United Feeds has earned a tremendous reputation as a premier ruminant feeds’ manufacturer. Irish Tractor recently caught up with company chief executive Keith Agnew to find out more about the key drivers behind this exceptional operation, as well as the superb range of value-added products and services it provides.
United Feeds manufactures a wide range of high-quality ruminant feedstuffs at modern production facilities in Belfast and Dungannon, County Tyrone. Both mills produce ruminant feed (for dairy, beef, sheep, calf) exclusively, in the form of nuts, pellets and coarse blends. All of these rations can be made to meet customer-specific requirements.
The company has the capacity to produce over 200,000 tonnes of feed per year.
“If you draw a line on the map of Ireland from Dublin to Galway, we have customers in every region north of that,” notes Agnew.
“We sell directly to farmers and also deal with a number of strong, long-standing merchant businesses.”
United Feeds also provides a number of associated products and services. These include calf milk replacers; a wide range of fertilisers; forage additives for all crops plus forage testing and soil testing services.”
The business employs a total of 50 people across its two sites. The workforce comprises mill operatives, office staff and advisers working directly with farmer customers. Also included is a dedicated team of 4 customer services staff. Their role is to work with a number of long-serving haulage partners. This ensures that a prompt, secure and cost-effective delivery service is provided.
A dynamic product development programme has been a traditional hallmark of the United Feeds’ operation. This has resulted in the evolution of an innovative feed range that maximise milk yields and daily liveweight gains
In addition, all products are rigorously tested and are proven to give a positive return. An unswerving emphasis is placed on product quality. As Keith Agnew points out, this is a prerequisite to making all the company’s feed ranges commercially available:
“We don’t bring any product to market unless it’s going to bring value to the farmer,” he said.
“The end has to justify the means. Our products must deliver an improvement over what was previously offered.
“When we come up with a new product idea, we will trial it rigorously on local farms to assess its value. But we will only bring it to market if there is a proven value in it. All our research and development work is results-focussed. At the end of the day, if we are not adding value to the farmer’s business there is no point asking him to buy our products.”
Product quality has always been of paramount importance to the team at United Feeds.
“United Feeds was set up in 2000 as a joint venture between Andrews Holdings Ltd and the co-op United Dairy Farmers,” said Agnew.
“In 2009, United Dairy Farmers acquired the full ownership and the company, making it a fully-fledged subsidiary of the co-op.
As well as United Feeds’ branded products, individual rations can be blended to precise customer requirements.
“We are producing a considerable tonnage of blends with many of these bespoke to individual farmers,” Agnew confirmed.
Developing compound rations that consistently deliver optimal levels of nutrition is the all-important priority for the entire United Feeds’ management team.
“We have invested a lot of time and money into nutrition-focussed research” said Agnew.
“The end result must be the attainment to of best performance on-farm.
“This is best exemplified by our collaboration with the Canadian research company Fermentrics, which allows feeds, forages and TMRs to be analysed in a unique and revealing way. Furthermore, our advisers out on the ground will work with famers on how best to tailor their animals’ diets and feeding regimes to meet their goals and, ultimately, to maximise profits.
“We have 15 highly trained professionals making up our technical and sales teams. And their input has been critical in securing the success of the business.”
He continued: “We have introduced a number of innovative rations and feeding programmes over recent years. This has included the development of specific feeds to improve forage utilisation, manipulate milk fat and milk protein levels. These are manifested in our ‘Advance’, ‘Cream Maker’ and ‘Protein Booster ranges.
“In conjunction with United Dairy Farmers’ milk processing arm, we have developed a feed programme that leads to the production of a butter that is spreadable straight from the fridge.
Keith Agnew concluded: “We are totally focussed on maximising the quality of the nutrition made available to dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep. In turn, this will enhance animal performance and output value.”
United Feeds Limited,
8 Northern Road,
Belfast,
BT3 9AL.
County Antrim.
Tel: 028 90759000
Fax: 028 90751170
Email: [email protected]
www.ufeeds.com
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 10, November 2015
