Leading Agribusiness Identity to join MaxSil as Board Advisor

Press release - Monday, 11 March 2024

Mr. John McKillop

John McKillop, a respected agribusiness leader, is to become a board advisor to Brisbane-based silicon fertiliser start-up, MaxSil Pty Ltd.

Following that, Mr McKillop has accepted an invitation to become a director once a cornerstone investor has been secured.

Mr McKillop has more than 25 years’ experience as an agribusiness leader across cotton, grain, dairy and red meat industries nationally. 

He has recently been appointed chairman of Consolidated Pastoral Company, one of Australia's biggest cattle operations running more than 280,000 head in Queensland, Northern Territory and Indonesia.

Mr McKillop is also the current chairman of the Red Meat Advisory Council, the peak body providing advice to the federal government on the red meat industry.

MaxSilTM has proven in cereal, sugar cane, and fruit and vegetable trials over the last decade to significantly boost yields, mitigate against frost, drought, and lodging, while improving nutrient uptake. 

In the latest independent replicated trials in harsh saline soils concluded in December 2023 in Western Australia, barley produced yield gains of up to 25 % higher than the control plots. 

A pilot plant at Brendale in Brisbane's Moreton Bay area began commercial production of MaxSil’s silicon fertiliser in April last year, which is distributed by Nutrien Ag Solutions and E E Muir and Sons.

The highly effective nutrient/fertiliser is derived from recycled soda-lime container glass composed of amorphous silica and is part of the circular economy.

It was discovered in 2014 by MaxSil's managing director David Archer. It has been continually refined and improved over the past nine years to the extent that it is now rated among the most potent soluble silicon-fertilisers in the world and is easily absorbed by plants.

The latest analysis produced by a United States-based accredited laboratory revealed in 2023 an almost doubling of the plant available or soluble silicon content, which translates to an average 3.6kg per 100kg of product following the release in April of an improved product with finer particles. This makes it more than 24 times more potent than competing diatomite-based products.