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While Lane, Barziza and the rest of the aquaculture group are excited about the potential benefits the research facility brings, they fully understand that with great potential, comes great expectations.

"We realize there's a lot of attention cast our way, but we're no different than other teams in that we have a singular mission of being the 'partner of choice,' to the aquaculture industry," says Lane. "That's our supreme motivation. Having the aqua research facility up and running allows us to serve the mission more quickly and efficiently than ever before."

The 'Cargill Way'

The location of the aqua research facility itself offers a glimpse into the Cargill methodology behind its development of feed solutions.

The aqua facility is just one of several research facilities which make up the Cargill Animal Nutrition Innovation Center in Elk River. Alongside the aquaculture research facility, one can find similar facilities conducting research and developing proprietary laboratory technologies for swine, livestock, poultry and other markets. The close proximity to other research teams not only lends itself for easier milling and production of a wide variety of feed stocks, but it also offers access to cross-species and laboratory technology teams.

"All of us have an understanding of meeting the needs of the enduser, so we borrow from each other tools and processes which can add value to the trials and ultimately, our feed solutions," says Lane. "For example, we use models created for both pork and poultry to create baseline trials for aqua, since similarities exist among these species in how they process certain nutrients.

"We are better able to utilize our time, resources and energy when critical data is shared between teams," Lane adds. "The connectivity we have between species teams is reflected with our customer relationships as well."

Making the connection

In any discussion of the aqua team's current or future success with both Lane and Barziza, the concept of connectivity is a recurring theme.

"Connectivity allows us to work with our grain and milling experts to determine ingredient performance under exacting conditions," Barziza points out. "It enhances our ability to fine tune our protocols and move forward on opportunities that show promise, and discard those that won't return value to our customers."