A PROBIOTIC  additive which could cut the use of antibiotics in the feedlot industry has won the Pitch in the Paddock ideas showcase today at Beef 2018.

ProAgni was judged the best of eight ideas put before a panel of judges, which included Shark Tank’s Glen Richards, KPMG’s head of markets Ben Van Delden and Susan McDonald, managing director of Super Butcher.

ProAgni has two products: one of which is in the development phase and the other which is already on the market.

Robert Bell, Fiona Soulsby and Lachlan Campbell, all from ProAgni, first place winners in the Pitch in the Paddock

Its feed additive is already being used in lamb feedlots with 100,000 lambs currently eating a ration with the additive, and there are three private cattle feedlots now using it too.

In its pitch, ProAgni’s chief technical officer Robert Bell said their product in development, the induction probiotic, would cut induction times down from 15-17 days to just three or four days. The product has been tested on a small scale.

“The real driver is to reduce the use of antibiotics in the food chain,” Mr Bell said.

Mr Bell said the additives and supplements could deliver:

• feed additives which were easy to use in a dry form probiotic;
• Premium marketability with antibiotic free grain feeding
• Reduced costs of production with a 75 per cent reduction in transition times to grain, based on previous scientific research.

He said the win was “validation that we are on the right track”.

The products have been three years in development and the feed additive is currently available to agricultural retailers across NSW, Victoria and South Australia. They are about to broaden their distribution network to Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

A meat probe which can deliver real time information on pH, shear force and intramuscular fat took out second prize in the Pitch in the Paddock.

The MEQ probe developed by Jordy Kitschke and Nick Van Den Berg is designed to provide objective measurements of eating quality to beef producers, retailers and processors.

Third place went to WaterSave, an autonomous watering system which will not only check water levels in troughs and tanks but will also turn bores on and off in response to those levels.

The public vote went to Fluxx, an app which will match a freight delivery request with someone travelling to a farmer’s location, lowering the carbon footprint and saving time and money.

• More on the Pitch in the Paddock ideas in an extended article to come.