Cargill Animal Nutrition Innovation Center

In 1957 Cargill purchased 980 acres near Elk River, Minnesota to establish what was then known simply as “The Research Farm.” The facility has included a dairy operation from the early 1980s. Today it is our worldwide research and nutrition center.

The Cargill Animal Nutrition Innovation Center continually improves our understanding of nutrition. We focus our research on model development based on understanding why approaches and variations work. For example, in the dairy operation, we cannulate nearly 40% of our cows for in situ and infusion studies in order to better understand animal metabolism.

One of the keys to the Innovation Center’s success is synchronizing model development with lab procedures. This offers you two benefits: First, we can develop proprietary nutrients for improved productivity and consistency. Secondly, we’ve increased the speed at which we bring new technologies to benefit your operation.