Adifo and BASF have launched a new digital solution for the animal agriculture value chain that integrates sustainability analytics powered by BASF’s Opteinics project into Adifo’s BESTMIX® feed formulation software.
BASF’s sustainability analytics enable the industry to dynamically assess the lifecycle environmental impacts to make animal protein production more sustainable. Adifo’s BESTMIX® software allows nutritionists and formulators to manage and optimize nutrition and cost attributes of feed and ration formulation.
By integrating BASF’s sustainability analytics into BESTMIX®, customers along the animal agriculture value chain will be able to strategically manage and optimize feed formulation based on nutrition and cost while taking environmental sustainability aspects into account.
“We recognize the importance of sustainability as one of the game changers in the animal feed sector and other nutrition industries for the coming years,” says Karel Vervaet, Product manager BESTMIX Feed Ration and Premix at Adifo. “This tool will allow BESTMIX users to include sustainability as a parameter into their formulations and rations. Extending insights and minimizing environmental impact by using the enhanced BESTMIX® will allow the industry to grow jointly towards a more sustainable future.”
“Optimization capabilities have been integrated to devise the most sustainable formulations within defined cost tolerances” says Tom Battagliese, Senior Sustainability Manager at BASF Animal Nutrition. “BASF’s Opteinics® project functionality within BESTMIX® will provide the ability to rapidly and dynamically assess feed formulation scenarios and associated life cycle sustainability impacts within BESTMIX®”
SUSTAINABLE FEED PRODUCTION
Environmental impacts of livestock production are at the forefront of the industry topics for 2021. Global challenges have accelerated the demands of policymakers, investors, retailers, and consumers to tackle and reduce the footprint of livestock. The announcement of Farm to Fork strategy as part of the European Green Deal has triggered to have the livestock sector discuss the implications of livestock production on the environment and to look for solutions.
CARBON FOOTPRINT OF FEED PRODUCTION
It is commonly known that feed production is one of the greater contributors to environmental impact in livestock production.
Many studies point out that approximately half of the carbon footprint of poultry, ruminants and pork production comes from the production of feed. Also the impact of the feed ingredients varies a lot and may be surprisingly high or low depending on the way it is produced. Furthermore, the location of production plays a role. The main question for farmers and feed producers is: How can we produce feed and reduce the environmental impact while keeping costs of the feed and the environmental footprint to a minimum?
HOW TO COMBINE NUTRITIONAL CONTENT
AND MINIMUM COST WITH DECREASING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT?
The key requirements of feed optimization are an adequate nutritional content and minimum cost possible. This will not change. But the industry needs answers to the environmental impact issues. That is exactly why BASF and Adifo Software now partner on optimizing feed formulation, supporting a more sustainable animal protein production.
With this tool, the need for in depth consultancy studies, which are both expensive and time consuming, are no longer necessary. This tool is essentially taking the environmental impact as a third dimension in feed formulation, next to nutrition and costs. Nutritionists themselves now have full control to make right choices in regard to reducing the environmental impact of their feeds and rations.
