14/01/13: Climate change and wheat; Indian wheat exports set to boom; Lallemand buys Aviguard business

• Over the last 50 years developments in agriculture have improved yields. However, it's feared that increasing heatwaves will undo this progress. A study on corn grown in France predicts losses of up to 12 percent for maize yields in the next 20 years. A second study says that, without action against climate change, wheat and soybean harvests will fall by up to 30 percent by 2050 as the world warms. Read more...

• Although much of the world has suffered from a slow down in grain exports in 2012, due in part to bad weather, India has fared much better. The country is set to triple its wheat exports to a record six million tonnes in 2013. Over the last five years India farmers have stockpiled large quantities of grain which will help plug the global shortfall in lower-quality grain. Read more....

• Lallemand Animal Nutrition has announced that it acquired Microbial Developments Ltd, the UK based manufacturer of Aviguard, on December 31, 2012. Aviguard is a well established avian competitive exclusion product that aids the rapid establishment of normal gut flora in day old chicks thereby minimising colonisation by transient pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, E. Coli and Clostridium perfringens. Aviguard is sold in over 36 countries and is widely used in broiler and layer breeders, parent and grandparent stock. Yannig Le Treut, general manager of Lallemand Animal Nutrition says, “Aviguard is a well established and cost effective competitive exclusion solution used by many of the world’s leading poultry breeders and integrators to help prevent the colonisation of the gut by salmonella and other pathogenic bacteria. With ever increasing consumer and regulatory pressures on the poultry industry to minimise the routine use of antibiotics, we believe Aviguard is well positioned for the future and will complement our existing portfolio of poultry products,  which includes Bactocell, Alkosel, Agrimos and Levucell SB”. More information...

Français : Clostridium tetani. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)