Sprouted grain is a low-water "superfood" for cattle, rich in nutrients and highly digestible for the animals. Forever Feed technology promises a steady and affordable supply for farmers. Forever Feed image

In the face of increasing water constraints, local dairy farmers are partnering with an emerging industry to grow their own feed.

And they’re doing it indoors.

It’s the latest technological advancement aimed at the farming industry, incorporating artificial intelligence and automation in the latest iteration of indoor vertical farming.

In August, The Business Journal reported on HydroGreen, an indoor farming system firm that partnered with J. & D. Sons Diary in Riverdale to build a feed center on its property.

Fresno-based Netafim’s partnership to build a tomato greenhouse in Manitoba, Canada resulted in a July grand opening for the facility that covers about 10 acres. The roof structure of the facility collects enough water to meet half of the facility’s irrigation needs, according to a news release.

And this past August, Forever Feed Technologies, an indoor feed technology company based in both American Fork, Utah, and Hanford, announced a “multimillion” dollar investment from local dairy companies to build indoor growing facilities.

Part of the funding for Forever Feed Technologies, founded September 2022, comes from River Ranch Farms in Hanford, Bar 20 Dairy in Kerman, Producers Dairy in Fresno and De Jong Family Farms in Indiana.

River Ranch Farms is expected to have the first indoor growing facility of the local dairymen involved.

The investment, the terms of which were not disclosed, will be used to build the largest and most reliably controlled mills, capable of feeding thousands of animals year-round in, according to the company.

Forever Feed’s machine will go into a retrofitted building on the River Ranch Farms property.

Steve Lindsey, co-founder and CEO of Forever Feeds, said the local dairy farmers involved are some of the best in the Central Valley. They are focused on ways to provide a more consistent, high-quality feed with less water.

Lindsey said that farmers have always liked the idea of feeding fresh and saving water, but it has never been economical before.

“The machines that have come to market over the last few years haven’t had the density output that could really make a difference to a farmer and couldn’t be priced competitively with the other forages and concentrates a dairy farmer either grows on his farm or purchases from another source,” he said.

Lindsey said they’ve developed enough consistent density in their machine that it will be competitive with the cost per ton of dry matter — or less in some cases.

In the future, the company might explore feed as a service for smaller farms and in areas that are more concentrated for dairy farms.

Lindsey said the main attraction of the Central Valley is that it represents the largest dairy market in the U.S.

He also stressed that California’s drought issue must be addressed, which 11 other Western states are also dealing with, and the solutions need to be cost efficient and water efficient.

The tech that Forever Feed and JRA have developed will be able to save 95% of the water that is used for growing the crops.

The feed that will be grown will mostly be sprouted cereal grass, but different forms of wheat and barley are possible.

Lindsey said the sprouted grass is “athletic in the sense that farmers can replace not only forages, but the expensive supplemental concentrates as well, which provides a wide array of replacement value.

He said the team of engineers and the scientists working on the feed believe the highly digestible and nutritious crop will lead to a reduction in methane emissions.

Like other industries, Lindsey said the farming industry needs to utilize new tech to grow.

“The future of farming is to embrace and adopt technology that will bring greater production to the animals and greater efficiency on expenses,” Lindsey said.

Dr. Michael Swanson, chief agricultural economist for Wells Fargo, said that anybody could buy a new technology for their business, but what determines the success is how that technology is implemented.

The way farmers employ existing technologies for a multiplier effect is where the rubber meets the road.

“If you don’t have a real concrete goal in your mind about what you’re going to do with something, or you’re watching someone doing something better than you, you have to ask yourself why,” Swanson said.

If a business is going to purchase a new machine, then they have to be sure they know how to use it.

Swanson said that ag companies are laser-focused on labor availability and costs, which is also driving investment

Most of these new technologies focus on two things: water efficiency or labor elimination.

To Swanson, the economics of growing cattle feed indoors doesn’t make sense.

“It’s an answer looking for a challenge,” he said.

He said there has been an immense amount of investment in vertically integrated greenhouses, and that many found growing indoors was not as easy as they thought it would be.

Indoor farms still get funguses, infestations and other detrimental environmental issues that arise. 

There has to be a lot of profits and return for a farmer to spend millions in building a greenhouse somewhere overusing farm ground that can be planted two or three times a year, Swanson said.

The earlier investments in indoor farming were for customers paying premium prices for arugula or fresh basil, not for cows that will eat any type of feed.

“You’re going to have to show me that you can grow $4 dollar corn in a green house or some controlled environmental space cheaper,” Swanson said.

Indoor farms will be facing competition from either empty farm ground somewhere in the states, or from farmers in Mexico.