Science from the University of Illinois, Brattain joined the KWS Cereals group in 2018 and began her career as Agricultural Product Developer (Feeding Nutritionist) at KWS focused on hybrid rye. Brattain is a significant contributor in the development feeding strategies for promoting and marketing hybrid rye for the animal feeding sector. Since joining KWS she has introduced hybrid rye feeding options to numerous commercial swine and cattle producers across the United States.
To date, much of Brattain‘s academic work has focused on coordinating research experiments to better understand and evaluate how hybrid rye can work for commercial US feeding systems. Brattain is a significant contributor to scientific journals focused on animal science and has been published in the Journal of Animal Science, Translational Animal Science, and Animals. The majority of her work has focused on minerals critical to animal health, and the role that forage plays to support the delivery and nutrition of these critical minerals.
“Growing up on a cattle farm in southern Missouri, and now living on a swine farm in Indiana, has continued to incite a passion in me for animal health and welfare through feedstuff,” says Brattain. “This opportunity at KWS allows me to focus even more on animal health, communicating the benefits of feeding hybrid rye to animals and to humans. Further, the opportunity to work collaboratively with our research partners in Germany so that KWS becomes a significant contributor to the US wheat, barley, and hybrid rye crops is a challenge that I am up for.”
Thomas Blumtritt, KWS Regional Director United States/Eastern Europe said “Becca is passionate about maximizing the engagement and performance of the team toward long-term business growth targets in the US. Her engaging, collaborative, and results-driven philosophy are some of the strong qualities she brings to this position.“ Blumtritt went on to say “Becca is an excellent communicator and emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships both inside and outside the company.“
Brattain’s responsibilities include market leadership development of human and animal feed opportunities as well as commercialization activities of KWS Cereals in the US. Brattain will continue to reside in rural Indiana while managing the KWS Cereals office located in Champaign, Illinois.
