For December, NEAFA caught up with Steven E. Smith, the East Coast Technical Sales Manager for Vetagro. “I’m part of the United States Ruminant Team for Vetagro,” said Smith. “While I generally work out of the Northeast US, I am a member of the ruminant team that supports the US as well as global business.”
Based out of Reggio Emilia, Italy, Vetagro began working with feed additives for animals in 1982. “We’re an industry leader in micro-encapsulation,” said Smith. “As a company, we’ve been researched based since day one, and we’re currently in the second generation of being led by top researchers. Our slogan is that we are like no one else, because we understand nutrients and what you need to do to insure their bioavailability for animals. We’re on the cutting edge of creating products that excel in the delivery of important compounds for lower gut health and toxin load management during key transitional periods of animal’s life; that includes poultry, aquatics, swine, and ruminants.”
Agriculture is a lifelong passion for Smith, who received an associate degree in Dairy Herd Management from SUNY Cobleskill, and a bachelor’s in Animal Science, as well as a master’s in Agricultural Education from SUNY Oswego. “I was fortunate to be born on a dairy farm,” said Smith. “I started developing my skills and appreciation for the dairy cow as soon as I could help my parents on our farm. I developed a passion for dairy cattle early in life. From a science perspective, it’s an exciting time to work in the dairy field. Nutrition has advanced and made great strides in the past 15 years. We are coupling the advancements in understanding of ruminant nutrition with technological advancements in herd management and biometric application to achieve amazing productivity in the dairy cattle of today. There’s an emphasis of nutrient and dairy ration balancing, coupled with dairy record analysis to achieve the goals of production and environmental sustainability. Assisting with the inclusion of our rumen bypass products that deliver key nutrients in dairy cattle diets is where I focus my role at Vetagro.”
Working in the Northeast, Smith quickly saw value in Vetagro’s membership in NEAFA. “I recognized the value in NEAFA early on, as an agribusiness person,” said Smith “They provide opportunities to learn from my peers and maintain a strong network. It’s great to participate in committee work, lobbying, education, etc. There is strength in numbers and having agricultural voices heard by legislators. Vetagro appreciates NEAFA because our emphasis is also on education, collaboration and representation to support all agriculture. It’s important to us to work with our state and federal legislatures, and that our universities are staffed by the best educators and to help educate farm managers looking to do the best in their job.”
Going into the new year, Smith believes that looking forward is necessary for the industry to continue to grow. “It’s easy to look back at the past and say that those were the good old days without thinking about the challenges that were in place then,” said Smith. “When we reflect on the past, we need to model ourself after the efforts that past leaders took to look for opportunities to grow and innovate, to collaborate and learn. I believe that we’ll get the yield and sustainability that we’re looking for in the dairy industry. We can do both.”
Smith believes that one of the reasons that the dairy industry can meet those goals is because of the animals themselves. “We work with the dairy cow, which I think is the most complimentary animal for upcycling byproducts and coproducts,” said Smith. “They continue to respond to dietary precision as technology advances.There’s a wide range of things we can do with them. They’ve very adaptive for milk, meat, and byproducts. What may be even more important is that ruminants host microbes that can do enzyme work that we are not producing to scale with plant based systems. Examples of this are found in recent research with mammalian milk, identifying more than 400 fatty acids and an amino acid profile that is very supportive of human muscle accretion and repair. As research reveals the actual amino and fatty acid profies of foods produced in animal agriculture systems, we begin to see that the mechanism to create certain biological compounds may be exclusive to animal biology. At Vetagro, we make solutions that provide animals with the resources that they need to do that, and we’re excited to continue to innovate into the future.”
For more information, visit Vetagro’s US based website at us.vetagro.com.