August 14/Lab Business Week -- Monsanto Company announced it is pursuing a divestiture of its dairy product, POSILAC bovine somatotropin, in the upcoming months. Additional details have not been disclosed at this time.

"While POSILAC is a strong product for the business, we believe repositioning the business with a strategic owner will allow Monsanto to focus on the growth of its core seeds and traits business while ensuring that loyal dairy farmers continue to receive the value of POSILAC in their operations," said Carl Casale, Monsanto's executive vice president of Strategy and Operations.

POSILAC is an FDA-approved animal pharmaceutical used by U.S. dairy farmers to increase productivity. Since it was first sold in the U.S. in 1994, POSILAC has become the country's leading dairy animal supplement. Supplementing dairy cows with POSILAC safely enhances milk production and serves as an important tool to help dairy producers improve the efficiency of their operations and produce more milk more sustainably.

A recent study conducted by several researchers at Cornell University highlighted the role of POSILAC as an on-farm dairy tool that can effectively reduce the environmental impact of dairy operations. The Cornell study can be accessed online at http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/bauman/envir_impact/.

From the August 18, 2008, Prepared Foods e-Flash