H. Sheldon Norton
Vice President, Branded Feed, Starches, Sweeteners, & Texturizers
Cargill
USA
As leader of the Feed Segment, Sheldon is responsible for Branded and Commodity Feed product lines.
Branded Feed, operating under the tag line: “Freedom from Convention” includes seven disruptive products that have transformed the way animals are fed and customers served in Beef/Dairy/Aquaculture/Pet industries across the United States, South America and Southeast Asia.
Sheldon joined Cargill in 2002, spending the early part of his career in various export and import trading roles, including two years with Cargill’s World Trading Unit in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2005, Sheldon made the transition to Branded Feed, where he has spent nearly eighteen years in commercial Sales/Sales Management and Product Line/Segment Leader roles.
He also spent more than two years with Cargill’s Corporate Strategy & Development (CSD) group working on a variety of Business and Board of Director level Strategy projects.
Sheldon was born and raised on a ranch in South Africa before his family moved to Minnesota in 1994, where they still operate a corn and soybean farm and ranch in South Dakota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2002, with a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Economics.
Feed Sustainability & Technology
Abstract
Animal production industries have become adept at using macro feed ingredients that are derived from byproduct streams of what is largely a food processing system. These were assets never designed with a single animal in mind. At Branded Feed, we have spent over three decades leveraging a deeper understanding of animal needs, which led to exploring how best to modify valuable underlying raw material streams.
One critical enabler was building a culture around a simple question: How Should It Be? This has led to the launch of seven proprietary macro-feed products that actually come from a food process. A transformation from byproduct to Branded Products, that for the first time, were made fit for purpose. These macro ingredients not only address animal performance but, in many cases, also deliver functional needs that the industry otherwise solves with micro additives, like gut health enhancer, peptide, attractant and free amino acids.
However, Freedom from Convention doesn’t stop at the needs of the animal. Our commitment to innovation applies the same cultural question around how customers ought to be served. The result, supply chain innovations as unique as the products they move. The future requires more consistent, reliable, sustainable and cost/effective ingredients that can support the global aquaculture expansion.
© TARS 2026 – The Aquaculture Roundtable Series®