Fodder System
After three years of intensive research Rex, Trish and
Narelle Forrest of Beechworth have invested in a dynamic
Fodder System. The forty foot shipping container was
delivered to the property in mid December and the green
grass is now being feed to both cattle and sheep.
With the capacity to produce approx. 700kg of green
grass every day using about 600lts of water and some
nutrients, the Forrest family, who run a Poll Hereford
Stud and fi ne wool merinos, are looking to the system
to provide a source of much needed drought fodder. “Of
course the stock still need some dry matter as well” Mr
Forrest said “but this system will give us the capacity
to get a guaranteed result from seed, which without
satisfactory rains over the last few years, we have been
challenged to achieve.”
“At this stage we are shooting barley in the system.
We place the grain on trays in one end of the unit each
day, pushing the previous days production through the
container until day seven when the grass is between
150 and 170mm high” Mr Forrest explained. “We feed
out the entire contents of the tray, which by the fourth
day is held together by a mass of roots”.
“This system is the most technologically advanced that
we come across with fully automatic climate control and
recycling irrigation systems. As with most new systems,
we have had a few teething problems including loss of
production during the fires because we had an extended
period without power in extreme heat meaning that the
climate control and automatic watering system shut
down.” Mr Forrest went on the say “We recognise that
the system is fairly labour intensive but the fact that we
can guarantee a result for our grain and water in these challenging times will make preparing stud cattle a lot
easier. We have another generation of the family at home
with us now and we considered where would we be able
to buy land with the capacity to produce this amount of
green fodder daily for the same capital investment.”
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The Highest Yield for Nutritional Feed
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For more information on the Dynamic Fodder System visit www.dynamicfodder.com