Essential Oils: more than just natural flavors
Posted: March 23, 2015 | Written By: Daniel Kohls, P.A.S.
Essential oils have been used primarily as natural flavorings with potential homeopathic benefits for centuries. With recent advances in technology, and understanding how to refine these compounds, this old-fashioned approach to health has become a new technology opportunity not only for natural food animal production, but also for mainstream conventional animal performance improvement. These products will see more use by livestock producers as a natural, non-medicated tool to support animal health both now and in the future.
Essential oils are the naturally occurring botanical compounds within a plant, usually found in strong herbs and spices with robust flavor and aromas, that help defend the plant against pests, fungi, and disease. These primary modes of action include antioxidant properties and bacteriostatic activity. With today’s modern technology we have learned how to select, grow and harvest these plants to concentrate the beneficial essential compounds to maximize both the quality and quantity of the potential effects on animal health. This improvement in potency has also made this technology more affordable and available on a larger scale.
Beware – not all essential oils are created equal! In developing Form-A-Feed’s new Aromax™ brand of essential oil products, great care has been taken to select specific compounds with proven research and quality control to provide a stable, consistent and reliable source of efficacy. The Aromax family of products also includes products to target different specific phases of animal health. For instance, Calf Renew and Early Wean Calf Starter VP contain a proprietary Aromax blend that targets lower gut health and stimulates earlier rumen development: tools that can naturally fast track calf performance through improved animal health. Our Scentinol-Max Farm Pack focuses on naturally amplifying rumen health and efficiency through a very specific blend of Aromax essential oils. This blend can be a tool for both dairy and beef producers seeking natural performance enhancement.
With new federal regulations regarding feed-grade antibiotics looming in the near future, products like Aromax essential oil technology will become an increasingly valuable tool to naturally support animal health and wellness, which ultimately leads to improved animal performance.