A Newry business man and farmer who featured on BBC’s The Farm Fixer has launched a new health product for dogs. Speaking to the Newry Reporter about the launch of DogXcel on his Glen farm Jim Magill Mount Mills NI Ltd said the BBC Show presented by Nick Hewer highlighted his company’s equine and canine flax oil products and their aim to launch a similar product for the human market and this has led to increased sales of his products. Following the initial success of Flax Oil for Horses made from flax harvested on his farm Mr Magill turned his attention to DogXcel which with its flax oil base is a rich source of Omega 3 and other essential fatty acids and launched it in September. “We have always thought of Omega 3 for dogs after seeing what it had been doing for the horses,” he said. “We started the Omega 3 on one of our own mares after spending a lot of money trying to get her in foal. We gave her flax oil for 6 weeks and she went to foal.” Mr Magill said that coming from a farming back ground he always had dogs in his yard and after diversifying into making the product for horses in 2007 he decided to manufacture DogXcel to help to supply to dogs the fatty acid they cannot produce themselves and boost their health in general. “The BBC picked it up as we were developing a human product as well,” he said. Nick Hewer from the The Apprentice initially came out to the farm to see the set up and they came back three times during the year. The programme gave the products for both horses and dogs great exposure.” Mr Magill said that DogXcel is very good for Dogs’ coats, joints, immune systems and muscles and provides a slow release energy source. “Whatever you are feeding your dogs you will not be feeding them what is in that bottle (DogXcel),” he said. “The skin will show the health but it is only five per cent of good being done.” He added that the BBC exposure had increased the demand greatly and he hopes to tap into the markets he has already created for the horse product, which is currently exported to the UK Europe and Dubai. “We are already exporting on the horse side of things but the European market is expanding,” he said. “There is still a lot of scope for expansion as we are only scratching the surface. The show was on a month ago and there are already figures showing resales – people who are coming back to buy more DogXcel. You want to see resales and that is happening. One of the DogXcel bottles will feed a large dog for 50 days.” Mr Magill said that they are “currently tweaking” their flax seed products for human consumption with scientists in Loughry College Cookstown and have been working to achieve this with the support of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and Invest NI.
Newry Reporter
1st January 2014
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