Groundbreaking ceremony for the new Jefo production plant

Sep 03, 2021

SAINT-HYACINTHE, QC - Jefo, a world leader in animal health and nutrition that offers alternatives to antibiotics to chickens, pigs, cows, cattle and aquaculture, held today a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of its new production plant. By investing 42.5 million Canadian dollars in this plant, Jefo will increase its current production by up to 400% to meet the growing demand of domestic and international markets.

"More than ever, the world understands the importance of sanitary issues to improve animal health and, consequently, human health. Since our foundation, we have focused on solutions aimed at reducing antibiotic resistance by offering alternative nutritional options to livestock producers. We know that consumers pay more and more attention to what they up on their plates and we have ambitious goals for Jefo to meet this growing demand. We expect to double our sales of specialty products in the next three years," said Jean Fontaine, President of the Jefo Group. "Our Precision Intestinal Nutrition concept is a revolutionary approach focused on microbiota and gut harmony and we are conducting many promising trials on this. We surround ourselves with world-class researchers to put our ideas to the test and design the next era of precision nutrition," he adds.

The new state-of-the-art 180,000-square-foot plant will feature two production lines in the first phase with a potential expansion to six lines in the near future. The current plant will remain in operation, therefore maximizing production stability and security.

"Fighting antibiotic resistance is essential to meet our vision of having a healthier circle of life on a more sustainable planet. Regulations on the quality of animal protein are changing in our favour and this new plant will allow us to offer our solutions to a greater number of producers. We are present in more than 80 countries, but we continue to develop new markets and innovative solutions," confirms Jean François Fontaine, Vice President of the Jefo Group. "Our international team continues to grow, for example in the Middle East where we have recently signed with new distributors, and we expect a significant increase in current markets."

Founded in 1982, Jefo offers natural, unmedicated solutions and nutrients for animal feed and owns the patent of the Jefo Matrix Technology, a microencapsulation that delivers active ingredients directly into the intestines for optimal absorption. These solutions, which take into consideration the intestinal physiology of each species, improve the performance and health of animals, for a sustainable, safe and economical production of animal protein.

Source : Cision

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”