not always accomplished by a single person, but Cargill has the resources to bring a group of individuals with different fields of expertise to work on one particular account. Among the Cargill consultant team there will be different expertise that in a team environment can bring solutions to their customers. Cargill's customers will not only have the consultants in their territory and the specialist at the local office as a resource, but also the scientist at the Cargill Animal Nutrition Center in Minneapolis. In addition, there are other experts in the industry that Cargill can bring in to consult or give conferences. This is a value that other feed companies in the market will have a hard time providing.
The Dairy Management Consultants not only count with a great amount of human resources but technological as well. The Cargill Dairy Systems ration formulation program (now available in Windows version) is one of the best and most sophisticated in the industry. It leads the industry in amino acid profiling for dairy rations. In addition the program can adapt a formulation to market conditions such as a demand for high butter fat in the milk. As mentioned before, feed that is custom-formulated in the morning (according to the needs and limitations of the specific customer) can be delivered that afternoon.
The proprietary computerized system used in Focus Feeds also has two other
programs that give Cargill a great competitive advantage. They both use what is called optimum-value formulation, which is how Cargill finds a way to have a low cost solution to a puzzle that includes nutrition requirements, feed ingredients maximums and minimums, and prices. For example, if the market price of an ingredient goes up, the software can find a substitute that is more cost effective and meets the nutritional
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