BioMar Australia’s product performance specialist, Martin Grunenwald, worked in collaboration with our global R&D unit to create BioMar Australia's new high-performance diet for Barramundi - Maxio Barra. Martin optimised nutrition to deliver a diet that improves feed conversion ratio and specific growth rate to maximise economic performance for Australian Barramundi farmers.
Maxio Barra Development
BioMar Australia’s product performance specialist, Martin Grunenwald, developed Maxio Barra to further improve upon our Barramundi performance diets. Martin saw an opportunity to enhance our grow-out diets' performance and evaluate the maximum potential of Barramundi feeds using Australia’s present raw material selection. The outcome of Martins' research is Maxio Barra, a high-performance diet developed in Australia, for Australian Barramundi farmers. Martin aimed to optimise Maxio Barra's nutrition by adjusting protein, energy, and amino acid levels. Feed protein and energy specs interact, which is why an optimal balance between these macronutrients is of utmost importance to achieve Martin’s goal of:
- Improving Specific Growth Rate (SGR); and
- Improving Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR).
“Our main objective when creating Maxio Barra was to test the maximum growth potential of Australian barramundi stock over the majority of the grow-out phase, utilising high-quality local raw materials. During the development process, it quickly became clear that there was an opportunity to increase performance further than I first thought”. Said Martin, BioMar Australia's product performance specialist.
Trialled in Australia, for Australian Farmers
Martin worked in collaboration with BioMar’s R&D department to design two detailed nutritional growth trials. The trials ran for 70 days each, testing feed optimisation for Australian Barramundi farmers. All feed for the trials was produced in Australia and utilised our current raw material basket. The trials used Australian Barramundi stock, under ideal growth conditions over a wide range of sizes (600 – 2300g) to cover the majority of the grow-out phase and ensure commercially applicable outcomes. A total of 9 feeds were tested in trial 1 and 7 in trial 2 to determine the optimal balance of protein and energy by Martin and the R&D team.
Trial 1
Trial 2
Martin and the R&D team achieved their goal of improving FCR and SGR. Maxio Barra showed weight gain in both trials, resulting in economic benefits for Barramundi farmers. The trial's success validated Martin and Global R&D's work, and more importantly, expanded BioMar Australia's knowledge of barramundi. By analysing data from both trials, BioMar gained insight into precision feeding Barramundi, crucial for developing Maxio Barra and future Barramundi diets.
“Thanks to the Maxio Barra trials, we now have a much better understanding of how to precision-feed Barramundi. The trial has enabled us to update the BioMar amino acid models specifically for local Barramundi stock, allowing us to precisely formulate maximum performance feeds for barramundi of different sizes.
Further, ADC analysis undertaken as part of the Maxio Barra trials for macro and micro-nutrients has enabled us to formulate our Barramundi feeds on a digestible nutrient basis, which is the key for manufacturing high-performance barramundi feeds.” Said Martin.
Maxio Barra
The result of Martin’s and BioMar R&D’s work is BioMar Australia’s new grower diet – Maxio Barra. Maxio Barra has been developed in Australia, for Australian Barramundi farmers. During development, Maxio Barra focused on using ingredients from BioMar Australia’s raw material basket and testing the diet on Australian barramundi stock to ensure commercially applicable trial results. Maxio Barra is designed to deliver maximum economic performance, optimising the balance of digestible protein and energy to improve FCR and SGR. Maxio Barra is the ideal solution for farmers looking for a nutrient-dense diet that delivers strong performance at a reasonable cost, maximising economic performance.
Maxio Barra is the combination of Martin’s research and two detailed nutritional trials run in Australia. Maxio Barra is a welcomed addition to BioMar Australia's product portfolio, delivering a new high-performance diet, proven to work on Australian Barramundi stock at a reasonable cost. Maxio Barra is the best solution for farmers looking to maximise economic performance.
