Positive test results for animal BioBrew - Southern Rural Life
Article from Southern Rural Life - December 7, 2011
By DAN HUTCHINSON
A UNIQUE "brew" for farm animals has bubbled out of a Balclutha garage and is being reproduced at micro breweries throughout New Zealand. The BioBrew concoction, designed to improve the digestive system and overall health of animals, works on the same principle as probiotic yoghurts with humans.
Co-founder and BioBrew director Andre Prassinos said larger premises of a barn near Kaka Point had replaced the original brewery in a garage. There are also breweries making BioBrew in Canterbury and Waikato. The brew provides bacteria its creators say can cure all sorts of problems. Mr Prassinos said there were other "healthy bacteria" products on the market, but when it came to retaining the living bacteria in large quantities, the brew needed to be fresh.
About 20ml of the brew a day provided millions of beneficial bacteria that helped the fermentation process inside the stomach. A trial run has just been completed at Telford and its results were celebrated at a function at Telford at the end of last month. Eighty calves were split into four groups. Two groups were fed the BioBrew supplement. The trial was run by Kim Phillips, of Telford Farms, and the results compiled by Grant Bennett, of Lincoln University. The trial found that calves taking the BioBrew probiotics demonstrated improved feed conversion, were easier to handle, and improved the transition from colostrum to warm milk and from warm milk to cold milk better. They also put on the same amount of weight but required 500g a day less in supplementary feed.
Mr Prassinos and his Kaka Point neighbour Kris Nicol are joint owners of the Kaka Point brewery, with other franchise owners in Waikato and Canterbury. Mr Prassinos and another partner also own the parent franchise that supplies its breweries with the necessary ingredients, brewing tanks and other equipment. He said the product had a shelf life of two weeks and was being fed to animals in a variety of ways including in their trough water and with molasses or other supplementary feeds. Mr Nicol said the BioBrew was also great for balancing septic tanks and effiuent pits. He said the testing was important to prove the product had a measur-able benefit but many farmers were using the product simply because it improved the wellbeing of their animals.
For more information on BioBrew fresh, affordable and high-quality microbial tools email info@biobrew.net.nz or call (0508) BIOBREW.