Producer swears by his elixir

Each drum of Revive contains 10,000 doses of health-giving vitamins and minerals, John Palamountain says. Photo/Bevan Conley

A Wanganui manufacturer is excited about the results a formerly ho-hum product is having on sheep and beef cattle.

Palamountain's Revive has been on sale for six years, but only to "downer" dairy cows - cows that have metabolic problems after calving. It worked well for them but the market for it was only during the two to three months of calving.

Like the other Palamountains products, Revive is a mixture of water and fat soluble vitamins and minerals in a patented water and oil emulsion. The ingredients include dried brewers yeast, garlic and molasses. Most are pre-mixed and imported, including the canola oil base.

Mr Palamountain swears by the concoction, and even takes it himself.

In January he started recommending it to sheep and beef farmers, as a tonic or supplement, and said the results had been "staggering" weight gains.

One who tried it was Charlie Duncan, of Otiwhiti Station in the hills of Hunterville. He gave a double dose to 194 tail-end and mis-mothered lambs. Normally they would not have been fat enough to sell until September or October, but these were saleable in March.

Now Mr Duncan is planning a proper trial. He'll feed some lambs Revive, some lambs the usual A, D and E vitamin dose and others nothing extra.

In the meantime he's on to his second 20-litre drum of Revive in 12 months.

Mr Palamountain would also like more research done on the supplement. He's looking for a grant to pay for it, so that he can present more solid evidence.

The vitamins and minerals in Revive are easily absorbed by the gut, he said.

"I think basically what it is is a gut enhancer. It gets the villi working better."

He recommends it for ewes, especially pre-mating when he said it increased conception rates, pre-lambing and pre-shearing. For lambs he recommends a dose at docking.

The substance can be easily squeezed down the animals' throats with a drench gun, but Revive does not kill parasites. Instead it increases animal health and weight gain, making less drenching necessary.

"The overseas market is looking for greatly reduced content of chemical drenches," Mr Palamountain said.

Dairy cattle can be given a small daily dose with the feed they get at milking time.

Mr Palamountain used to have a pet food business in Otaki, then moved it to Wanganui, then sold it.

Eleven years ago his wife Ruth and Professor Brian Wilkinson from Massey University spent 12 months researching a new way of making up animal food supplements. They were almost ready to give up when they finally got there.

"It was the first in the world to get water and fat soluble vitamins held in suspension in an oil and water emulsion. There's a 99.9 per cent absorption rate - that's why the cows and the sheep get up so quick," Mr Palamountain said.

Both the formula and the method of manufacture were patented, and the Palamountains set up production in Wanganui's Pacific Place. When the business outgrew that space seven years ago they moved it to Putiki.

The Putiki factory there is very automated and needs just six permanent staff, with casuals coming in to pack big orders.

It now exports to 60 countries, including the powerhouses of the United Arab Emirates, Korea and China.