This probably isn’t something to read if you’re stirring fresh milk in your coffee or setting up that crunchy bowl of cereal. We’re talking colostrums – or beestings – a form of thick yellowish milk produced by mammary glands a few days after giving birth. But if you’re looking for investment options – read on.Colostrums are high in carbohydrates, proteins, antibodies and low in fat – it’s packed full of vitamins and nutrients newborns require and is relatively easy on their digestive systems. Additionally, bovine colostrums can be purified and consumed to enhance low immune systems.
Mach One Corp. (Pink Sheets: MNCN) pops on the latex gloves and deals directly with bovine colostrums – and generates revenue from it through the dairy industry.
“Our main business is to take the colostrum that is actually fed to the calves now, and replace that with a colostrum replacement that eliminates all disease and the long time it actually takes to feed the colostrums to the dairy calves,” Mach One CEO Monte B. Tobin told Market News First.
Tobin said about 4 million dairy cows comprise the dairy industry – 3,000 dairies represent those 4 million cows. The colostrum is taken from dairy farmers – along with harvested blood from the same farm and used to make the replacement product. The leftover colostrum can be purified and sold to the nutraceutical market for immune strengthening products.
Tobin said the major issue of the company is to eliminate Johne’s from dairy herds. Johne’s is a type of tuberculosis that is passed through the colostrum and to the calves. Though not backed by scientific proof – Tobin said Johne’s is commonly thought to cause Crone’s disease in children under two with immunity defects.
According to APHIS Veterinary Services, about 22 percent of U.S. dairy farms have at least 10 percent of the herd infected with Johne’s disease. An infected herd can experience an average loss of $40 per cow if infected at a lower rate; herds with a high rate can cost an average of $227 per cow.
So what do the farmers think about Mach One’s replacement process? Tobin said once they see the results, they’re anxious to get started. Johne’s disease can cost the dairy farmer about 30 percent in production.
“Once they understand what we can do for them – they’re very excited about getting going right away,” said Tobin.
Tobin gave positive forecast for 2007 for the company – the company anticipates opening five plants across the U.S. this year and has already raised the capital needed for the equipment for the plant in California.
“In this one case for California, [it’s] an individual investor that just wanted to lend the money to the company to build the plant because he understands the revenue stream that can potentially come from there,” said Tobin.
Later this month he’ll travel to the Golden State to pick the location of the plant. Tobin trained a veterinary technician to approach dairy farmers to teach them about colostrum replacement. Last week, the company began the hyper immunization of the cattle to be used in the replacement program. In 60 days Mach One will start collecting and processing the blood for the first customers.
“If that calf is healthy and does exactly what I’ve been claiming its going to do – and it does that, I’d buy as much stock as I could as soon as that happened,” Tobin concluded.
Shares of MNCN were down more than 8 percent to 11 cents as of Monday afternoon.
