Page 46 - Innovation Delaware 2018

AGRICULTURE
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COMPANY TO WATCH
At a sprawling plant
along the Indian River in Millsboro, through three shifts on seven days a week, employees at Merck Animal Health manufacture vaccines and other pharmaceutical products for cats, dogs, pigs and cows. But like so much of the agriculture industry here in the First State, Merck’s biggest customer is
Merck Animal Health
to try to stop the spread.
In another, you treat all the animals up front. As large producers have moved away from both practices, Merck has shifted its focus, too.
“One way of dealing
with it is to vaccinate them up front and to manage
the disease pressure on the population,” Holzbauer
says. “So, that requires a different kind of husbandry.” Merck doesn’t just deliver the vaccines — instead, it
REGINA HOLZBAUER
the poultry industry. “[The plant is] running
more or less around the clock,” says Executive Site Director REGINA HOLZBAUER, who has been at the Millsboro location since 2015. “In biological production, things never stop.”
In recent years, the same could be said for the poultry industry at large, as more and more producers go antibiotic- free. Flexibility, Holzbauer explains, is her firm’s biggest challenge and its greatest strength. “You never know what the next challenge is going to be,” she says. “While trying to run a business, you have to also always try to improve how you do things and try to make it better — all while the marketplace is changing rapidly. The whole antibiotic-free movement, which has become quite big
in the poultry industry, is driving different demands on what our customers need to treat their animals.”
There are a few ways farmers have traditionally used antibiotics. In one, you treat animals when they get sick and treat other animals in that population as well,
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TRENDS AND KEY FACTS
1. As consumer trends continue to shift, the food production business
in Delaware is following suit. JAMES WADDINGTON, director at the Kent County Economic Partnership notes: “There’s this whole thing going on in the food industry that is requiring site development. Ten years ago, nobody knew what gluten-free was. All of a sudden, we have gluten-free bakeries. I’ve seen site selection inquiries
for gluten-free production facilities. As our food needs change, as our packaging needs change, the food industry here tends to be a dynamic force in site selection efforts.”
2. Big poultry producers are continuing the migration to antibiotic- free operations. The change is affecting production from egg to market, and it means new approaches from ancillary businesses, such as feed firms and animal health companies; it’s requiring, says Merck’s REGINA HOLZBAUER, “a different kind of husbandry.”
3. Delaware’s 2,500 farm families own about 90 percent of the farms in the state. And plenty of farmers
are now opening their
gates to the public and offering agritourism
experiences. Delaware has zoos, orchards, Christmas tree farms, haunted hayrides and more. The
First State is also home to a number of wineries and distilleries; it hosts thoroughbred, standard-bred and harness horse races; and it boasts Community Supported Agriculture Programs (CSAs), creameries, farmers’ markets, garden centers and farm stands.
To learn more, visit the Delaware Department of
Agriculture online at www.agriculture.
delaware.gov.
44 DelawareBusinessTimes.com