A probiotic that could provide the feedlot industry with a $370 million boost took out the top award at Beef 2018’s ‘Pitch in the Paddock’. In this event, eight finalists pitched their start-up companies to a panel of judges and a packed audience. Feed additive company ProAgni won the top prize and received $5000 as well as a half-day mentoring session with KPMG partner Hamish Doley.
In the ProAgni pitch, co-founder and chief technical officer Robert Bell said that long-term exposure to low doses of antibiotics in the cattle industry could lead to resistant gut bacteria. “Part of the reason antibiotics are used is to manage transition time,” he said. “Animals are traditionally born and raised on a grass system then moved to a more intensive feeding system, like a feedlot… This transition time is a huge cost to industry and can cause death and morbidity rates to rise.” Read more