The Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-05-25, Page 1The
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[ucknow Sentine
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Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Protekta Inc. owner and president Mort Jakobsen stands outside his office, which he shares with his wife Helene's Nine Waves, in downtown Lucknow.
Protekta aims to lead Canada's livestock farming philosophical evolution
Darryl Coote
Reporter
Livestock farming in Can-
ada is undergoing a philo-
sophical evolution according
to Lucknow's Protekta Inc.
The local company
imports livestock products
and owner and president
Mort Jakobsen said this
change is happening fast.
"Livestock producers are
starting to look more and
more at how we can prevent
instead of treat," Jakobsen
said.
This translates to a more
traditional way of raising
livestock that uses antibiot-
ics only when absolutely
necessary and shuns such
practices as utilizing growth
hormones and other growth
promoters.
It's a change fueled by
public demand for antibi-
otic -free milk and meat, he
said.
Fortunately for Canadian
farmers, they don't have to
navigate unknown territory.
According to Jakobsen,
Europe, and specifically his
home country of Denmark,
forged this path over 20
years ago.
"We have the advantage
over here because it looks
like we are going to go the
route of the Europeans," he
said from Protekta's office in
downtown Lucknow. "And
that's a huge advantage
because we can just get on a
plane and go see what they
are doing and we don't need
to fumble as many times. We
can learn from them. We
don't have to reinvent the
wheel."
And that's exactly what his
company does; it imports
best practices in the form of
products that Danish farm-
ers have developed over the
past two decades, which
help to produce healthy live-
stock under these more
stringent regulations.
His most popular product
is X-Zelit, a food additive
that helps cows to produce
calcium for milk production
prior to giving birth.
The product, which comes
from Denmark, prevents
what is known as milk fever,
a condition where a cow,
prior to calving, is unable to
produce milk due to a lack of
calcium in its system.
Prior to this product,
farmers would have to inject
calcium into the cow, which
comes with risks, he said.
The reason why he works
primarily with Danish com-
panies is two -fold: He's a
Danish immigrant and the
country is advanced when it
comes to this style of
farming.
"They're ahead of the
game when it comes to ani-
mal welfare, because
there's been political pres-
sure over there for the last
20 years," he said. "So
because of the turn to the
side of no antibiotics, no
growth promoters in the
feed, they've been forced to
figure out how to do it."
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