The beauty of sunlight is that it’s free. When you can convert sunlight into a sellable product, at the lowest cost per acre, you make a living. When you convert sunlight into feed for livestock and remediate an industrial food processing facility’s “waste” water, we all profit.
One of the dilemmas of any food chain can be too much of a good thing in one place. Today, it’s not just about our complex and high density food production system. Problems have risen due to our cultural evolution and how it relates to food, food production, and the subsequent waste.
Dave McDonald, a local cattle rancher in Brooks, Oregon, found a place in the food production system. He used the beauty of photosynthesis to convert processed waste water from NORPAC cannery into 3 plus pounds of weight gain per day in yearling cattle. Through the process, those cattle removed over 200 lb. of nitrogen per acre from the land.
Grass is a happy user of nitrogen. The right grass, one that will maintain quality and regrowth, is sought by all types of food systems and municipalities for general water quality remediation. Dave took nitrogen, bound for the water table, and produced fat cattle.
Dry matter production in Brooks, Oregon is approximately 15,000 lbs per acre, over the 200 day season. The stocking rate is two head per day, with 85% utilization (production minus intake).
One50 Diploid Perennial Ryegrass was the grass of best fit for Dave and this site. Rob Seymour, a fan of it himself, had recommended One50 to Dave. Rob uses it for grazing cattle on his Tillamook County, Oregon, dairy. Although they each have their own grazing system, One50 was a match for both.
One50 is high quality forage noted for its dense leaf production and persistent regrowth in wetter soils. One50 maintains its vegetative qualities later in the summer grazing season, for extended quality grazing. This adds up to more pounds of beef per acre and a conversion of food processing water.
For more information contact US Marketing Agronomist John Snider at 541-510-5000 or at john@pggseeds.us
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