Your next health supplement could be the same thing cows feed their newborns
Dairy colostrum can be freeze-dried and powdered for use in other products or capsules.(ABC Landline: Tim Lee)
Cows produce vital immune-boosting colostrum for their calves.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, immunity has never been such a hot topic.
It's meant a family-run dairy south-east of Melbourne that produces colostrum is being overrun with enquiries.
Colostrum is a creamy, custard-like substance, and a vital first food of babies and milk-fed animals.
Breast-feeding humans produce less than 20 millilitres, but dairy cows make litres of it.
It's packed with antibodies for disease resistance, glucose for energy, vitamins and minerals for strength and vitality, and growth hormones. It is also acclaimed as a superfood, and global sales of colostrum products for human health are about $1.5 billion annually.
Key points:
A dairy near Melbourne is producing cow colostrum health supplements for humans
Colostrum is a vital first food of milk-fed animals and is hailed as a superfood
Cows produce much more of it than humans, so bovine colostrum can be harvested without affecting calves
From cripplingly low milk prices to a sunrise industry
In 2016, Neil and Shelley Walker, whose dairy farm sits on a panoramic ridge in the lush green hills near Korumburra, were fed up with low milk prices.
"We actually considered getting out of dairying altogether," Mrs Walker said.
"We were working seven days a week for little to no reward."
They briefly considered producing their own milk label, but then they met Campbell Evans, who had 25 years' experience in dairy processing. He suggested they produce colostrum.
Colostrum has provided an alternate income for the Walkers' dairy farm.(ABC Landline: Tim Lee)
Colostrum has provided an alternate income for the Walkers' dairy farm.(ABC Landline: Tim Lee)
Mr Evans had been studying it for years and knew its potential, but understood its many challenges.
Major dairy processors once produced colostrum, but despite its high value, it was a low-volume commodity.
When the Walkers started collecting colostrum on their farm, they quickly realised they had nowhere to process it, so Mr Evans built a factory in nearby Leongatha.
It's there that the freshly collected colostrum is first processed, then it is sent to Melbourne to be freeze-dried into powder and packaged into products like capsules.
Mr Walker has the tricky task of collecting colostrum.
Neil Walker milks his herd as he has done for more than two decades, but collects colostrum in separate pails.(ABC Landline: Tim Lee)
Neil Walker milks his herd as he has done for more than two decades, but collects colostrum in separate pails.(ABC Landline: Tim Lee)
He carefully monitors cows that have newly calved, and makes sure the calf gets its essential drink of colostrum.
"At least its two to four litres of colostrum within the first six hours, after that we're able to harvest the rest off the cow," he explained.
"The modern cow produces more than the calf requires, so there is some available for us to take."
The remaining colostrum is diverted from the milking shed into stainless steel pails, where it's assessed for quality and prepared for snap freezing until there's enough to process.
Giving consumers 'what was intended from a mother to its offspring'
The company asked Australia's premier science agency, the CSIRO, to analyse their colostrum, and it found the processed product retained its active antibodies.
Classed as a functional food, other studies have shown it improves immunity, gut and muscle function. "What we're trying to do is
to give the consumer the whole product, exactly what was intended from a mother to its offspring," Mr Evans said.
The company believes its product is superior to imported colostrum because it comes from free-range cows.
The dairy cows at the Walkers” farm graze freely. (ABC Tim Lee)
It's all 100 per cent Australian, they're pasture-fed cows, they're grazing out and they're exposing themselves to the environment 365 days a year," Mrs Walker said.
"They build immunity from that environment and that is an immunity that you're purchasing," Mr Evans added.
"So if you purchase immunity from a cow that sat in a 10,000-cow feedlot, it's going to have a different environment."
The fledgling company is enjoying strong Australian sales but has it sights set on overseas markets.
"It's overseas where the bigger populations are, where people require these specialist immune compounds," said Patrick Dunne, whose company does the freeze-drying part of the colostrum processing.
Neil and Shelley Walker and Campbell and Krista Evans work together to produce powdered dairy colostrum.(ABC Landline: Tim Lee)
To meet demand and guarantee a year-round supply of colostrum, the Walkers are hand-picking other district dairy farmers.
COVID-19 has hit many businesses hard; by contrast, this one at least is benefitting nicely.
"It's taken us four years of hard slog to here," Mr Evans said.
"We're on the cusp. That's what we feel."
