Modern, forward-thinking dairy enterprises include a new generation of production-focussed dairy farmers. Challenging market conditions have encouraged energy efficiency to come to the fore in whole herd energy (feed stuffs, bedding and feed science).

Read on to learn how Stronga’s highly efficient flow drying systems are benefitting modern dairy farms.

This particular customer recently installed a 500kW AD plant as part of his whole farm energy strategy. Using Stronga forage drying solutions, he is able to close the loop on a full farm energy cycle while considering energy in all its forms:

1. Planting operation;
2. Crop growth;
3. Harvesting timing to optimise energy capture in the feed;
4. Cow’s energy from the feed stock through milk production, and;
5. Energy released from the cow in the form of manure;
6. Manure is fed directly into the AD plant for biogas production;
7. Biogas then generates both electricity & heat;
8. Residual heat is a major part of the energy which, working with Stronga, is usefully applied.

The client contacted Stronga at an early stage of his project to receive expert advice on his forage drying plans. We worked together with him to convert residual thermal energy from his CHP engine into an optimised forage drying solution which has real efficiency benefits.

By drying a portion of the available wet silage, which is a mixture of grass and maize (whole crop); this dairy farmer is able to load the dry matter intake (dmi) into his feed mix blend.

Through blending together dried and wet silage with other concentrates, our client is able to increase the dmi for each cow, thereby increasing the energy intake and milk yield by about 10% - a big increase in milk production and financial income. This gives our client a competitive advantage using residual CHP energy and closes the loop on a full farm energy cycle.

There are many other uses of the Stronga flow dryer. Currently this dairy farmer is using his FlowDrya and Heatex to dry lucerne in small quantities but his Stronga drying solutions are capable to carry out other types of forage drying applications.

The potential is unlimited.

This dairy farmer is now thinking about other added value applications beyond the farm. These new opportunities are now open to him and he is testing them out – this simply wouldn’t have been possible before the installation of a Stronga dryer.

Now he has the Stronga dryer he is finding new applications for the system, adding value to his crops in multiple ways, such as:

• Increasing milk yield of his cows;
• Effectively using residual CHP energy to dry forage and other wet materials;
• Better balancing his feed stuff for his cows;
• Increasing the energy intake of his cows;

• Taking more control of costs – lowering the requirement for dried feed stuffs;
• On-site electrical generation used to run the dryer (which doesn’t require much electricity);
• Opportunities for further income streams from other sources (drying forage for pet bedding & feed);
• Overall - Reducing costs while increasing yield.

Contact Stronga today to discuss your forage drying project – info@stronga.co.uk.