dsm-firmenich Sustell Adds Farm-Level Sustainability Data for Animal Protein

Global | Animal Nutrition | Digital Agriculture | Sustainability | Precision Livestock

dsm-firmenich Animal Nutrition & Health has launched a new capability within its Sustell® environmental-footprinting platform, allowing users to incorporate their own primary crop-production data into end-to-end sustainability assessments across the animal-protein value chain.

The development represents a significant move toward farm-specific rather than industry-average sustainability measurement, with potential implications for animal nutrition, feed formulation, livestock production, procurement and increasingly, animal-health decision-making. dsm-firmenich announced the capability on 6 October 2026.

From generic assumptions to farm-specific measurement

Environmental footprint calculations have traditionally relied heavily on generic datasets, emission factors and industry averages. While useful for benchmarking, these approaches can obscure substantial differences between individual farms and supply chains.

Sustell’s new functionality allows primary crop-production information to be incorporated directly into feed formulations and animal-farm footprint calculations. That creates a connected measurement chain:

Crop → Feed → Animal → Farm → Processing → Final animal-protein footprint

The importance is particularly high for feed-intensive sectors such as poultry, swine and aquaculture, where feed ingredients can represent a major component of production-related environmental impacts.

dsm-firmenich says the new capability can provide a more representative assessment of individual supply chains because crop production varies according to geography, farming system, inputs, yields and other production parameters.

Why this matters to animal health

The development may initially appear to be a sustainability initiative, but its longer-term relevance extends into animal health.

Health and sustainability are increasingly interconnected. A flock experiencing elevated mortality, poor gut health or suboptimal feed conversion requires more feed and resources per kilogram of saleable protein. Conversely, improved health, welfare and biological efficiency can reduce resource use per unit of output.

This creates a potential commercial framework in which: better health → better productivity → lower resource intensity → lower footprint per kg of protein.

That could increase demand for technologies capable of demonstrating measurable improvements in:

• feed conversion;

• mortality;

• growth rate;

• egg production;

• milk yield;

• disease prevention;

• gut health;

• antimicrobial-use efficiency;

• welfare;

• lifetime productivity.

For animal-health suppliers, the strategic implication is that sustainability claims may increasingly require quantifiable biological evidence rather than standalone environmental messaging.

FLAG and SBTi relevance

The new Sustell capability also supports Forests, Land and Agriculture (FLAG) reporting and allows companies to incorporate primary crop and ingredient data into FLAG-aligned assessments.

This is important because agricultural supply chains are under increasing pressure to improve the credibility and traceability of emissions reporting. dsm-firmenich says the capability is also designed to support requirements associated with Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) reporting.

Commercial significance

dsm-firmenich Animal Nutrition & Health says its business generated approximately €3.3 billion in sales and employs more than 7,800 people, underlining the scale of the platform behind this development.

The company’s broader portfolio spans vitamins, carotenoids, feed additives, eubiotics, enzymes, mycotoxin solutions, precision services and analytical capabilities. A supplier that can connect nutrition → farm performance → environmental footprint has the potential to move from being an ingredient supplier toward becoming a data-enabled productivity partner.

Industry outlook

The animal-protein industry is increasingly being asked to prove not simply that production is sustainable, but where environmental impacts originate and which interventions actually reduce them.

Farm-level data could therefore become a competitive asset. The next evolution may involve linking environmental-footprint data with:

animal-health records + feed formulation + disease surveillance + mortality + productivity + welfare + economics.

That would enable producers to calculate not just the environmental footprint of a farm, but potentially the environmental and economic value of specific health interventions.

Animal-Health Industry Takeaway

Sustell’s farm-specific capability strengthens the convergence of animal nutrition, animal health, precision farming and sustainability analytics. The commercial winners are likely to be suppliers able to demonstrate that healthier, more efficient animals generate measurable biological, economic and environmental benefits.