Like humans, animals eat all kinds of foods, requiring their own supplements and snacks. This subsector manufactures food and feed for all animals, including livestock, pets, and exotic animals.
Animal Food manufacturing
It’s no surprise that when we talk about animal food, you think of your beloved pets, but there’s more to the Animal Food Manufacturing industry than kibble! Similar to humans, animals eat all kinds of foods, requiring their own supplements and snacks.
Careers are barking at your door!
Here’s some areas of interest:
Dog & Cat Food
Buying dog food these days is almost as complex as ordering from Starbucks… “I’ll have a free-range bison, whole grain, fresh-never-frozen, omega-rich, superfood, medium breed, middle-aged dog blend”. There’s a lot of science that goes into developing the perfect shelf-stable products for cats & dogs. Manufacturing food for dogs and cats involves sourcing numerous ingredients and developing them into a final product including vegetables, grains, all kinds of meats, bones, vitamins, etc.
Livestock Feed
As you can imagine, farm animals eat A LOT and have a diverse range of needs from species to species. Similar to dog & cat foods, there’s an entire subsector responsible for producing food for our farm friends as well!
We keep our cows nourished with oats, barley, corn, hay, grass and other field grains. Our chickens chow down on pellets, grains, peas, etc. and our pigs, goats, chicken, horses and other livestock have their own foods too. This is a big business with lots of career opportunities.
Exotic Pets
What do birds, fish, turtles, reptiles, ferrets, hamsters, and chinchillas have in common? That’s right, they all have to eat and there’s an entire subsector dedicated to this!
Our pets eat all kinds of stuff: pellets, flakes, live and freeze-dried insects, frozen rodents, fruits, nuts and seeds, pebbles, flowers, millet, vegetables, hay, and worms… lots and lots of worms. There’s an enormous variety of food products that are produced here, with good business opportunities.
Treats
I don’t know about you, but we spend a small fortune on dog treats every year! There’s a diverse range of pet treats on the market, everything from cat grass, to freeze-dried bites, dental chews, bones, antlers, bully sticks, cookies and more. This is an area of production that you could be involved in as well.
Supplements
Just like humans, animals don’t get all their nutrients from their foods and also need vitamins and supplements. Everything from kelp, fish oils, oysters, multivitamins and more. This industry is steadily growing as owners are changing the types of foods that they feed their animals.
COMPANIES YOU MIGHT RECOGNIZE
OCCUPATIONS “NOC”KING AT YOUR DOOR:
National Occupational Classification (NOC) Codes are what our jobs and occupations in Canada are specified by!
Knowing our NOC codes is how we are able to determine the various details on skills, proficiencies, and levels of knowledge needed to perform particular occupations or jobs across the various industries and sub-sectors across Canada.
Listed below are some of the NOC codes for the Animal Food Processing subsector:
- Feed Mill Foreperson (NOC 9213)
- Pet Food Cook (NOC 9461)
- Feed Batch Mixer (NOC 9461)
- Feed Miller (NOC 9461)
- Feed Mixer (NOC 9461)
- Dry Foods Mixer Operator (NOC 9461)
- Custom Feed Miller (NOC 9461)
- Custom Feed Preparer (NOC 9461)
- Animal Feed Sack Filler (NOC 9617)
- Custom Feed Miller Helper (NOC 9617)
