Making Headway In Animal Nutrition & Health
Article and photos courtesy of Profile Products®.
For more than 60 years, Profile Products® has made a name for itself within the agricultural and animal management industries. Specifically, the Buffalo Grove, IL-based company has worked diligently to develop and manufacture highly engineered specialty agriscience materials that affect a myriad of industries and efforts including animal health, erosion control, horticulture, and sports turf, to name a few.
And while Profile Products® has earned accolades aplenty for it environmental solutions, horticulture, and golf course maintenance and construction, it is the company’s recent entrance into the agricultural industry – specifically its animal health product portfolio – that is capturing the attention of dairy producers throughout the world.
“The company started in 1960 as a clay technologies business known as Aimcor, and then in 1999, we expanded into the environmental solutions and erosion business and then became Profile Products®,” says Nathan Hills, director of sales and marketing, animal health, at Profile Products®. The company continued to experience significant growth throughout the next several years, creating a wood fiber division, and eventually entering the hydro mulch and hydro fiber business in 2020.
“Our growth pattern has been pretty fast and afforded us the opportunity grow in such areas as horticulture, plant nutrients, erosion control, and animal health,” Hills says.
As part of the company’s animal health initiatives, the Profile Products®’ team recognizes the importance of offering natural solutions that improve both the environmental components surrounding animal production, as well as the digestive health of animals – all without the use of chemicals or antibiotics.
“By entering the animal health industry, we have found that our clay technologies greatly benefit the animal health side, specifically within the feed additive realm – whether they are carriers, extenders or clays that are used as feed additives alone,” Hills says. “We also believe that our experience in clay technologies used for years the sports field industry and other industries can bring value when applied to moisture mitigation in calf hutches and bedding areas.
A Streamlined Focus
Profile’s core animal health product, PowerGuard®, is the result of the partnership between Profile Products® and MB Nutritional Sciences. Together, the companies develop and distribute PowerGuard® across the animal health market. Specifically, PowerGuard® uses a unique deposit of montmorillonite that is heat treated under exacting conditions in order to transform it into durable ceramic particles that retain their porosity under any condition. The fine-milled particles allow for greater surface area and superior dispersion throughout feed formulations. Processed clays have been used in the animal feed industry for years as flow agents and carriers.
“PowerGuard® is a uniquely processed clay that is ground to a specific size and it really helps mitigate any moisture within the feed and mitigates other issues with feed production and the feed inside the animal,” Hills explains. Developed from natural sources and processed in a proprietary manner, PowerGuard® is an extremely efficient, high-performing solution available to dairy producers today.
First developed in 2019 in collaboration with MB Nutritional Sciences, PowerGuard® can be used on both non-organic and organic farms to help mitigate issues within and around molds and issues with feed. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, Profile Products® offers a similar product, TerraShield®, which offers protection against mycotoxins in ruminant, swine, and poultry operations. This patented feed additive offers the proven performance of porous ceramic clays to produce an effective binder against Salmonella, E.Coli, Zearalenone (ZEA), Aflatoxins, and any number of additional challenges faced by animal producers today.
While PowerGuard® is often found as a premix additive in animal feed products, larger dairy producers may incorporate the product directly into the feed being used on their farms.
“From a product standpoint, we typically will see performance improvement when animals consume feed treated with the PowerGuard® additive,” Hills says.
And while Profile is focusing on feed additives in the dairy industry, they are also focused on mitigating moisture within agricultural environments. Profile Environmental Care® provides immunology support through the overall improvement of conditions of pens, stalls, and houses that producers and farmers rely on for productive and healthy animals. Reducing slippage, stressors, and improving immunology is the cornerstone of Profile Environmental Care, which is typically placed on bare substrate, high-traffic areas.
“Moisture allows for bacterial proliferation and bacteria leads to disease within calves,” Hills says. Issues such as dermatitis, food pad lesions, and bacterial infections are mitigated when using an environmental control program that contains Profile’s clay technologies. These environmental efforts improve living conditions for animals in muddy areas, around silage piles, and basically keeping a farm and its animals clean overall.
“PowerGuard® and our Environmental Care products are prime examples of what Profile wants to offer in the Animal Nutrition and Animal Health industry,” Hills says. “We have been specializing in clay technologies longer and are better at it than anyone else. We want to utilize our knowledge and partner with others to bring our products to market, while offering superior products that significantly improve animal health.”
Looking ahead, Profile plans to continue to bring its clay technology and expertise to the forefront with innovative products, while helping the animal health industry, improve living conditions, and digestive health, to enhance the productivity of animals.
Improved production and performance can often be attributed to the smallest improvement within a dairy operation. That’s why Profile Products® works with dairy producers of all sizes, offering Profile Products®’ PowerGuard® as part of a trial program. This allowing producers to evaluate the benefits this product brings to their operations and their bottom line. To learn more about PowerGuard® or Profile’s Environmental Care Program, visit profileanimalhealth.com.
