Hey Barnwell Community,
As some of you know, we’ve been working on turkey farms in Iowa. It’s some of our most exciting work, and we wanted to take a moment to share it with you. We will post a few times on this - I will talk about how these trials came to be and why Iowa is a great place to start this work, then we will deep dive into the new analysis we did comparing microbiomes across locations, and then we will share some of the implications of that work and our future plans.
These trials came to fruition through our friends at AgVentures Alliance and AgLaunch. We are lucky to partner with Jared Achen, Nick Hermanson, and Jason Opheim; in addition to being some of the most innovative turkey farmers out there, they are an absolute pleasure to work with. When we approached them with Barnwell’s barn-level microbiome technology, they took a bet on us and gave us the chance to work on their farms.
Compared to chickens, turkeys are deeply under researched, and subject to a number of critical disease issues. H5N1 a.k.a avian bird flu (we’re seeing it rear its ugly head again, impacting turkey flocks in North Dakota and Minnesota, among many others) and avian metapneumovirus are among the most pressing these days. This is in addition to other issues like dermatitis, ORT, and more that impact farms on a regular basis. These disease threats make raising turkeys especially challenging at times.
Iowa is a great place to start our work. It’s the 7th largest producer of turkeys in the country, and home to farms whose operators are eager to collaborate on industry improvements. Iowa is also a place where you can get bacon with every (seriously, every) meal. I digress.
As we’ve spent more time in Iowa, we’ve tried to reach out to as many folks in the agricultural community as possible. We want to better understand their unique challenges, and what has been top of mind for them. We’ve had the chance to meet with fellow ag-tech founders, state representatives, and even Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. These meetings have been super helpful in shaping our understanding of how we can help Iowa turkey producers.
Through our trials and conversations, we see a huge opportunity to make an impact on the turkey industry. Stay tuned - we’re excited to share more of that work with you all!
Michael
