Feedworks celebrates 25 years in business at its 2024 Conference at the Sunshine Coast

Feedworks celebrated its 25th year in business at its 2024 Conference held again at Twin Waters on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in early September.
“It’s something we are both proud and grateful for,” said Managing Partner Malcolm Mottram at the opening of the event.
“There has never been big financial modelling or planning, just a simple mud map to give a general direction and proceeding with a few key guiding principles.
“We provide value to our customers with a ‘Performance through Science’ approach which includes being a trusted partner with our customers and not just a sales company focused on getting the order, but more of ‘how can we help’ rather than ‘what can we get’?
“Operating with trusted suppliers, products and partners and collaborating with them to improve the offering to customers and industry, is a driving philosophy of Feedworks,” he said.
“I’m proud to lead an incredible team that embodies these principals, which has enabled us to achieve steady organic growth over many years.
“This growth encompasses feeding all animal species and expanding regionally into New Zealand, as well as further afield through our sister company and partners in the USA.
“We’ve also broadened our network of suppliers and partners globally. None of this happens overnight or is taken for granted.
“While the process of discovery, research and development can sometimes be challenging, the satisfaction of adding value to our industry makes any difficulties worthwhile.
“We are extremely grateful to our customers and industry organisations for allowing us to be part of their journey.
“Also thankful to our supplier partners for entrusting us with their products and services.
“The support of our families is recognised as our work often entails long hours and extended periods of travel.
“Our 25 year history represents a significant milestone but our story is far from over and we have a strong succession plan worked out with our next generation of colleagues.
“They will become an even bigger part of the Feedworks journey,” Malcolm predicted with confidence.
Feedworks conferences have developed a formula that in Poultry Digest’s experience is unique in what it offers their distributors, customers and those closely associated with the company.
Delegates are encouraged to bring their partners and children to the event.
Mornings to early afternoon are when the scientific presentation are run but after that, there is ample time for relaxation, socialising, golf, swimming or relaxing in the Twin Waters family friendly environment.
Feedworks’ suppliers are many of the iconic brands dedicated to livestock industries; as such they contribute speakers whose expertise puts them at the leading edge of not only animal but in some cases human, nutrition.
The conference opened on September 11 with a panel presentation and discussion, ‘The Good, The Looks Good and The Maybe Good.’
Discussed were the most significant things (in animal nutrition) in the last 25 years and what we can expect in the next 25 years.
Speakers were Professor Roselina Angel, Dr Kristy DiGiacomo, and Professor Mike Allen.
Professor Angel is a globally recognised poultry research scientist from the University of Maryland, USA.
Her research achievements over many years are prodigious but her most recent focus has been on improvement in phosphorus nutrition though optimising calcium use as well as in maximising economic nutrient conversion efficiency.
Key issues in poultry production she stated, were calcium excesses in diets. What the bird needs is what it can use. The totals mean nothing in the digestible Ca to digestible P question, she said.
Answering the discussion points and commenting on 25 years of phosphorous research in broilers and the road to digestible calcium, she said “this Looks Good, but could not be
applied in commercial conditions,
followed by understanding why the application was running into problems – the Maybe Good.
Finally, “developing an applicable digestible calcium system that ‘works’ in broilers under commercial production systems is The Good,” she said.
Dr DiGiacomo identified something that is in the works/transition that Looks Good as improvements in animal welfare.
“It represents a move towards increasing positives rather than just removing negatives. The large role of nutrition and feed management is a significant aspect of this improvement.”
The first presentation in the Joint monogstric and ruminant session on September 12, was delivered by Prof Rosalina Angel and was based on her research at the department of Animal Sciences (Uni Maryland USA) and Kyle Venter from Neuro Livestock Research, Kamwwldrift Brits, South Africa,
‘New insight into mnogastric nutrition with a focus on Ca, P, and phytase’ was her topic.
The focus of this paper involved the remembering of basic phytic acid interactions and the potential paradigm changes and why understanding Ca in the diet is the key to this.
“Consider the impacts of excess limestone and also acid binding capacity and the implication of both ingredient and limestone choices,” Prof Angel stated.
“Limestone Ca digestibility and the development and validation of prediction equations are also vital aspects of our research,” she said.
Spain has emerged as a leading producer of both pig and poultry in Europe and has large and sophisticated production systems.
Dr Gerardo Santoma recently retired after many years in leading animal research work in both international corporations and science extension organisations in his native country.
Dr Santoma described in some detail how Spain’s pig and in particular poultry industries were performing.
‘Broiler and swine nutrition; Spanish experiences’ was his first presentation in the Joint session on September 12.
The following day his presentation ‘Survey of European nutritionists: how dietary specifications vary and what has changed in ten years’ was the last
presentation in the monogastric program.
Dr Leon Marchal from IFF Danisco Animal Nutrition & Health, presented the first of two papers ‘Innovation and application trends in enzyme technology
After explaining some of his company’s background, he spoke about “what is driving faster enzyme innovation, also not only new enzymes but new applications,” he said.
“Changing imperatives in feeding broilers have lead to a reduction in the use of soy, also campylobacter reduction.
“There has been a paradigm shift in protein engineering; in the past proteins have been too complex for computation – only experimentation worked..
“However, from 2021 onwards though proteins remain complex, we can predict both structure and function,” Dr Marchal stated.
On the topic of Campylobacter, Dr Marchal stated that iron is a nutritional virulence factor of Campylobacter as it is needed for bacterial growth; it is also critical to a variety of metabolic enzyme functions,” he said.
His concluding comments on innovation and application trends included that “automation and AI is driving faster enzyme development and allowing for more use of less digestible ingredients with the right enzyme mix.
Dr Marchal delivered a second presentation in the Monogastric program on the September 13.
‘How to Optimize Phytase Dose’ was the topic.
“With a typical level of added Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn expect a 50-100% replacement of trace minerals TM supplement and a A$ feed cost saving of $2-$5/MT of feed.
“Just as important is the potential to generate around 50% reduction of Zn, and Cu emission while making 100% bioavailable of what is in the ingredients,” Dr Marchal said.
The ‘Role of minerals on immunity and protection against viral pathogens’ presented by Dr Adam Geiger from Zinpro Corp USA, was more directed at the ruminant market.
However the jump of the AI strain H5N1 from avian to dairy herds in the USA is a concern for the livestock sector in Australia and NZ as a whole.
Similarly the presentation from Prof Duarte Diaz (Uni of Arizona) –‘Mycotoxins – what you don’t know but should,’ was oriented toward ruminant issues.
However, the ever evolving nature of moulds which then generate mycotoxins are relevant to all livestock feeds, including monogastrics.
Dr Vivienne Inhuber, Head of Technical Sales and Research at Alzchem, returned to Australia and the Feedworks conference to report on ‘Recent discoveries in the Creamino (GAA) role in metabolism’.
Creatine is well known for its role in improving muscle function in human physiology.
Feedworks Dr Dave Cadogan is a fan of GAA and demonstrated his fitness levels by performing 10 jumping jacks on stage before Vivienne’s presentation!
“Your energy metabolism works better,” Vivienne stated after Dr Dave’s demonstration.
“Creatine is abundant in meat products but absent in plant derived material and poultry have evolved as omnivores,” she stated.
“Creamino is a granulated free flowing preparation of GAA and starch; it is non hygroscopic and does not coke or require segregation and contains a minimum of 96% GAA.
“Produced in Germany by Alzchem, Creamino is stable under typical feed processing conditions,” Vivienne explained.
Trials conducted in Europe demonstrated improvements in key poultry production parameters.
“Apart from Creamino’s potential to improve poultry growth performance it has a valuable function in sparing the inclusion of Arginine (at 149%),” Vivienne revealed.
Dr Alex Wu, who conducted his PhD studies at UNE, is now the Regional Technical Director for the Swedish Perstorp Group.
His presentation ‘Concepts in using butyrin and valerate in poultry and pig production and health’ introduced the concept of combining three useful acids in an Esterification product.
“Esterification is the process that results in the creation of an ester
molecule where molecules of an organic acid (butyric, proprionic and caleric) are attached to glycerol,” Alex explained.
“This produces a far more concentrated organic acid product compared to coated products.
“It ensures superior delivery of an organic acid throughout the digestive tract and results in the organic acid benefits with no ‘smell’ issues and dry easy handling,” Alex stated.
Dr Leonardo Linares, Poultry Nutritionist, Global Technical Services Team at Zinpro Corp’s presentation was ‘It starts with the hen – improving eggshell quality in breeders and layers with advanced mineral nutrition.
Yann Fournis is a member of the Cargill (France) Micronutrition Additives team-technical leader Gut Health.
His presentation ‘Using microbiota analysis and understanding to build solutions for poultry – Galleon, research results in global trials of Dia-V MBpro.
Dr Alex Wu (Perstorp) delivered a second paper in the Monogastric session, ‘Reducing acid buffering capacity in young bird diets is important too!’
“Acid binding capacity (ABC) is very important for broiler diet formation,” was critical advice from Alex in his conclusions.
Dr David Cadogan’s presentation was ‘Using inorganic minerals to reduce negative effects of sulphur and improve enteric health in pigs and poultry’.
“There are several adsorbtion pathways for minerals. The mineral uptake and the Amino acid pathway (for single acid bound minerals),” Dave said.
“High levels of sulphur restrict growth in pigs and poultry and there is a limit to adding sulphate bound minerals.
“There are anti-pathogen effects of potentiated Zinc Oxide (HiZox) and monovalent copper (CoRouge).
“Also there are growth performance benefits by adding monovalent copper (oxide),” Dave concluded.
‘Oxidative stress and the interaction between Vitamin E and Polyphenosis /E-Life)’ was the paper presented by Dr Pim Langhout from Impextraco.
“Oxidation was a problem in feed as it caused rancidity and in poultry production (in VIV) caused oxidative stress,” he said.
As always the 2024 Feedworks Conference was an all round excellent experience with good scientific presentations and an enjoyable social program.
There was plenty of opportunity for networking and just enjoying the company of not only business friends but their partners and children.
The golf on the afternoon of the final day always brings out a competitive spirit and much comment on skill (or lack of it).
The Feedworks team and Mary-Anne Blair in particular, do a magnificent job of organising the event.
Being the 25th Anniversary of Feedworks,this conference had particular significance to all who participated.
For more informaiton on the papers presented please contact zach.mottram@feedworks.com.au
The papers will also be posted on the Feedworks website in due course.