Cargill has opened its new premix animal nutrition facility in Lewisburg, Ohio.

The company said the $50 million (£36.6m) 220,000 square-feet facility is deploying advanced technology not previously used in animal agriculture or pet food production that allows the use of less resources to produce feed, while ensuring the highest quality and traceability of its products.

The Lewisburg West facility broke ground on November 8, 2018 and produces non-medicated feed and supports Cargill and Provimi branded animal nutrition premixes and products, along with additives and specialty and custom blends.

Adriano Marcon, president of Cargill’s animal nutrition business, said: “It started with thinking differently about how to best meet the changing needs of our customers, along with a commitment to invest and innovate for the future.

“Now, we believe the new facility sets a new standard for premix production giving our customers unmatched confidence in our animal nutrition offerings.”

Mr Marcon added: “The plant was designed with feed and food safety as a top priority – we wanted to provide our customers peace of mind, by increasing the transparency around the food their farm animals and pets are eating.”

Each of the plants’ four segregated production lines can run a mix from start to finish in approximately one hour, providing increased capacity across Cargill’s network of feed facilities.

It’s estimated that Lewisburg West will produce 154,000 tons of non-medicated animal nutrition products and premix across its production lines each year.