Cargill’s Canadian arm has announced plans to get out of the livestock feed milling business in Manitoba.
The U.S. agrifood firm’s Winnipeg-based Canadian office announced Thursday it will close its feed mill at Brandon, Man. It will also sell its feed mill in Winnipeg’s St. Boniface district to U.S. feed company Standard Nutrition for an undisclosed sum.
Cargill said it plans to focus its efforts on two animal feed projects with the goal of boosting “efficiency and service” for customers in Western Canada.
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Jennifer Henderson, managing director of Cargill Animal Nutrition’s compound feed business in Western Canada, said the moves in Manitoba “align with our strategic objective to grow and sustain a business focused on helping customers thrive.”
Omaha-based Standard Nutrition already markets feed products and additives in the three Prairie provinces, including MaxiPlex for hogs, AviPlex for chickens, BoviPlex for beef and dairy cows and Aquacid, a livestock water treatment.
Standard Nutrition — which Cargill on Thursday described as a “long-standing customer” of its feed business — will now make feed for Cargill in the Winnipeg area and will employ the St. Boniface plant’s management and production team, Cargill said.
Cargill said it has also signed supply agreements with “high-performing regional manufacturers” in the region served by its Brandon plant.
Cargill sales and customer service teams, meanwhile, will “continue to serve customers in Manitoba,” the company added.
“We have worked to provide our Brandon and St. Boniface teams with opportunities within Cargill’s business units or with Standard Nutrition,” Henderson said.
Cargill, which markets its feed products under the Nutrena brand, has been in the feed business in Western Canada since 1974, when it bought National Grain.
Outside Manitoba, Cargill still operates feed plants at Camrose and Lethbridge in Alberta and at North Battleford in northwestern Saskatchewan.
Cargill noted Thursday it recently put up a $2.46 million contribution to the Canadian Feed Reserarch Centre’s $13.9 million facility, operated by the University of Saskatchewan at North Battleford. — AGCanada.com Network
