How Norfolk agri-tech firm Oxcel is cutting costs for farmers

For years farmers’ profit margins have been squeezed by ever-rising costs and pressure from the supermarkets.

But a Norfolk-based start-up could have the answer.

Agri-tech firm Oxcel, based in Great Yarmouth, claims its hyperoxygenated water will cut costs for farmers by reducing the amount they spend on feed.

The technology uses millions of oxygen-filled 'nanobubbles' to enhance the quality of water that animals drink.

The company claims the water’s increased oxygen content enhances nutrient uptake, meaning animals convert food into protein more efficiently and reach their target weight sooner, all while consuming less feed.

In trials with 6,000 pigs, Oxcel says its technology showed increased profits for farmers of up to £9 per pig through reduced feed consumption, accelerated growth and fewer losses to illness.

Great Yarmouth-based agri-tech firm Oxcel says its hyperoxgenated could be the answer to cutting costs for farmers (Image: Newsquest)

Average farm business income (£ per farm) by farm type, England 2022/23 and 2023/24 forecast (Image: ONS)

'THE FUTURE FOR FARMERS'

Alex Leigh, who founded Oxcel in 2022, said with farming's low profit margins the technology could be worth millions to farmers every year.

"We see this as the future for farmers," he said. 

"We enhance animal drinking water by delivering pure oxygen in the form of nanobubbles. One millilitre of water can contain over a million bubbles.

"Typical water that comes out of the tap has a dissolved oxygen content of around 8mg per litre, whereas we deliver up to 40mg per litre.

Alex Leigh, Oxcel's founder (Image: Oxcel)

"That oxygen supercharges the reactions already happening in animals’ bodies.

"They can convert food into protein more efficiently and have stronger immune systems, producing cells which make them naturally more immune to disease.

"We’ve treated over half a million birds and ten thousand pigs with our water already and the big impact we’ve seen is to get to the same target weight that the farmer is selling to the supermarket they consume a lower amount of feed, which is a huge cost for farmers and a major use of land."

Average farm business income (£ per farm) for poultry farms in England, 2013/14 to 2022/23 (Image: ONS) Average farm business income (£ per farm) for pig farms in England, 2013/14 to 2022/23 (Image: ONS)

A SYSTEM THE SIZE OF A TELEPHONE BOX

Oxcel has partnered with Great Yarmouth-based firm Lion Engineering to build and manufacture a system to replicate small-scale scientific research at an industrial scale on commercial farms. 

It says lab tests into the impact of oxygenated water on chickens showed an 11pc reduction in the amount of feed required for the birds to reach target weight. 

On commercial farms, it says this number is closer to 5pc. 

Oxcel says its technology could save UK farmers a combined over £750 million annually in feed costs (Image: Oxcel)

"Rather than technology that requires a huge overhaul, we take our machinery - with all the clever engineering inside a box the size of a telephone box - and plumb it into a farm's existing head cap, treating the water there," Mr Leigh said.

"There’s no overhaul of the existing drinking infrastructure on the farm and we can install the system in 30 minutes.

"Normally, bubbles would come out of water, but ours stay in there for up to 120 days, so we can deliver the hyper-oxygenated water from the tank all the way to the gut.

"We’re really good at farming in Norfolk, but there’s huge pressure on farmers. This will allow them to keep doing what they’re doing but with lower costs."

Oxcel says its technology is the future for farmers (Image: Newsquest)

ANIMAL WELFARE

"Anecdotally, we’ve seen in pigs that they are less agitated and calmer when they are being treated by our water because we’re effectively turning the gut into a third lung," Mr Leigh said. 

"As well as feed saving on an industrial scale, there’s also less mortality on farms because they are more resilient to infection and disease, and over the long term we hope to prove they will need less antibiotics.

"It will mean fewer losses of animals that don’t make it to the plate.

"Farmers get more for less, we’re enabling the animals to have better welfare and we’re reducing the environmental footprint of producing the meat we eat."

Oxcel says pigs are less agitated and calmer when they drink the hyperoxygenated water (Image: Newsquest)

GROWING DEMAND

Globally, the demand for meat is expected to grow by 14pc by 2030, according to a report by the UN Environment Programme.

"We’re trailing with large integrators who control 20 or more farms each – some of them with up to 600 farms each," Mr Leigh said.

Alex Leigh, Oxcel's founder (Image: Oxcel)

"We’ve split trial farms into two so half have our water and half don’t to build a body of evidence with farmers.

"We also want the farmers to be the heroes to the supermarkets and deliver produce with better animal welfare."