Hydroponic barley seeds overcome fodder crisis
British company Fodder Solutions provides the climatically controlled growing system in which Dr Collins grows the seeds.
They produce a lush mat of barley grass within six days, and his hydroponic unit produces 350kg to 450kg of fresh green fodder each day.
He said: “My land wouldn’t stand up to 50 cattle without the Fodder Solutions system, and I believe if I had been feeding them silage last winter, it would have cost me double.”
“Paying in excess of €60 for a round bale of silage, as people were doing last winter, is unsustainable.”
He has found one of the huge benefits of the Fodder Solutions system is that it is totally predictable.
“I can plan ahead and know how much it will cost me to keep my cattle through the winter. I am not dependent on our increasingly unpredictable climate to feed them. Our cattle are very healthy, and their general vitality and fertility is great,” he said.
The hydroponic system helps him improve his land. As there is no need to cut silage from the land, it can be rested far more.
“Through resting the land, we are reclaiming what was rough, boggy land worth under €1,000 an acre into what is now clover pasture and reasonable grazing land”.
Dr Collins is both a medical doctor and has a doctorate in nutrition. He is a director of Valid International and Valid Nutrition, companies which help provide nutritional food to people in deprived areas of the world.
His in-depth knowledge of nutrition attracted him to the Fodder Solutions system, because he understood that some of the nutrition from grain is indigestible, and some passes straight through an animal’s gut.
This makes grain or grain- based concentrates less efficient for nourishing animals.
Also, cattle are reliant on some forage, and often do not thrive without a full range of nutrients in their diet.
Barley seeds are placed in a growing tray in the climatically controlled Fodder Solutions hydroponic growing system, and the 15cm to 20cm high grass mat of foliage is ready to feed in six days.
It is suitable for all foraging livestock from beef and dairy cattle to horses and sheep.
The feed contains high protein levels, but very little starch. Over 90% of the feed is digestible, and it is all edible, so there is no waste.
Dr Collins is a founder of the Dingle Dexter Beef Company, which markets organic beef from the rare Dexter breed, and practices low-impact sustainable animal husbandry. All the animals are finished on green feed rather than concentrates.
