BioBrew is proud to have participated in the Clutha Agricultural Development Board recent calf trial mentioned in this article. See full article online or excerpt taken from The Clutha Leader 21st March page 8 below.
Clutha Leader 21 March Page 8
Are microbes the next big thing?
The Ag. Board is optimistic that our spring 2012 probiotics calf trial and on-going work with microbial inputs into farming systems will have huge benefits for farmers.Our Sustainable Farming Fun application SFF L12-083 "Effects of probiotic supplement on growth feed conversion and general health of dairy calves" grew with the co-operation and extra support of DiaryNZ, to a study of 10 replicated groups of between 12 and 24 calves with one of the pairs receiving a fresh probiotic supplement with their milk and the other pair being a control group. Over 300 calves were involved and we weighed them all weekly over a 7 week period.
48 grams per day
The science paper is being drafted as this supplementation induced an average increase in weight gain of 48 grams per day per animal.
The P value of the data (for those of you who have done statistics) is <0.001. This means that the data is very, very reliable.
Claims are made to farmers all the time for products and procedures and it's the Board's intention to put the science behind the trial, the results and the value proposition in front of the farmers as soon as possible. The MPI SFF reports will be available when completed. We have also asked DairyNZ for support int the follow-up extension work. We aim to give farmers the understandings and confidence to look for independent evidence before making farming systems and buying decisions.
The Ag. Board has made a hugely promising start to this work on microbial inputs into farming systems. We are very keen to see the reactions to this world-class trial and where it take us next.
