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Innovative new granulated feed supplement at Field Days

Blue Pacific Minerals to launch innovative new granulated feed supplement MaxiMin at Field Days

Tokoroa, June 12 - Blue Pacific Minerals will launch its innovative new feed supplement MaxiMin at this week’s National Field Days.

Tokoroa-based Blue Pacific Minerals (BPM), New Zealand’s premier zeolite and perlite minerals processing company, has come up with the new value-added, dust-free supplement, which combines Magnesium and Calcium with its long-standing Optimate product in a granulated form.

“MaxiMin is a breakthrough product for farmers,” says BPM Agriproducts Account Manager Kelvin Johansson.

“Other products come in finely powdered form, whereas MaxiMin is very easy to use with no dust and therefore more efficient use of the supplement. It’s free flowing and dispersible in the rumen, doesn’t separate out when added to feeds, and meets farmers’ needs from post-calving onwards. It fizzes and disperses immediately when it contacts the rumen and gets into the bloodstream very quickly.”

Optimate has been used for decades as a feed additive to increase daily gain and improve the health of young stock and rumen function, reducing major livestock metabolic issues.

Mr Johansson says livestock farmers in particular had been facing a lot of problems as a result of the extreme rain suffered in recent months, especially around calving.

Renae Flett, a Manawatu farmer who will be speaking at BPM’s Field Days stand, says the Optimate range has been very beneficial to her herd of around 180 cows, which are primarily Ayrshires.

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“My cows have had one of their worst seasons ever in terms of the weather,” says Flett who is a well-known blogger and passionate advocate for women in farming.

“There’s been too much rain and that leans out the grass and can cause a lot of problem and deficiencies. The cows lack minerals so they don’t milk as well, they don’t hold weight as well, they don’t look as good and eczema counts go up.”

Flett says Optimate is full of the minerals and nutrition the cows need and had stopped a lot of the problems they would usually have developed.

“This year it helped the cows hold weight. They were nice and shiny all year and they also milk really well. Optimate also binds the toxins, and we’ve had much calmer, less flighty cows.”

Flett this year also started using BPM’s Optiguard supplement on the recommendation of her vet, for calves transitioning from milk to grass that were experiencing problems with scouring and weren’t growing well.

“I tried Optiguard and they came right within a week,” she says.

“They love the stuff - they will lick it out of a bowl. I’ve got some nice big heifer and huge bull calves, which are better than I’ve had before. A lot of people have commented on them.”

The extreme wet weather has also hurt a lot of farmers struggling with poor races. BPM’s longtime core product is StockRock, which dramatically improves cow flow to and from the shed and reduces herd lameness.

“StockRock is self cementing so farmers find they don’t have problems with sharp stones anymore, which really reduces stone bruises and hoof infections,” says StockRock Product Manager Shane Smith.

“We’ve seen cow lameness reduced by up to 90 percent on farms,” says Smith. “Plus it’s very hard wearing with no maintenance needed for up to three years.”

Farmers have until June 30 to enter BPM’s StockRock Farm Race Shocker competition and win an $8000 farm race upgrade.

-ENDS-


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