Research & Innovation

Shur-Gain owns and operates Canada's largest corporate animal R&D facility. Our 850-acre research farm at Burford, Ontario has research units for poultry, swine and dairy. Approximately two-thirds of its capacity is reserved for internal R&D and the remainder is sold externally to global animal nutrition and health companies. The Burford facility has been inspected three times by the United States Food and Drug (FDA) administration and once by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and all were successful. Our relationships with external research clients have facilitated the development of valuable experimental methods for the study of pathogen control as we seek replacements for in-feed medications.

In addition to our Ontario location, Nutreco Canada Inc. owns or leases R&D facilities for growing and reproducing swine in Manitoba and Quebec. This infrastructure allows us to meet regulatory requirements for multi-site studies to prove efficacy for registration of new nutritional feed additives. It is also a vital resource for validation of simulation models. Salmon growth studies are conducted at a facility in New Brunswick and additional projects are funded at Canadian research institutions on an as-needed basis.

Nutreco Canada Agresearch

Shur-Gain has a dedicated group of animal nutritionists, physiologists, chemists and veterinarians who investigate issues and concepts of animal nutrition and productivity. They are active in all areas of animal nutrition. The key focus is in dairy, beef, swine, and poultry (layer, broiler chicken and turkey). Under the direction of Dr. John Brennan, the scientists develop concepts related to digestive physiology, ingredient composition, the nutritional requirements of various animal productivity functions and the impact of environmental interactions upon the animal. These concepts are integrated into computer simulation models that become key elements for determining animal nutritional needs in specific situations and for accurately estimating animal productivity expectations under defined feeding strategies.

The research group is developing and validating a broad range of new products, programmes and technologies that are implemented across the Shur-Gain and Landmark system to the benefit of our customers. Accurate prediction of energy and amino acid requirements, feeding strategies for environmental sustainability, nutritional modulation to enhance product (milk, egg, carcass and meat) quality, improved understanding of mineral nutrition, feeding programmes to improve animal health and well-being, improved concepts of anti-oxidant therapy are some important areas of research within the group.

An important component of the Research and Nutrition department is the Shur-Gain Research Lab. A dedicated group of research chemists investigate ingredient composition and quality, animal product composition and work with In vitro assay methods to simulate various aspects of the digestive process. Coupling these findings with the applied nutrition and animal physiology expertise of our species scientists allows us to accurately and precisely predict the impact of various technologies and concepts on the animal’s nutritional well-being. New concepts in pathogen control, meat and milk compositional improvement, ingredient quality assurance, feed digestibility improvement, and improved understanding of mineral metabolism are just some of the recent discoveries that are now in use in Shur-Gain feeding programmes.

Shur-Gain scientists work with Shur-Gain technical nutritionists and species specialists across Canada and the United States, other researchers within Nutreco Canada Inc., and collaborate in projects with scientists at universities, government institutions, and many commercial businesses.

Innovation

Research Application Development Team

At Nutreco Canada Inc. we pride ourselves on the fact that our Systems Development Team is closely integrated with our Research Scientists. This enables us to deliver our research technology very efficiently and quickly to market.

Our key offering in this area is a Multi Species Feed Formulation Tool "Workbench" which processes hundreds of thousands of feed formulations on an annual basis and currently supports a user base of over 250 across Canada and the USA. The application is constructed using the latest programming technologies and is a world first in utilizing web delivery mechanisms to provide animal nutrition modeling to internal sales, nutritionist and researchers as well as external partners and dealers.

The next generation swine business tool

Learn more about Watson. Click the graphic above.

If you have any questions with regard to the direction of Workbench.net, feel free to contact Dean.Efpatridis@Nutreco.ca.