The Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER) held its annual Board of Trustees meeting to review the public charity’s accomplishments over the past year, set new priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, as well as install new trustees and board leadership. In addition, the board approved the launch of a strategic planning period to evaluate how IFEEDER can continue meeting the research and education needs of the animal food industry for the next three-to-five years.

“As anyone working in agriculture can attest right now, the novel coronavirus has changed the landscape for the animal food industry – both from how it is operating today to how the industry will continue feeding America’s livestock, poultry and pets into the future,” said Robert Cooper, IFEEDER’s executive director. “To successfully navigate this uncharted territory and emerge even stronger than before, the IFEEDER Board committed to identifying compelling projects that address the animal food industry’s research and knowledge gaps as well as looking for opportunities to boost stakeholder engagement.”

Trustees Chad Risley of Berg+Schmidt America, LLC and A. Wayne Rod of The F.L. Emmert Company, along with IFEEDER’s Marketing and Education Committee, will lead the planning effort to strategically position IFEEDER for the future. In addition to this effort, the board approved three new research projects, including:

• Updating the 2016 U.S. Animal Food Consumption Report to reflect the industry’s current production and provide expert economic analysis on how the COVID-19 public health crisis will shape future production.
• Launching a research project that will examine how swine diseases could spread through the movement of feed or feed ingredients through the use of a dynamic transmission model.
• Issuing a request for proposal to better define the industry’s sustainability efforts, in partnership with the American Feed Industry Association leadership and the AFIA Sustainability Oversight Committee.

As part of the business meeting, the trustees recognized Bruce Crutcher of Micronutrients USA, LLC, for his leadership as chair for the 2019-20 fiscal year and tapped Tim Belstra of Belstra Milling Co. as the 2020-21 chair. Several new AFIA members joined the IFEEDER Board of Trustees, including Scott Druker of Church & Dwight Company, Inc., Kevin Halpin of International Ingredients Corporation, Steve Lerner of Chr. Hansen Animal Health and Nutrition, and Joe Lucas of CJ Bio America, Inc. The board also thanked several outgoing trustees for their service: Dean Warras of Phibro Animal Health Corporation, Cathy Bandyk of AB Vista, Inc., and Ross Hamilton of Darling Ingredients Inc.