their antinutritional effects on the animal. Enriching feed with ß-mannanase can serve as a favorable solution to lower production costs by improving feed efficiency. Thus, ß-mannanase can help to improve animal protein production's profitability.

In the past, it may have been understood that ß-mannanase was best suited to diets that consisted only of ß-mannan-rich alternative raw materials such as palm kernel meal and guar meal. However, our research shows that BASF's Natupulse^®TS opens the possibility of utilising more nutrients from a corn-soybean meal-based diet to make its inclusion in the diet economically viable. In the feeding of broilers, Natupulse^®TS improves feed efficiency, even in a corn-soybean meal-based diet and generates a lower cost per tonne of gained bodyweight. Thus, Natupulse^®TS can serve as a solution to lower production costs and improve the profitability of animal protein production.

Over the years, BASF has successfully launched many significant developments, new products and, more recently, digital offerings. Our motto is: "More than 50 years: BASF Animal Nutrition committed to the science of sustainable feed that succeeds." This means that we develop feed ingredients on a scientific basis, carry out feeding trials to confirm their effects and develop application concepts. In 2023, we will continue to strive to bring efficient and effective products to the market that are beneficial and meet our customer's needs.

 

- Terry Tan, eFeedLink