Aquaponic Fodder – Livestock Feed for the Future

Are you spending as much as twice as much as you did last year to feed your livestock?  Are you struggling even to find good hay for your livestock?  Have you even had to sell some of your animals because feed is so expensive and hard to find? 

If the answer to any of these questions is yes you need to read further.  We may have a solution for you – aquaponic fodder!  OK, what is that?  Aquaponic fodder is young green grass that has been grown from grain or grass seeds grown in 6-10 days in a controlled environment using very sustainable and earth friendly technology.  This 6-8″ long green grass is fed directly to your livestock as a replacement for grain and for a significant percentage of your normal hay feeding amounts.

We are livestock farmers just like you, and we have struggled this season with our feed needs.  We raise show quality breeding alpacas.  Proper nutrition is vital to the success of our carefully monitored and strategized genetic improvement program.  We are also passionate about using sustainable farming methods in our farming and we want to teach others how to do the same.

We have been producing  aquaponic fodder here in Northern Colorado at the Center for Ecolonomic Excellence and feeding it to our show quality alpacas.  We are very selective about what we feed, and this has been a very exciting addition to our feeding process.

We will be  regularly reporting on our results with this new technology through our Mountain Sky Alpacas website, as well as through our Nourish the Planet Membership Community.  We will be marketing a unique livestock nutrition plan to selected clients which will include  an aquaponic fodder program.  Watch for all of this as we roll this program out!!  Email us at waynedorband@gmail.com or call us at our offices at 303-495-3705 for more information.  We look forward to sharing more with you.  

Livestock feeding does not have to fit the “old school” paradigm that you have always thought about – it can be innovative and sustainable.

Celebrate Sustainability – A Great Success

Well another fall has started and we have held another successful Celebrate Sustainability Event.  I don’t think we could have asked for much better than we had.  The weather was awesome, the guests had fun and our staff was amazing.  I would guess we had 300-400 guests that came and went all day long.  Davey and the Blu Dog spun their Blues incredibly as they always do, and many kids caught their first fish.  What could be better!!

A UVI Raft Aquaponics system - thanks Dr. Jim for your years of devotion to aquaponics

We had three completely packed hay ride tours of the Ranch.  We had many free drawings and excited winners and we were able to teach many about sustainability.  We had several awesome vendors that also participated with us:  Kate Armstrong the Urban Forager, The Tire Garden from the Ft. Collins area , Coby and Amy from Metanomy, and  the guys from Brewster Timberframe Company. We want to thank all these folks and hope they had a great experience.

We are going to be announcing some exciting new activities in the next few weeks, and we could not be more excited about the future.  Please keep in touch with us and make the Planet a Better Place while making a little money doing it!!

Come Visit Us for the Third Annual Celebrate Sustainability Event

It is hard to believe another year has gone by and we are ready for our Third Annual Celebrate Sustainability Event.  We have so much to share with you that we have done here at the Ranch since our event last year.  So come join us on September 24, 2011 for this day of fun, music, education, and fellowship with many who believe we should be humble stewards of this amazing planet.

We will be having hands on demonstrations, fishing in our pond for our greenhouse raised trout, playing some pasture golf, pitching some horseshoes, hiking, biking, hanging with the animals, or just chillin with some amazing music from Davey and the Blu Dog.  I guarantee you will have a great day. You can come any time between about 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM.  Bring the kids and your friends.  If you bring pets be prepared to have them on a leash.

DAVEY AND THE BLU DOG

We have many cool things we will be able to show you that you could use on your farm, your ranch, your suburban back yard, or your window-sill in your apartment.  We want to help you see how you can feed yourself and teach others to do the same

We will also have a booth next weekend (Sept. 17 – 18)  at the Rocky Mountain Sustainability Fair in Ft. Collins, so come see us there.