NWF Agriculture: Committing to British Agriculture for Another 150 Years

commercial vitamin manufacturers have succeeded in enhancing stability of vitamins with spray-drying and beadlet technologies (Figure1). Spray-dried vitamin products are manufactured as a fine powder with high stability and good uniformity of mix, but only fair quality in terms of flow ability, dustiness, and caking. Beadlets are produced by coating vitamins in gelatin or starch to prevent contact with factors affecting vitamin stability until it is digested by the animal. Beadlets are manufactured as a fine granular product with high stability and also high flowability, low dustiness, and low caking characteristics. Cross-linked beadlets are produced by coating vitamins with crosslinked gelatin proteins, which makes harder beadlets that are more resistant to the pressure and abrasion of pelleting. The inclusions of antioxidants in the beadlets provide additional protection against oxidative factors.

ConCluSionS

The stability of vitamins for feed processing continues to improve. Most vitamins exhibit good stability (90 to 100% at 180°F), although other factors influence survivability. Product formulations differ and differences exist in survivability across commercial formulations. Additional supplementation rates are often employed to compensate for pelleting losses. Vitamins can be destabilized in premixes with inorganic trace minerals, and the losses can be increased when choline chloride is present. Along with survival determinations for vitamins at the pellet, consideration is needed for a time lag of several weeks or more between manufacture and consumption of that feed.

nWF agriculture:

Committing to british agriculture for another 150 years

NWF Agriculture, has made a major investment at its Wixland Mill in Atherington, Devon as part of its business strategy of growth and commitment to British agriculture for another 150 years. NWF Agriculture, which started in 1871 as a farmer-owned trading company, now forms part of the NWF Group plc, listed on the AIM market. The business marks its 150th Anniversary this year and has made a substantial investment at the South West mill ahead of the next 150 years.

The UFAS approved production site has received £120,000 of investment to further improve the storage and production facilities ensuring that they continue to offer a comprehensive high-quality consistent range of compounds and blends for dairy, beef and sheep. To further improve the blends NWF have installed a Christy Turner roller mill that runs at a rate of ten tonnes per hour rolling locally sourced wheat, barley and maize. This installation is an improvement of 8 tonnes per hour whilst still delivering excellent quality.

New Operations Manager, Claire Ebdy, joined the business in January and brings a wealth of experience to the site at Wixland from her previous roles in manufacturing and distribution. Commenting on the investment, Claire said, “We have also invested in a new 12 metre mixing screw at the blends out loading point which allows up to 3% molasses to be added to the blend in addition to the 2% already in the mixer. This new equipment also offers the option to add 4mm pellets and 6mm nuts to blends such as Calf Startrite or Vital Rearer. The majority of raw materials used in our diets are sourced locally and those from further afield are from leading long-standing suppliers with full traceability.”

NWF Agriculture is proud to be a British business with a strong presence in the South West. The experienced team of 29 employees at Wixland between them have over 240 years’ service in manufacturing and delivering high-quality feeds that perform on farm across the South West. “We have some exciting developments taking place at the site in terms of the infrastructure and we hope to extend our product offering for farmer collections. Substantial investment has also been made in our delivery fleet and currently operate eight NWF branded lorries from our Wixland feed mill, the latest addition being a Volvo FM420 Triden 8X4 Rigid”, added Claire.

In June NWF celebrate its 150th Anniversary, and the Wixland team and the local NWF sales team are delighted to be part of a business that has been supporting British farmers for over 150 years. Over the past century and a half, the business has grown and is supplying over 4750 farmers and feeding over 100,000 dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep every day.

Andrew Mason, Southern Sales Director, added, “We have an experienced sales team operating across the South West which has been further strengthened by the appointment of two new team members to work with farmers closer to the Wixland feed mill. The recent appointments came through the NWF Academy Scheme which trains future farm advisors and is currently recruiting a third intake for September. All our ruminant sales specialists are registered advisors with the Feed Adviser Register (FAR) and work in partnership with livestock farmers to offer cost-effective rations that perform”.

The NWF Wixland Team