Happy New Year everyone!
You may have noticed that we didn’t have a lot of blog posts directly
from the Purina Animal Nutrition Center the second half of 2013, and that is
because our palatability barn looked like this:
Our team was really put to the test in 2013 as they
managed horses and research projects despite bulldozers, cranes, jackhammers
and all things construction related. Furthermore,
Mike, Andrea, John, Margaret and Tim literally joined the construction crew
full force and were hands-on with all kinds of day to day prep, building and
finishing work. We could not have
accomplished what we did without their willingness to learn, help and jump in
on all kinds of projects from tear down to grass seeding. I have often said that we have the greatest
employees in the world at the research farm, and boy did this year prove
it. So we are very excited that our
palatability barn now looks like this:
You might be wondering- did the horse research slow down
during the renovation? And the answer is
NOT ON YOUR LIFE! Despite the
construction, we completed 11 trials at the research unit and we took a large
portion of our research offsite, to the tune of 7 trials completed or ongoing
at universities. We have new and
innovative products to bring you in 2014, along with many more in the pipeline.
For us at the farm, our Christmas miracle was that the
renovation is finally wrapping up. It
has been 14 months in the making and this time last year, we were meeting with
architects and getting bids together.
Now we are putting finishing touches on stalls, hanging signs and we
moved pregnant broodmares into the foaling barn on New Year’s Eve. As we look back on 2013, we hope your year
was full of new challenges and great memories like ours, and we look forward to
sharing our new facility with you in 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment