By Eric Jenks, Special to NEAFA
For February, NEAFA talked with Connor McCluskey, the Northeast Dairy Business Manager for Adisseo. While McCluskey joined Adisseo at the end of April, 2023, he isn’t new to the Northeast or agriculture. “I grew up in Connecticut and went to an agricultural high school,” said McCluskey. “I knew I wanted to be in agribusiness when I grew up. I went to University of Connecticut, where I studied agricultural economics and applied economics. After I graduated, I worked for Cargill in Northern NY as an assistant to one of their dairy nutritionists. It was a lot of learning as I went when I first started. I was very green, but I was loving it and enjoying working in agriculture. I worked at Cargill for 8 years, and I credit them for learning so much on the ground about how to feed cows, and about the nutrition business at large. Joining Adisseo provided me an opportunity to learn and grow in new directions through their resources, training, and meeting the farmers and the feed mills delivering great feed to dairies throughout the Northeast.”
Founded in 1939 in Commentry, France by Marcel Lingot, Adisseo is a global company with headquarters throughout the world. Their US headquarters is outside Atlanta, GA, with production facility in Hampshire, Illinois, just outside Chicago. “In the dairy industry, Adisseo has focus on amino acid balancing for the past 30 years,” said McCluskey. “Amino acids are a key building block for living beings, and especially in the cows. Research has shown that amino acids are something that are essential for herd health and performance. Everyone talks about sustainability and how important it is. Instead of solely focusing on green space however, you need to look at the sustainability of our businesses. It all goes hand in hand. An environmentally sustainable business is an economic stable business. Learning how to be more efficient in a progressive and healthy manner is key. Farmers and agribusinesses have no desire to harm the environment, they want to take care of it too. If we’re not sustainable as companies, we won’t be around for the future. It’s about learning what can we continue to do to grow and be sustainable. Keep cows healthy and increasing production without increasing herd size is a step towards sustainability.”
For Adisseo, NEAFA is also a key part of keeping agribusiness healthy in the Northeast. “Adisseo wants to support NEAFA to insure that agriculture in the Northeast has a representative,” said McCluskey. “NEAFA is good at that, they make sure that agribusiness voices are heard through action, policy, and education.”
To learn more about Adisseo and what they do in the US, visit https://milkpay.com/