By Eric Jenks, Special to NEAFA
For the August member profile, NEAFA spoke with Andy Schwytzer, a strategic account manager for Arm & Hammer’s Animal and Food Production, which is a division of specialty products for Church & Dwight. “I’ve worked with Arm & Hammer for 6.5 years now,” said Schwytzer. “I’m mostly focused on dairy nutrition feed additives. Arm & Hammer has a long history with agriculture, and we’re committed to innovating and delivering industry leading advancements throughout the food chain. Part of that is through the acquisition of several different companies in the past 8 years to include pre and pro-biotics for our portfolio of products.”
That long history includes some interesting stories according to Schwytzer’s colleague, Elliot Block. “I don’t “know” (the full story) but I can tell you the myth,” said Block. “It was bicarbonate that was sold into agriculture, and the story is that sometime in the early 1850’s, the company noticed a lot of sodium bicarbonate being sold to bakeries. The amounts were WAY more that the bakeries could use for their sales of baked goods. After investigating, they found out that dairy farmers were buying 50 lb bags from bakeries to feed to their cows. But it wasn’t until the 1960s that C&D actually formed an animal feed business group. Until then, there was a product manager in consumer goods that managed the cow business.”
For Schwytzer, animal husbandry and agriculture were a daily part of life growing up. “My dad is a veterinarian,” said Schwytzer. “I grew up working on dairy farms and went to Cornell for a degree in Animal Science. I did dairy nutrition for 5 years, and I’ve been in the industry my whole career after graduating in 2001. As a teenager, milking cows was a paycheck, but it soon turned into a love for animals. Today, what’s fulfilling for me on a macro level, is the contribution that Arm & Hammer, myself, and frankly all the other companies involved with NEAFA make to society. We’re committed to feeding the world. Personally, the ability to work with all of the professionals in this industry is a privilege.
Being a NEAFA member is an important part to working in the Northeast according to Schwytzer. “I’ve been a member for over a decade,” said Schwytzer. “The biggest things that it does for the industry, in my opinion, is its lobbying and policy work. For me personally, it’s been the business relationships that have developed into more personal relationships with the members involved at NEAFA. Customers of mine have become friends through the events that NEAFA hosts. I go to the Golf for Good Works every year. I go to the annual meetings. I find them informative and a good way to learn about policy. They help me learn and understand about what policies are pivotal to agriculture, and about how I can impact those policies on an individual basis.”
Looking toward the future, Schwytzer believes that ag in the Northeast will be in good hands. “What I’m most excited about are all the new people entering the industry,” said Schwytzer. “The skill level, dedication, and the business acumen are all things that they’re bringing with them that just blow me away. To know that an organization like NEAFA, through their scholarship program and the fellowship at Cornell, are helping to encourage and educate today’s youth for tomorrow, well I think those investments are really paying off.”
For more information on Arm & Hammer’s Animal Food Production division, click here.