Sustainable Livestock Feed

Not all livestock feed is created equal. Most crops are water, energy, and cost intensive and can only be planted seasonally on arable irrigated land.

 

Spineless opuntia thrives in semi-arid environments where growing crops like maize, soy and lucerne is not viable due to water scarcity.  Opuntia is a perennial plant with a productive lifespan of 30+  years and can be harvested on demand.  The biological characteristics and metabolic resilience of this crop facilitate the rehabilitation of unproductive marginal land.  This is a key differentiator in regard to cost drivers and profitability.

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Dry Matter Intake

Spineless Opuntia can represent up to 40% of the Dry Matter intake of a ruminant, such as dairy cow, beef cattle, sheep, goats.  Simple carbohydrates provide easily degradable sugars to the animal, increasing rumen fermentation efficiency.  It has the 75 to 90% of the metabolizable energy provided by maize silage.

Protein Yield

Fermented spineless Opuntia provides up to 10 times more crude protein per hectare than soybean and 2 times more crude protein than lucerne per hectare.

GOAL

To offer a water and energy efficient alternative to traditional livestock feed produced from marginal land