Category Archives: Elanco

Elanco Animal Health Gives You Plenty To Think About

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There’s plenty to think about when you “launch” in today’s new media world. How about a blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube account? That’s what Elanco Animal Health has done with their Plenty To Think About blog, etc.

. . . the thinking person’s guide to feeding a hungry planet, sponsored by Elanco Animal Health.

The Plenty to Think About blog was inspired by global response to a 2009 white paper, “Food Economics and Consumer Choice,” authored by Elanco Animal Health President Jeff Simmons. The paper focused on the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s statement that the world needs to produce 100% more food by the year 2050 and that 70% of that food must come from efficiency-enhancing technologies. “Response to the white paper from producers, retailers and the business press indicated that hunger, food prices and agricultural sustainability are high priorities for individuals, farmers and businesses across the global food supply chain,” Simmons said.

Plenty to Think About also recently launched on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Elanco Enhances Commitment to Food Safety

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ElancoElanco has launched a new business platform focused on food safety that includes new products for both poultry and beef processing plants.

For poultry, AviBrom™ is a post-harvest carcass rinse that reduces Salmonella pathogens during processing. Research has shown up to a 2.5-log reduction1 in post-chill whole-carcass Salmonella levels when using AviBrom.

“AviBrom works in a wide range of water pH so acidifiers aren’t needed as with some food-safety interventions,” says Tom Nicholson, director of sales and technical services for Elanco Food Solutions. “That reduces the risk of color and shelf-life issues that poultry processors often see with acid-based interventions.

Two food-safety products for the beef industry include Finalyse™, a pre-harvest hide wash that targets E. coli pathogens on live beef animals as they enter the packing plant, and BoviBrom™, a post-harvest carcass rinse that reduces E. coli and Salmonella pathogens on the carcass during processing.

“Elanco Food Solutions’ food-safety products are unique and science-based,” adds Nicholson. “We’re focused on helping food-animal packers and processors deliver safe, affordable and wholesome food to consumers.”

Elanco Purchases Posilac From Monsanto

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ElancoHere’s an interesting announcement. Elanco has signed an agreement to buy the worldwide rights to Posilac from Monsanto. The deal includes the product’s supporting operations. I hope they have good luck with it. There sure are a lot of activists against it. I don’t think they’ve got any scientific basis for their fears but sometimes perception is reality. I sure don’t mind the product and think it’s perfectly safe.

“Global dairy demand is increasing, outstripping supply, and consumers are seeing rapidly rising prices,” said Jeff Simmons, president, Elanco. “With the purchase of Posilac, Elanco can enhance its overall product portfolio and work together with the industry to provide dairy farmers more options and give consumers affordable choices. Critically, we remain focused on the health and care of the cow in working with farmers to increase global milk supply.

“With our rich history and experience in the dairy industry, Elanco is the ideal steward of this vital technology,” Simmons said. “Elanco remains committed to using science to address the growing need for safe, affordable food, and to choices for consumers, retailers and producers.”

Elanco has exclusively sold sometribove outside of the United States for a decade. Posilac has been safely used for more than 14 years. Continue reading →

Promotions at Elanco

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ElancoA couple of consultants from Elanco Animal Health have moved up in ranks. Dr. Bill Platter oversees consultants for beef cattle and Dr. Bill Mies is Elanco’s latest beef consultant.

Elanco Animal Health has announced the promotion of Dr. Bill Platter to the position of manager of technical consultants for beef cattle. In this role he will lead a team of professionals conducting post-product-approval research, and providing technical services with a feedlot and stocker focus in the United States. These activities focus on work with veterinarians, nutritionists and meat scientists to improve animal health, production efficiencies and profitability within the beef industry.

Platter has relocated to work from Elanco’s global headquarters in Greenfield, Ind.

Most recently, Platter served as a technical consultant supporting the Elanco cattle business unit’s food-chain initiatives, based first in Greenfield and then in the Midwest.

Elanco Animal Health has also announced the hiring of Dr. Bill Mies as a beef feedlot consultant – global beef group. In this role he will work with Elanco’s marketing-and-sales teams, providing technical support to feedlots in North America and other locations throughout the world. Mies will work from his home office in College Station, Texas.

Consumers Tempted by Tender Beef

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ElancoThe beef industry isn’t just asking “Where’s the beef?” anymore, but “How’s your beef?” Elanco Animal Health says research shows consumers spend more for tender and tasty beef.

Consumers tell us that tenderness and taste are two of the most important attributes when they are evaluating their beef eating experience. They want tender beef and are willing to pay for it.

That was the message Dr. Keith Belk, professor at Colorado State University’s Center for Red Meat Quality and Safety, delivered to agricultural editors and other participants at a Sensory Evaluation Briefing and Wet Lab held at Iowa State University. The training session was hosted by Elanco Animal Health as part of its continuing effort to educate beef producers on the importance of tenderness of the beef they produce.

Tenderness is an important aspect of beef palatability that ultimately drives consumer satisfaction. The Beef Checkoff’s 2005 National Beef Tenderness Survey shows the industry has made improvements since the 1999 study, but there still are inconsistencies and a need for improvement.

A key factor in beef tenderness is the aging process. Most experts agree beef becomes more tender when it is aged about 21 days. However, according to a number of meat industry experts – including the University of Minnesota Extension department – most of the beef offered for sale as retail cuts in the supermarket is aged five to seven days. Rarely is beef in the retail case aged more than 10 to 14 days.

Aging isn’t the only factor driving beef tenderness. “Quality grades and marbling itself have become extremely important,” says Belk. “Prime and upper two-thirds of Choice-branded beef are in high demand and are returning larger profits back through the production chain. That’s the signal consumers
are sending to us. An excellent example of that is the success that Certified Angus Beef LLC® (CAB®) is experiencing.”
 Continue reading →

Consumers Love Beef Tender

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Would you pay $345.95 for four 12 oz. strip steaks – raw steaks, mind you, not cooked.

That’s the price on-line for “Kobe-style” strip steaks, as marketed by Allen Brothers – a company some Rush Limbaugh listeners might recognize. That compares to $159.95 for the same quantity of U.S. Prime, dry-aged strip steaks – or just $104.95 for U.S. Prime, not dry-aged. I wonder if Rush buys the Kobe-style? Maybe, maybe not – but somebody buys it and more consumers these days are demanding beef with lots of marbling, despite the health benefits attributed to leaner cuts.

Elanco BelkDr. Keith Belk, professor at Colorado State University’s Center for Red Meat Quality and Safety, provided that information for the ag editors attending the Elanco Animal Health Sensory Evaluation Briefing this week at ISU. The point he made is that consumers are increasingly more willing to pay more for tenderness. One example of that is the success of Certified Angus Beef and other branded beef products.

“Quality grades and marbling itself has become extremely important,” says Belk. “Prime and upper two-thirds of Choice branded beef are commanding a large demand and returning a large amount of money back throughout the production chain. That’s the signal consumers are sending to us.”

Listen to my interview with Dr. Belk here:

Listen to

Read more on the Beef Quality Center website.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Sensory Panel Testing

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Elanco sensory labIndividual booths, red lights to mask colors, positive pressure ventilation to keep out unwanted smells and pass-through sample presentation doors – that’s the environment where trained sensory panelists do their work at the ISU Sensory Evaluation Unit.

So, basically this is what you see, sitting in your little booth, waiting for samples to come through the little door. You cleanse your palate with crackers and water and get to work evaluating the samples one at a time with just numbers to identify them. You tell the computer what you think and move on to the next. Not bad work for a college student, especially if they are hungry!

Elanco steaksElanco Animal Health is particularly interested in how any product they might bring to market for livestock might impact the meat than comes from the animal. That’s why the ag editors who attended the Elanco Sensory Evaluation Briefing at ISU this week were trained specifically on the attributes of interest to their study – tenderness, juiciness and flavor of a very plain piece of steak. Of course, our results were for demonstration purposes only – but they said we did pretty well compared to the more objective Warner-Bratzler shear determination of meat tenderness. Problem was, we got three samples and two of them were deliberately tough – only one was tender. Not as good as the steaks we had for dinner the night before, that’s for sure!

Elanco Shear testWe also got to go “backstage” to the prep area and see how they prepare the samples – on George Foreman grills to heat both sides at the same time to the exact desired temperature. Pretty nifty. Then we got to see how they cored meat samples and checked them for tenderness with the shear method. All very interesting. Real sensory panelists don’t get to see behind the scenes, so we felt very special!

Sensory Evaluation 101

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Elanco TrainingHow difficult could it be to figure out whether a piece of meat is tough or tender, dry or juicy, flavorful or not? A group of ag journalists found out this week as guests of Elanco Animal Health to a Sensory Evaluation Briefing at Iowa State University.

Basically, we all got a crash course in how to be “sensory panelists.” First, we had to learn just how our senses can fool us – like our sight filling in lines to make triangles in a picture when there are none!

Then, we had to learn how each one of our senses plays a role in how we “taste” a food. We were given a small cup covered in aluminum foil. First we shook it and gave it attributes based on the sound – like that it was small, in pieces, and dry. Then, we poked holes in the foil and gave it a sniff. It smelled salty, spicy and corny. When we looked inside, we evaluated the appearance by color and size – small, flat, kind of orange-red-yellowish. When we picked it up, it felt grainy and light. Last of all, we tasted it – and found out that most of the attributes we gave it – spicy, peppery, corny – were actually not tastes, but flavors. Big difference. By the way, it was some kind of Doritos.

Elanco WorksheetAnyway, then we moved on to learning how to evaluate little bits of meat for tenderness and juiciness. Before doing everything we had to eat a bite of non-salted cracker and swish some water around in our mouths to cleanse our palates. When we ate each bite of meat, we had to use a toothpick and place it back between our molars.

The whole process took about an hour before we were considered “trained” – but real panelists take much longer to train. The Sensory Evaluation Unit has dozens of trained panelists they use to evaluate food products for all kinds of companies, including Elanco. The panelists actually get paid for their work, but they didn’t tell us how much!

Perception is Reality

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Elanco PrusaWhen it comes to testing food, it’s all the senses that count, not just taste.

“That’s because there’s only about four things we can taste,” says Dr. Ken Prusa with Iowa State University. “Sweet, salty, sour and bitter.”

Which makes taste alone a pretty limited factor in the total experience of how we perceive a food. In fact, we use all of our senses when we judge whether we like or dislike food products.

Dr. Prusa is the professor-in-charge of the Sensory Evaluation Unit at ISU where a group of ag editors were trained to be “sensory panelists” during a workshop this week sponsored by Elanco Animal Health. We specifically learned to evaluate meat by tenderness, juiciness and flavor – more on that in the above post.

Listen to my interview with Dr. Prusa here:

Listen to

Read more on the Beef Quality Center website.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Designing Meat Quality Trials

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Elanco McKeithDesigning trials for a new animal health product to evaluate meat quality is expensive and complicated, according to Dr. Floyd McKeith with the University of Illinois Department of Animal Sciences. He was one of the speakers at a workshop for ag editors this week in Ames, Iowa sponsored by Elanco Animal Health.

According to Dr. McKeith, some of the factors to be considered when designing such a trial include breed type, geographic region, season, yearling versus calf-fed, time on feed, implant history, steers versus heifers, and the diet of the animals. “Ultimately, you want to understand how well that product will perform under a variety of conditions for a variety of producers,” he said.

McKeith says these trials cost companies like Elanco millions of dollars, but most often they go above and beyond what is necessary to make sure their product is safe and effective for the producers, the animals, and consumers.

Listen to my interview with Dr. McKeith here:

Listen to

Read more on the Beef Quality Center website.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Elanco Sensory Evaluation Workshop

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Elanco GradyBringing an animal health product to market requires a lot of testing – not just on how that product affects the animal, but also how it affects the meat that comes from that animal.

That’s what a group of farm media folks, including myself, learned about this week at Iowa State University in Ames, courtesy of Elanco Animal Health. Pictured here is Grady Bishop of Elanco giving our group an overview of why we were there, why they were there and what we would be doing. Grady says that since Elanco Animal Health is a participant in the food chain, the main purpose was to provide some perspective for journalists on how they are helping the livestock industry produce safe and healthy food with a focus on quality and consumer satisfaction.

Listen to my interview with Grady here:

Listen to

Read more on the Beef Quality Center website.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Beef Quality Counts

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Elanco“In today’s consumer-driven environment, just one bad beef-eating experience has the potential for long-term impact for all segments of the food chain,” says Dr. Ken Prusa of Iowa State University.

I will be hearing about that from Dr. Prusa and colleagues Dr. Floyd McKeith, University of Illinois, and Dr. Keith Belk, Colorado State University, at a sensory briefing and wet lab for the media in Ames, Iowa, on Wednesday. FIT

The purpose of the event, sponsored by Elanco Animal Health, is to help us media folks learn about the importance of sensory research methods used to evaluate the potential impacts of FDA-approved products on beef, the questions it answers and the role it plays throughout the food chain. We are going to be participating in a real-life sensory panel training and evaluation as part of the experience.

Stay tuned for photos, audio interviews and even some video from this sensory experience! Read more on the Beef Quality Center website.

May I See You Somewhere

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After a couple days to get caught up (right) it’s time to head out on the highway. Here’s a few of the places you’ll find me in May.

This Friday I’ll be in Washington, DC at the National Press Club covering a speech by Bobby Rahal, Rahal-Letterman Racing. He’ll be talking about the Greening of Racing. A topic near and dear to my heart.

I’m going to do my best to attend next week’s Gateway NAMA meeting in St. Louis. The topic is “Outlook of the Agricultural Industry through the Eyes of the National Corn Growers Association & the American Soybean Association. I’m very behind in keeping up our chapter website but I’ll try to get that taken care of over the next week. Anyone want to volunteer to help?

Then I’m going to be in Chicago the next week for an ethanol industry related event on which I really don’t have many details yet.

After that I’ll be attending an Elanco “sensory briefing.” You will learn more about that along with me.

Following that one I’ll be in Louisville for the IFAJ Board Meeting at which I’m giving a presentation on blogging and podcasting and attending the Alltech International Feed Industry Symposium. That’s all about “The New Energy Crisis: Food, Feed, or Fuel?”

Then it’s off to Indianapolis for the Indy 500, the greatest event in racing. You can count on Team Ethanol being there in force to celebrate the relationship that has led to the League switching to a renewable fuel source.

Finally I’ll be giving a presentation on new media at the Canadian Animal Health Institute annual meeting where their theme is “Harnessing Technology to Expand Markets.”

I’d say that makes for a pretty full month don’t you?