Blood from retired horses is giving back to Australia's research and diagnostic community

It is a rare sight to see something harvested in northern New South Wales right now, but there is one unique commodity surviving drought — horse blood.

An hour out of Tamworth near a little town called Manilla, up to 350 litres of blood is taken from between 80 and 90 horses each week.

About one per cent of each animal's body weight is taken and it might sound vampire-like but the red fluid is taken for an important purpose.

It is packaged and goes towards making agar plates which are used in hospital diagnostic and pathology labs to grow bacteria for diagnostic purposes.

Serum Australis' managing director Gavin Heywood said it was more than a decade ago when the former researcher took up the unusual farming practice.

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Article written by: Lara Webster