Yahoo Finance

The excitement we built in reaching the double-digit growth needed to reach our goal was, of course, great but then we started of the new fiscal year more slowly than planned. Over the course of the last several months, we brought on several new managers to the team and reassigned responsibilities for probably another half dozen or so. None of them have the time to get up to full speed yet. I'm excited about the progress they're making and look forward to the contributions they will make in the future.

As mentioned in the press release, sales from our food safety segment increased 13% during the first quarter compared to the prior year. Our highlights for this segment include sales of our rapid test for food-borne pathogens such as Listeria and Salmonella, which increased 43% in the quarter. This increase included sales of our Listeria Right Now test system, which detects pathogens in less than an hour. Other test systems require an incubation time of about 24 hours.

In August, our test system was validated by the AOAC, which is an independent organization that validates the performance of various test systems. Other food safety highlights included an increase in sales of 17% for our sanitation test systems, which included our AccuPoint Advanced products and our Culture Media products, which Jim will address in his comments. As stated in the release, sales for animal safety segment were off about $500,000 or 1% in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the first quarter in 2018. This follows our previous quarter, the fourth quarter of 2018, in which our animal safety segment sales increased about $6.5 million or 13% compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.

Those of you who may cover the animal protein industry, including dairy and pork companies, may have seen the softness in the industry and especially with companies who export products to China and Mexico. These companies are trying to do business in an environment with almost daily changes to propose tariffs on the products while at the same time, dealing with oversupply issues. We've seen some impact to sales of products from the dairy industry as many dairy producers are struggling with continued low milk prices. But we believe, in general, that Neogen offers products and services that only increase the importance as profit margins tighten for livestock producers.

It's now more important than ever for producers to select the best animals for their breeding programs using our genomic products and then protect their investment in those animals with our biosecurity and veterinary products. Consumers will never stop demanding high-quality plentiful animal protein products even as the segments of the animal protein industry struggle with oversupply and tariffs. More than ever, we believe Neogen is perfectly positioned to partner with all segments of the global food industry to meet the demands of its consumers. With that said, I'd like to turn it over to Jim for his perspective.

Jim Herbert -- Executive Chairman

Well, thanks, John, and I'd like to share with you some of the activities that I'm working on. They're quite -- really quite exciting. As we've expanded our management team, this has and should continue to allow us to spend more time focusing on several areas of what I would call additional integration. First, let me take just a second to talk about the fast-growing and exciting area in genomics.

And one, I have to look back about 10 years ago as we try to anticipate exactly what or think about exactly how we got to this point. But about 10 years ago, we knew that we needed genomic technologies, but at that time, we knew that we needed to acquire start versus trying to develop it internally. This led to the acquisition of GeneSeek in Lincoln, Nebraska about eight years ago. And then we added acquisitions in 2012 and 2013, and also built our capabilities internally.

We next took that technology to our existing labs that we had at the time and, I think, continue to operate quite successfully in Ayr, Scotland. And then we acquired a genomics lab in Brazil, and then we expanded through the acquisition of a lab in Australia. So you can see, refresh your memory on how that rollout happened. Within the last couple of months, we began establishing a laboratory in Shanghai, China.

And in this past quarter, this has meant that our animal genomics revenue increased to about $15.5 million. That's up 15% over what the total combined was in the same quarter last year. This is yet another chapter in the integration story that I'd like to feed you in on, and that took place during this past quarter. About three years ago, we acquired a nice Culture Media business in Hayward, England and we knew that we could bolt it together with our Acumedia operations doing the same thing back here in the U.S.

Over the past several months, we had an opportunity to harmonize the technology, the production, and the marketing activities to do a better job of providing the overall market with a new and better improved product line. And this first-quarter revenues for the worldwide Culture Media business is now about 16% greater than it was in the same quarter a year ago when the two units were operating separately. And I'm also getting a good opportunity to spend some more time with our Neogen Europe operations that offer us some huge opportunities as we move forward. Within that market, the claim and credit, or claims stakeout, if you will, we have 114 countries and we actually do business in about 90 of these.

Most of this is through independent distributors, but we do have our own sales force in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, France, and in the Netherlands. And we've started that business, it was there, and we celebrated a few weeks ago when I was over a 15-year anniversary that we acquired a little business. There was about a dozen employees and this team has now expanded to 260 employees operating from our central facility just located in Ayr Scotland, right south of Glasgow. The combination of our Neogen Europe businesses had revenues for this first quarter of about $15 million or 18% greater than for the same period last year.

And as we look forward, we're gaining market share in markets that are growing. Those markets are all growing. I think we're gaining market share. Our European Union R&D programs that operate from Ayr are generating some new products that particularly fit in that marketplace.

And we've also got some opportunities to look for some additional acquisitions within the Neogen Europe geography that, frankly, is quite good. So perhaps you can see from my comments that I'm as excited as ever and still finding plenty to do to retain that excitement. Doing some things hopefully that will help John with future growth. Oh, and by the way, I still have a sign that sits in the middle of my desk that says, "Learning to let go." In most days, I think I'm -- the learning planning process is continuing quite well.

Let's stop at this point to turn it over to Steve.

Steve Quinlan -- Chief Financial Officer

All right. Thanks, Jim. As John indicated, we got off to a sluggish start for fiscal 2019 as our animal safety segment reported revenues which trailed the prior year and the currency winds were also in our face as the devaluation of the Brazilian real and the Mexican peso, which have declined 16% and 7%, respectively, compared to the same period a year ago, resulted in comparative revenues which were $1.3 million lower than the first quarter a year ago. Now before we get into the financials, I want to spend a little time discussing the new revenue recognition accounting standard in our prior-year revenue numbers.

Well, we adopted the new standard on June 1, the beginning of our fiscal year. We've historically accounted for variable considerations such as rebates, marketing support, and incentives in our contracts with certain of our customers as components of cost of sales and sales and marketing expense. As part of our work in adopting the new standard, we've reclassified those prior-year expenses as contract revenues to make the numbers for last year's first quarter directly comparable to this year's first quarter. The results of these reclassifications is that our reported revenues from last year's first quarter declined by $1 million with corresponding decreases in cost of sales and sales and marketing expenses totaling $1 million.

There was no change in our previously reported operating or net income from those reclassifications just from certain line items on the income statement. Our 10-Q will have all of the details on the adoption of the new revenue recognition standard. Corporatewide gross margins were 46.9% for the quarter compared to last year's Recast first-quarter gross margins of 47.7%. Margins were impacted by mix changes resulting from strong sales growth at Lab M, Quat-Chem and Rogama, and new revenues from our Australian genomics operation.

Each of these units have gross margins which are lower than the company's historical average. Our operating expenses overall increased 6% for the quarter with sales and operating expenses rising 7%, primarily due to increases in salaries and other personnel-related expenses, shipping expense, and higher bad debt expense caused by the reversal of reserves from the collection of receivables in the prior year. General and administrative expenses rose 9% for the quarter. The prior-year first quarter included $365,000 in economic development grant credits which did not recur in this fiscal quarter.

Other increases related to salaries, health insurance costs, and depreciation and licensing fees relating to IT equipment and software. Our R&D expense has declined 9% in the first quarter. Our last year's first quarter had higher levels of contracted outside services related to new product development efforts at that time. Our operating income for the quarter was $16.5 million, up just slightly compared to last year's first-quarter operating income of $16.4 million.

And expressed as a percent of sales, operating income was 16.5%, compared to 17.4% in the first quarter last year. The decline in gross margin percentage explains the decrease in operating income as a percent of revenues. Other income was $658,000, compared to income of $812,000 in the prior-year first quarter. Interest income of $927,000, compares to $369,000 in the first quarter of last year as interest rates have risen and our cash and marketable securities balance is $66 million higher than a year ago.

We recorded currency losses of $386,000 in the first quarter primarily related to devaluation of the Brazilian real and Mexican peso, compared to currency gains of $465,000 in the prior-year first quarter. Our effective tax rate was 11.1% in the first quarter this year, compared to 30.7% in the first quarter of last year. Corporate tax reform enacted last December dropped the statutory rate from 35%, in effect in last year's first quarter down to 21% this quarter. And we also gain an additional $2.3 million tax benefit related to the exercise of stock options.

If you remember on past calls, I've indicated that this tax benefit will result in fluctuations of our effective tax rate and our overall net income each quarter depending on the price of company stock and the option activity in that particular quarter. And we believe it could impact earnings by between $0.01 to $0.04 each quarter. The company generated $16.1 million in cash from operations in the first quarter. This compares favorably to our $15.2 million in net income.

We invested $1.9 million in property, equipment, and intangible assets this quarter. We've got a number of investments being considered this year to help enhance our efficiency through automation. Inventory balances rose 4% with an increase of $2.8 million primarily in finished good levels. We improved our inventory turns in fiscal 2018 and continue to work on improvements with programs at each of our operations.

Our accounts receivable balances decreased slightly compared to year-end balances and our average days sales outstanding were 64 at August 31 compared to 60 days at year end, primarily the result of the increase in international revenues, which generally take longer to collect. Now although the year got off to a little bit of a slow start, we remain positive about our prospects for the remainder of the year. I'll now turn it back to John for some additional comments.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Steve. As some of the numbers show, we may have experienced some bumps in the road, but we firmly believe that we're on the right road. The strategies that we've employed to build Neogen to where it is today continue to be very viable. Our existing portfolio of products and services and personnel groups have never been stronger than they are today.

We continue to look for opportunities, as Jim would say, to bolt on to our existing operations and have them hit the ground running once under our ownership. In the past two months, we've made two small acquisitions that have sizable potential for us. The Colitag water-testing technology is a perfect fit for us. It enables our customers to quickly test the purity of the water consumed by poultry and livestock even in water used in food production.

It complements the other food safety tests that we have available for our customers to test the quality and safety of the raw ingredients. The acquisition of Livestock Genetic Services expands a critical component of our animal genomic services. The company will help our customers translate the genomic sequences that we generate in our labs around the world to make the best decisions for their operations. We continue to have an active corporate development program and currently have several opportunities under consideration, but we will continue our traditional approach toward acquisitions.

Since 2000, we have now completed 39 acquisitions that have all been successful. This success has been mostly due to our ability to integrate the acquired businesses into our existing businesses. We will continue to use three hard rules to make sure that we know what we're going to do with the business the morning after we write the check. Our three cardinal rules are: first, we must understand the technology and its application; second, we must be able to manufacture the product ourselves; and third, we must have access to the market.

I'm excited about Neogen's direction as we move through our 2019 fiscal year. We continue to be well-positioned in our growing markets with the right people and products, and we have the organizational strength to reach anywhere in the world where need exists. Let me stop at this point and entertain any questions from those of you who have joined the call.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator instructions] And our first question is from Kevin Ellich from Craig-Hallum.

Kevin Ellich -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess, Steve, starting off with you. Did you give the organic growth number? And if not, can you give us that?

Steve Quinlan -- Chief Financial Officer

I did not give the organic growth number. It is about 4% overall.

Kevin Ellich -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst

OK. That's fantastic. And then, John, I guess just going back to the animal safety kind of pressure that you guys are seeing. You talked about pricing and supply challenges.

Is it really only dairy and swine? Can you give us a little bit more color? And have those -- has the pricing and supply challenges persisted as you kind of gone here? Have you continued to see that?

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Sure, Kevin. No, I think it's across the whole animal protein sector and it's just because of this uncertainty. I mean, you saw that on the pork side, we saw tariffs at 78% for China and they bumped up to almost 20% for Mexico. Now those things are moving daily and so I think people are operating a lot on different uncertainty.

As you know, they always continue to buy products to make sure they're going to keep their animals safe and healthy. It just depends on when they're going to buy them. So I think this thing is going to get better as we go on as some of that uncertainty is eliminated from the marketplace as we go forward.

Kevin Ellich -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst

So, would you say it's more of a timing issue then? And I guess, it's just impossible to figure out when we'll see them buy products.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

I would. I would. I think as soon as you start to see some of the uncertainty around the market, it's going to change.

Kevin Ellich -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst

OK. And then also in the press release, you talked about, I guess, some weakness in the distribution channel. Can you give us a little bit more color as to what that means and exactly what you're seeing there?

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I think it's a reflection of the general market. The distributors have to sell on to an end market. And so if the end market is a little soft, the distribution channel tends to be a little bit soft. But as that market picks up, then that channel will strengthen also.

Kevin Ellich -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst

Got you. OK. That makes sense. And then, Steve, sorry to flip back to you.

So DSO, you called out the four-day sequential increase really due to, I guess, greater international sales. How much higher is your DSO for your international revenue? And I guess, what should we expect going forward?

Steve Quinlan -- Chief Financial Officer

DSO, generally, it's longer internationally, Kevin, just because it takes longer to get product to the end customer. It could be -- it's anywhere, call it, 10 days to two weeks kind of on average. So, the fact is our international revenues were up 18% this quarter over last year. So, I would have expected that DSO number to increase.

I think it'll probably drop back a little bit. It's a point in time measurement in those numbers. The calculation moves around. But if our international sales increase like they are, that number will go up a little bit.

Kevin Ellich -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst

Great. Great. And then, Jim, just lastly for you. Good to see some acquisition activity.

You guys have certainly done a number of deals in the last 10-plus years. Cash balance continues to build. Give us a little bit of color on the pipeline. How does it look now?

Jim Herbert -- Executive Chairman

It looks good. And as I've said many times before, acquiring them is sometimes easier than integrating them. We've looked back since we started the company we've done about 40 acquisitions, and we've not had any one ever go south on us. Some have prospered better than others but -- and that's because we were able, as John pointed out in his comments, we were able many times to bolt on.

I talked about some bolt-ons particularly with -- in my brief comments, [Inaudible] what we did with the genomic side. We had a meeting yesterday. John and I spent some time with our corporate development activities, and we have a half a dozen acquisitions that are clearly on the radar. We've got letters of intent out on now and we're selectively looking at places where we can make acquisitions that we can bolt on to strong management teams.

And as John pointed out, we got a few management teams that are rebuilding right now. So, we don't want to bolt something big on to them. That's -- like an old friend of mine one time said -- I said, I was going to find [Inaudible] other business and it doesn't [Inaudible]. He pointed to me trying to attach two concrete blocks together [Inaudible] and they float, and we certainly don't want to be [Inaudible] doing that.

So -- but we've got -- and we're going to be looking pretty seriously at some international opportunities. We've talked about in -- along the way, I think we were up at 40% in total revenues this year that -- this quarter, that came from international, and I think that's a record for us. We've been pushing at that number before but that's a record for us going forward. And we've got some opportunities, some freestanding businesses, and we've got some distribution businesses that might need to be [Inaudible] in and be able to tie it a part of the company.

Doesn't mean we've got to announce it yet. But I can assure you that in addition to having the money to make the acquisitions, we certainly have the desire and I think the right team to do them.

Kevin Ellich -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst

Sounds good. Thanks, guys.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Kevin.

Operator

Our next question is from Brian Weinstein from William Blair.

Andrew Brackmann -- William Blair & Company -- Analyst

Hi, guys. This is actually Andrew Brackmann on for Brian this morning. I wanted to go back to your comments on the disruptions in the channel and maybe you could talk a little bit more about those in context of the overall market. And is there anything really that Neogen can specifically do to overcome these challenges in the short term? Thanks.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Sure, Andrew. Yes. I think absolutely we can. I mean, when you think about the overall market and you think about our market share, we continue to have opportunities to grow our product portfolio within the existing customers out there.

So, even if the market is a little soft, we have tremendous growth opportunities because we don't have a high penetration rate. So, some of the things that we can do, specifically on the animal safety side, I'm assuming you're talking about, is that...

Andrew Brackmann -- William Blair & Company -- Analyst

Yes, correct.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, we can continue to try to drive demand to the customers, which means getting out, working more and doing a lot of pull-through activities to help our distributors, partners pull product through their facilities and warehouses to the end users. And those are the things that we're working on and we've been starting and really focusing on to drive business through the end of the year.

Andrew Brackmann -- William Blair & Company -- Analyst

Got it. Thanks, guys.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Andrew.

Operator

Our next question is from David Westenberg from CL King.

David Westenberg -- C.L. King & Associates -- Analyst

Hi. Thanks for taking the question. So, a couple of questions for Steve here. Operating margins were a little bit below us, and normally when we see Food Safety do so well and animal safety do a little bit more poorly, we kind of expect to see gross margins kind of improve.

So, can you maybe give us a little bit of color on the mix shift were there and maybe why that would have happened?

Steve Quinlan -- Chief Financial Officer

Sure, David. It's -- in my comments, I tried to point it out a little bit where the specific groups that grew probably the most on a percentage basis were some of the areas that are -- have the lower gross margins on that food side. So, your question, you're dead on that that's what you would have thought would have happened. But our Quat-Chem, our Rogama, Lab M businesses, although they're good strong businesses but they are -- their gross margins just are less than the profile on the food side.

So, the fact that they grew the most on that side resulted in the gross margins not growing like you would have thought they would have.

David Westenberg -- C.L. King & Associates -- Analyst

OK. Thank you very much. And then just on the new revenue recognition or the new contra revenue. I know you don't give guidance, but just kind of -- should we think about this quarter -- and you saw $1 million roughly and less revenue than you would have seen under your prior accounting recognition standard.

So is that -- this quarter representative of what we should see in maybe say Q2, Q3, and Q4? Or is this atypical?

Steve Quinlan -- Chief Financial Officer

No, that's exactly what you'll see. It'll be about $1 million and that's not really giving guidance. It's really telling you what we're going to adjust our future or prior quarters by. So, it was -- it's about $1 million a quarter, yes.

David Westenberg -- C.L. King & Associates -- Analyst

OK. Yes, on a go-forward basis. OK. No, thank you very much.

That helps with the modeling. And then maybe just a question on Neogen Brazil. 40% growth was very, very strong, but is that something that is going to be purely seasonal and we should see that kind of trail off? Or is there something you saw there where you -- there's reason to be optimistic to say we can see this kind of growth for a prolonged period of time?

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

I think it's a bit of both, David. We've picked up some really good customers on multiple sides of the business. We've picked up some big customers in our toxin business, which is a little bit seasonality, but that's big customers so that will continue to work with us going forward. And then we've also picked up some business in other segments in Brazil.

So, we're really happy with the Brazilian team and the Mexican teams growth. Both of them had great quarters.

David Westenberg -- C.L. King & Associates -- Analyst

That is just very helpful. And then just one last one question for me. I mean, you've talked about some of the disruption related to tariffs on the animal safety side, and obviously, milk, is something else that you called out. But can you maybe walk us through disruptions in the U.S.

versus outside the U.S. so we can kind of -- just kind of understand how the dynamics would work with maybe, say, tariffs or weakness in animal protein and your exposure there? Thank you.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

OK. Jim, you can help me with this one too on the poultry. I mean, I think on the pork side, what's interesting is we have more hogs -- I saw the stat the other day. We have more hogs today than they've ever had since they were keeping records since 1964. So, we've got a big supply of meat.

And then we've got -- the American consumer continues to eat more meat, which is great, but we produce more than we can eat here, so we need the export markets. So, I know that there's a little bit of that going on. But Jim can talk a lot about poultry. So, Jim, can you help me?

Jim Herbert -- Executive Chairman

Yes. Well, one of the things that -- we don't really know what the large total impact of the product is going forward either. I was on the phone with them again. It's been a regular contact as late as last night.

I remember that where [Inaudible] land, you've got the world, the headquarters of the world, largest pork producer, you got the headquarters of butter ball in Turkey and you've got the headquarters of -- I mean, you've got the production area of four of the major [Inaudible] producers, and that's going to have is some immediate impact. And what the long-term impact is depends on how many [Inaudible] we drown and how many sows we kill. The numbers are quite sizable over there now. But on the poultry side, North Carolina alone produces something like 10% of the United States total chicken.

So the fact that, that part of the world is important. The number looked like that we drowned about 4 million birds. Now how many of those would be layers that -- or going to be breeder flocks or going to produce hatching eggs, I don't think we know yet. During those -- the few days prior to that, we -- I think they shuttered 10 to 12 meat processing plants.

So, those birds are still backed up out there somewhere, those that are still alive. And so that's going to be important going forward. As John's talked about the pork side, about 12% of the total hogs in the United States are produced in North Carolina. So, we're talking there about some pretty heavy production.

And again, no I mean, did we -- I mean, how many of those sows did we kill? One of the bigger issue is what we did to all those lagoons that were holding back -- holding the manure coming from that chicken products operation, but mostly from the hog operations and what's that done to the groundwater, that's part of the country that relies a lot on private wells. Our new acquisition allowed us to do some things that were -- I was real proud of our folks. We've got a big batch. We took some stuff out of California and some Colitag out of California, sent it to North Carolina.

And we have people, our own employees and people that owned the animals that were testing water yesterday trying to make sure that it didn't have coliforms and E. coli in the water that they were using. So that acquisition is off to a great start. We didn't make a lot of money out of it, but we sure got a lot of goodwill from it, from what's going on there.

So it's -- I think it's yet to be seen. The industry on a poultry side, Jim, they can adjust pretty fast. It still takes 21 days to hatch an egg and they don't have to put those eggs in the machines. So, they can cut back and it still takes about 42 days to get that day-old chick up to ready to go to market.

So, that adjustment can take place pretty quick. So, I think the longer term probably on swine is a bigger issue than it is for chickens. But I think we're in the right place. I'm all for pride that we've been able to be helpful in the North Carolina area.

Our guys were smart enough that they immediately -- when they saw this was coming, they loaded up a load of disinfectant out of our Memphis plant and guided it just as far as where they thought the water would come to. So, when the water started to go down or is going down, we got disinfected. We can go in there to help clean up some of the stuff now. So, it's just nice to be on both sides of that end.

So, I don't know whether that answers your question or not, but...

David Westenberg -- C.L. King & Associates -- Analyst

Actually -- I broke my promise. I actually now have one more question because of your answer. The -- I wasn't thinking about maybe Florence enough as I should have. And is there any kind of maybe -- I don't think guidance is the right word.

But what should we, in our models, kind of anticipate this August, I mean, or quarter ending November in terms of impact from Florence?

Jim Herbert -- Executive Chairman

I really don't know. It depends on how fast they recover. And as I said, they -- we'll probably never know how many animals were drowned and we probably don't want to know because there's nothing much you can do about it. It just depends on how long it takes for them to recover, how long -- we've got a lot of business.

There's a dozen plants that got shuttered. Some significant portion of those plants are our customers, I'm sure. So, it may have a little -- I think -- I don't think we're going to get hurt that bad for the quarter because we -- our world operates -- Europe looks good, everything we're seeing there. I think John says Mexico and Brazil looks good.

So, we're big enough now that we're over that $400 million mark that we don't have to -- we're not too cluttered by one part North America. So, I think we'll probably get hurt a little bit for the first few weeks in here, but I don't think it's going to be -- from my viewpoint, it's not going to be critical companywide.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, and I'd agree with Jim. I think if you think about it, David, there's puts and takes on that, right? There may be some opportunity where we're going to sell products because they're going to go back in and then reclean and do those things, but there may be some things where we have some customers that are shut down for a little bit. So, I agree with Jim. I think that could have a minimal impact but I don't see that as a huge impact.

David Westenberg -- C.L. King & Associates -- Analyst

Got it. Just shifting products then. OK. All right.

Thank you very much and have a good day.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you.

Operator

[Operator instructions] And our next question is from Brian Gaines from Springhouse Cap.

Brian Gaines -- Springhouse Capital Management -- Analyst

Hi, guys. How much of the revenue softness was kind of the pull-forward you talked about earlier in the call versus issues with the protein market?

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Brian. I'm not sure exactly how much is pull-through. I know that we were really excited to double our revenues again in five years and I think it had a little bit of an impact. I think if you look at the two quarters combined for animal safety, you can kind of see that, but I don't know what the -- Steve, you want to comment?

Steve Quinlan -- Chief Financial Officer

I would say, if you asked me a number, I'd maybe say $2 million to $3 million, but it's a guess just based on softness with some of the larger distributors.

Brian Gaines -- Springhouse Capital Management -- Analyst

Just the $2 million to the $3 million is what was kind of a pull-forward effect?

Steve Quinlan -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, it could be. I mean, we don't -- we haven't looked at it like that, but...

Brian Gaines -- Springhouse Capital Management -- Analyst

Great. OK. Do you see any change? Any of the markets gotten a little softer in the protein? Do you see any change in competitive pressure from any other -- any of your competitors?

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Not really. And we've got good competitors out there who are continuing to push their message, but we haven't seen much. And the nice thing about our portfolio is we're so broad that we don't have someone that stacks up right on top of us that could have an big impact if they decided to really try to make a change. So, it's pretty much been the way we've been operating.

It's -- we've got to get our message out and show our value proposition to our customer base and that's what we're doing and we're going to continue to grow share doing that.

Brian Gaines -- Springhouse Capital Management -- Analyst

Got it. In the animal area, who are your biggest competitors in kind of the market that's soft, the protein market?

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Jim, if you would...

Jim Herbert -- Executive Chairman

Well, if you look about the security side, we've move got a couple of players in rodenticides. I don't think that's -- I don't think we've got much competitive pressure there. That's -- particularly not in North America. We've got the same pressure we've had.

I don't see that increasing any. We are glad to put out a lot of rodenticides in some of that troubled areas in the Southeast [Inaudible] because the rats and mice are always looking for a better place to live now. And so that's the cleaner and disinfectant side, we've got two or three competitors there and nobody to -- the DuPont organization that we once distributed that's changed a couple of times they're there. They're formidable, but no increase.

I don think anybody's going to be given product [Inaudible] in strong hands. And then there's not a lot to say about what's happening on Texas. I think -- I don't know if John can talk more about it. But on -- with one or two minor exceptions, what we're facing on the diagnostic side on food safety, they're in strong hands.

They're in hands of folks like 3M and [Inaudible]. They don't play pricing games. I'm sure that our guys in China probably are -- although I don't talk to them on a regular basis, you've got some Chinese guys over there that'll sell whatever they can get in the marketplace that are locally produced there, but that's not where our market is in China anyway. So, I don't know.

I don't think that we're going to see a lot of competitive pressure.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

I agree with Jim. I mean, we like strong rational competitors. And to Jim's point, they're out there trying to make money and we're going to make money and we're going to go compete against value and I think that's pretty much the landscape it's been.

Jim Herbert -- Executive Chairman

Probably the biggest thing in -- you don't have to remind me what the number was but that's currency fluctuation. We do have a competitor too in Europe where we've got -- well, it depends on the advantages is against the euro and the pound sterling, particularly the euro. They're producing it under cost structure for the euro and we're selling in the end of the cost structure of the dollar. They might get a little bit of advantage, but I don't think it'll be enough to -- I don't think we're going to see any -- I don't want to anticipate that's probably -- John have to comment more on this, but I don't anticipate -- I'm not hearing anybody talk about reducing prices.

In fact, I'm hearing less noise about we need to be thinking about where our price increases are going to be. We have to move out here into the new calendar year or so...

Brian Gaines -- Springhouse Capital Management -- Analyst

Got it. I know you don't give guidance, but is this current organic growth rate kind of a good feel for -- unless the situation changes where tariffs have been wiped out, is this kind of a good run rate?

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

No, we're disappointed in this rate, too. We're not happy about it. This is not what we generally do. And we think we have a couple of things that worked against us, and -- but this is not indicative of who we are.

Brian Gaines -- Springhouse Capital Management -- Analyst

Great. OK. Thank you.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Brian.

Operator

Our next question is from Casey Woodring from Janney Montgomery.

Casey Woodring -- Janney Montgomery -- Analyst

Hi. I'm actually on for Paul Knight. My question is for Steve. It's about the tax rate.

Do you anticipate getting any more tax benefits moving forward? Or is it safe to assume that for our model, we can assume this tax rate from this quarter? Thanks.

Steve Quinlan -- Chief Financial Officer

No. I would say, Casey, that it all depends on the exercises of options in a particular quarter. So it's really difficult for me to give you anything there. It all depends on when people exercise options and that depends on the availability of options that are vested in a quarter and the company stock price in that quarter.

I would tell you that a $500,000 benefit is about a $0.01 or about -- I think that's about a 3% impact on our effective rate, and this quarter was about $2.3 million. I don't know what to tell you to put in your model, but I estimated that it could be $0.01 per share in a quarter to $0.04 depending on the option activity. Did that help?

Casey Woodring -- Janney Montgomery -- Analyst

Yes. Perfect. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question is from David Stratton from Great Lakes Review.

David Stratton -- Great Lakes Review -- Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. When we look at the Listeria Right Now product contributing to growth in that particular segment, is that something that is really being driven by the new products? Are you seeing a lot of underlying growth in that area?

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I think most of that's by the new product because if you think about -- there's been Listeria testing solutions out there for a long time. But what's so different is our ability to do that in an hour rather than at an enrichment and waiting 24 hours. So it really is kind of a revolutionary new platform. And that's what's got us and our customers so excited about it is that they're able to use it ways that they haven't used in the past.

David Stratton -- Great Lakes Review -- Analyst

Got you. And then is that also then increasing your customer business? So, is there going to be an anniversary of the new product? Or are you seeing organic growth coming in behind it as people switch to this faster system?

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

We see organic growth coming behind it. We'll pick up new customers and then as customers learn where they can use it to best utilize within their own process, that's where we're going to see a big uptake.

David Stratton -- Great Lakes Review -- Analyst

All right. And then one final one. I was wondering if you could give an update on the ThyroKare and where's that setting. I think it's certainly talked about every quarter.

Just looking for an update.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Sure. I'll let -- since Jim's got the history, I'll let Jim take this one.

Jim Herbert -- Executive Chairman

Thank you, John. We have completed -- I don't know the exact number of dogs, but I think it's the last 100 dogs has now gone 100 days or whatever that amounts to, and it's all been a little bit preposterous. We were the market leader in that market for a long time, but that's virtually millions of dogs without any problem. It saved a lot of dogs because of it.

I think we have a competitor out there that got ahead of us and fought and gotten approval. When -- we've all been making it under permission from the FDA. But once somebody got approved product, well, that pushed the rest of us out of the market. I think we're -- I don't believe we're going to get there with -- all the stuff has been submitted to the FDA for their review.

They can take anywhere from 30 minutes to do that review or up to six months. And they've never been known to do it in 30 days, 30 minutes. But it just depends on how fast it moves. And we, obviously, are talking to them on a regular basis and trying to help them with their rating scales.

So, we might have a product to get back into the marketplace at the beginning -- before the end of this fiscal year. There's still a good market out there. We still got a lot of people out there with -- I think we can switch back to our product because we're doing some other things with them. I'm sure that if [Inaudible] listening to this recording, he probably would agree.

But we're doing everything we can.

David Stratton -- Great Lakes Review -- Analyst

All right. Well, thank you for the update.

Jim Herbert -- Executive Chairman

Yes.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, David.

Operator

I would now like to turn the call back over to John Adent for our closing remarks.

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. Yes. Thank you, John. I appreciate it.

Thank you all for being on the call today. We appreciate you taking the time. A quick reminder: I want to remind all of you, we're having our annual shareholder meeting, October 4, here in Lansing. So, we'd love to see you if you have an opportunity to come out and join us for that.

We're excited about the future. We're excited about where the company is going and we really look forward to having a nice call with you in about three months. Thank you very much, John.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 48 minutes

Call Participants:

John Adent -- Chief Executive Officer

Jim Herbert -- Executive Chairman

Steve Quinlan -- Chief Financial Officer

Kevin Ellich -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC -- Analyst

Andrew Brackmann -- William Blair & Company -- Analyst

David Westenberg -- C.L. King & Associates -- Analyst

Brian Gaines -- Springhouse Capital Management -- Analyst

Casey Woodring -- Janney Montgomery -- Analyst

David Stratton -- Great Lakes Review -- Analyst

More NEOG analysis

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

More From The Motley Fool

• 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today

• 3 Stocks That Are Absurdly Cheap Right Now

• 5 Warren Buffett Principles to Remember in a Volatile Stock Market

• The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss

• The Must-Read Trump Quote on Social Security

• 10 Reasons Why I'm Selling All of My Apple Stock

Motley Fool Transcribing has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.