About Darts Biotechnologies — The Science Company Behind HayRite® Biological Hay Preservative
Darts Biotechnologies is the agricultural science company behind HayRite® DB68/FLEX™. Built on decades of rigorous Bacillus research and manufactured at QUT MRBPP Mackay in Australia, our flagship product represents a fundamental shift in forage management: a purely biological, rather than acid-based, hay preservative. We are committed to a research-first relationship with the farms that use it, advancing feed quality through beneficial competitive bacteria instead of harsh, corrosive chemicals.
What we make
Darts Biotechnologies develops biological agricultural products built on specifically selected Bacillus strains. HayRite® DB68/FLEX™ — our flagship biological hay preservative — is the first commercial release in a development pipeline focused on improving feed quality, dry matter retention, and storage stability through competitive beneficial microbial activity. By choosing biology over chemistry, we completely eliminate the need for chemical suppression, acid-resistant applicator equipment, and hazardous operator handling protocols.
We're a small team. We make one product at a time and we make it well.
We publish what's been measured and what's still being studied, and we invite farmers to participate directly in filling the gaps.
Where HayRite comes from
✓ Confirmed The Bacillus amyloliquefaciens DB38 strain in HayRite was selected from the same research lineage that produced the H57 strain (Ngo et al. 2021; Pan et al. 2022). Both strains are manufactured at the Queensland University of Technology's Mackay Renewable Biocommodities Pilot Plant (QUT MRBPP).
✓ Confirmed QUT MRBPP runs commercial-scale fermentation (1000-litre capacity) under research-grade quality controls. Every batch is verified for CFU count, spore percentage, and contamination before release.
The team
Peter Dart — Scientific Lineage
Cabot Foundation Fellow and Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University (1964–65). Principal Scientist at Rothamsted Experimental Station, UK (1965–75) and at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, India (1975–83). Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University (1983–87). Associate Professor at the University of Queensland (1988–present). Adjunct Professor at QUT Institute for Future Environments (2017–21). Inventor on three patents for biological control of plant pathogens. The Bacillus work that the H57 and DB38 strains descend from grew out of his lab.
Dr. Evgeny Sagulenko — Chief Innovation Officer
PhD in Genetics and Microbiology (All-Russian Research Institute for Agricultural Microbiology, 1999). Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland; previously CEO of Ecocrop and Director of R&D at SOSbio. Deep background in turning microbial science into commercial agbiotech products from discovery through deployment.
Matt Flint — Commercial Lead
MBA. Two decades of leadership across biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer goods. Specialty in commercialisation, market entry, and translating technical products into operator-facing offerings.
Why we publish open questions
Most preservative brands won't put their open questions in public. We do, for two reasons.
1. Honesty is a competitive advantage. Operators who buy farm inputs are tired of being sold features that haven't been measured. Telling the truth about what's measured and what's still open earns trust where competitors lose it.
2. Real operations are the best research partners. Lab studies are useful but limited. The questions that matter — does this product reduce refusal? does treated hay move dairy components? — only get real answers from real operations.