Lexington, KY - Curiosity drives scientists to solve problems which should be viewed not as difficulties, but as opportunities, according to Jim Bannerman. The Alltech Canadian Regional Sales Manager was in Lexington on Monday to open “Be Curious,” theme of the Nicholasville-based global animal nutrition firm’s latest North American Lecture Tour
Lexington, along with 27 other cities was a stop on the tour which this year highlights some of the company’s achievements in agriculture and other fields.
Open to the public the Lecture Tour opened with a breakfast which gave Alltech employees the chance to talk with guests about their work. It concluded with a luncheon of beef sliders made with Lyons Farm beef.
Between meals, Allltech employees offered presentations on how the company is developing products that will help farmers be more productive and better able to meet increasing demands for quality food from a growing world population.
Bannerman, quoting Alltech Founder and CEO Pearse Lyons, PhD. advised that a company’s best employees should work not on problems, but on opportunities. He suggested that change brings opportunities and small changes can make a tremendous difference. For example, if Chinese farmers can get sows to produce one more pig per litter, China can save one million tons of grain per year that its hungry population demands.
Kyle Raney, Fermentation Applications Specialist at Alltech’s algae plant in Winchester, summarized the current risks of farming by saying, “Farm income is down, crop yields are down, and environmental concerns are increasing.”
Raney predicted that solutions to these conditions will come about through application of new technology, including the Genechip®, a DNA Microarray. Unique for each animal or plant, the Genechip® holds a large amount of data in a small space.
Gene enhancers can be fed to animals to target particular conditions. These enhancers up-regulate, or turn on, the desired characteristic or down-regulate, or turn off, undesirable traits. Alltech is marketing them as The Advantage series.
One example is a Solution Pack based on the Genechip® for chicks. When the goal is to have more chicks alive at the age of one week, the Solution Pack strengthens the young birds’ immune systems.
Raney also discussed the growing shortage of fish which is paralleled by the increasing demand for it as a source of quality protein and essential fatty acids, including DHA. With the supply of fish meal (fed to farmed fish) and fish oil dropping, fish farmers can turn to algae as a ready source of both.
And not just any farm pond variety. Alltech’s algae contains SP1, a rich natural source of DHA. The Winchester plant produces heterotrophic algae, grown in a closed, controlled system. The result is a pure culture, with a high level of consistency.
Alltech Marketing Project Manager Paulo Rezende’s presentation on the value of branding was relevant to virtually any business.
“Branding is a promise, a commitment to your customer,” Rezende declared, reminding his audience that the term comes from agriculture, a mark used to differentiate one ranch’s cattle from that of another.
Rezende listed several benefits of a good brand, including customer loyalty, the ability to command a premium price, a framework in which to integrate new products at lower cost, an increase in media reach, and a platform for growth.
He said that successful brands communicate well with customers because they cut through the clutter of so much advertising to which everyone is exposed. They also tap into emotional drivers, especially when the advertising tells a story.
Rezende said stories are often more important than the products themselves. As an example he showed a slide of a package of Pampers. Beside the photo of a Third World baby and his mother is the information that Proctor & Gamble donates the cost of a vaccine there for every box of diapers sold.
That story demonstrates the product’s purpose. Branding should also, Rezende advised, “be different, surprise and delight the audience, be consistent because that builds trust, show relentless implementation [via packaging, production, sales, delivery], use every opportunity to promote the company’s values, embrace [new forms of] technology, and live the brand with passion.”
Focusing on passion, excellence, and performance as values that Alltech espouses, Rezende showed the audience a short video about the upcoming 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy, for which Alltech will again be the title sponsor.
Panoramic shots of the venues for the equestrian competitions were intercut with exciting scenes of reining, dressage, jumping, and other events from the 2010 WEG at the Kentucky Horse Park.
Horses galloping on the beach below Mont St. Michel reminded viewers that the 2014 WEG will be uniquely French, just as the last Games were uniquely Kentuckian.
Alltech’s North American Lecture Tour highlighted a unique Bluegrass company—one created by a transplanted Irish scientist, grown with a dedication and fervor that equals the zeal of the yeasts he developed, and contributing much to knowledge and culture, both locally and internationally.