Research and Continuous Improvement

Our animal welfare team serves as members on many boards, committees and organizations including:

Multiple species

• North American Meat Institute (NAMI) Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, U.S., Member
• NAMI, U.S., Executive Board Member
• National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC), Canada, Member 
• Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization, U.S., Foundation Auditor
• Safe Supply of Affordable Food Everywhere (SSAFE), International, Executive Committee Board Member and Treasurer
• China Meat Association, Member
• China Veterinarian Medical Association, Member
• International Poultry Welfare Alliance (IPWA), Founding Member
• International Poultry Council (IPC), Member
• U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry and Eggs, Founding Member, Framework Committee Chair
• Poultry & Egg Sustainability and Welfare Foundation Board of Trustees, Vice Chair
• U. S. Poultry & Egg Association, Board Member 
• Canadian Poultry & Egg Processors Council, Member
• American Association of Avian Pathologists, Member
• American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), Member

Beef and dairy cattle

• National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) BQA Advisory Board, U.S., Member
• Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) Feed Yard Assessment Committee, U.S., Member
• BQA Beef Transport Committee, U.S., Member
• Verified Beef Production Plus (VBP+) Technical Committee, Canada, Member
• Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Founding Member, Framework Committee Member, Scientific Committee Member,
• U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Founding Member, Board Member
• Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Founding Member, Board Member
• Red Meat Welfare Officer – Certification, University of Bristol (U.K.)
• Canadian Livestock Transportation Advisory Committee, Member

Turkeys

• National Turkey Federation Animal Welfare Advisory Group
• National Turkey Federation Board, Executive Board 

Broilers

• National Chicken Council (NCC) Animal Welfare Committee and Member
• International Poultry Council (IPC) Animal Welfare Committee and Member
• International Poultry Welfare Alliance (IPWA) Education and Research Committee Chair and Founding Member
• Chicken Farmers of Canada, Chicken Processors Alternate Representative
• FIA, France Federation of Poultry Industries, Member
• European Poultry Sector Industry Association, Member through FIA
• Institut Technique de l’Aviculture (French Poultry Technical Institute), Member
• China Animal Health and Food Safety Alliance (CAFA), Member
• China Broiler Alliance, Member
• ALA, Asociación Latinoamericana de Avicultura (Latin American Poultry Association), Member
• PROAVIH, Productores Avicolas de Honduras (Poultry Producers of Honduras), Member
• ANAPA, Asociación Nacional de Avicultores y Productores de Alimento – Nicaragua (Poultry and Feed Producers Association of Nicaragua), Member
• CANAVI, Cámara de Avicultores de Costa Rica (Poultry Producer Chamber of Costa Rica), Member
• FEDAVICAC, Federacion de Avicultores de Centro America y El Caribe (Poultry Producers Federation of Central America and the Caribbean), Member
• FENAVI, Federación Nacional de Avicultores de Colombia (Poultry Producers Federation of Colombia)

Laying hens

• United Egg Association Further Processors (UEA), U.S., Member 

Pork

• Common Swine Industry Audit Development Committee, Member

• Red Meat Welfare Officer—Certification, University of Bristol (UK)

Cargill funds animal wellbeing research to provide critical insights and train undergraduate and graduate students to be future industry leaders.

In the U.S., we have longstanding relationships with universities that provide scientific insight to improve our beef wellbeing program. These include Texas Tech University, Kansas State University, Texas A&M University, Oklahoma State University, Colorado State University and others.

Collectively, we focus on research that leads to continuous improvement, better herd health and wellbeing, as represented by the following research topics.

Painful Procedures:

• Effects of Castration
• Prevalence of Horns and Bruising in Feedlot Cattle

Cattle Health and Well-being:

• Acute Interstitial Pneumonia in Feedlot Cattle
• Fatigued Cattle Syndrome

Training:

• Cattle mobility during COVID-19
• Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) in Feedlots

Cattle Handling and Equipment: 

• Carcass Bruising Associated with Cattle Unloading
• Modified Trailer Design to Accommodate Larger Cattle
• Cattle Handling Techniques and Carcass Merit

Slaughter:

• Cattle Stunning at Slaughter
• Cattle Pen Space at Slaughter Facilities

For more detailed information on any of these research projects contact us.

• Through academic and allied partnerships, we continually explore ideas and tools to better understand and improve our turkey welfare program.
• We have developed an advisory committee that meets annually made up of internal experts, and external academic experts. The advisory committee reviews our program and brings new ideas or research to be considered in an effort to continually improve. A recent project we developed is a mobile fan trailer to reduce heat stress when loading birds during hot summer days. We have seen the benefits through decreased mortality of birds arriving at our plants.
• Our turkey business in the United States runs programs to educate employees, truck drivers and first responders about animal handling in the case of emergencies.
• We educate and certify all our contract growers about how to properly handle birds.

• Through academic and allied partnerships, we continually explore ideas and tools to better understand and improve our turkey welfare program.
• We have developed an advisory committee that meets annually made up of internal experts and external academic subject matter experts.
• The advisory committee reviews our program and explores new ideas and research to continually improve our program standards.
• Our turkey business in the U.S. runs programs to educate employees, truck drivers and first responders about animal handling in emergency situations.
• We educate and certify all our contract growers on proper bird handling techniques.

Cargill was a founding member of the Coalition for a Sustainable Egg Supply, a multi-stakeholder group which commissioned the first-of-its-kind commercial scale research to evaluate hen housing systems across five sustainability factors:

• food safety;
• environmental impact;
• hen health and well-being;
• worker health and safety;
• and food affordability.

It provided food system stakeholders with science-based information to guide informed production and purchasing decisions. We are using insights from this research to optimize our supply chain’s hen housing systems.