Hydroponic Techniques Sprout Healthy, Inexpensive Fodder

by Pavel Rotar & photo courtesy of Pavel Rotar

Many environmental, ethnic and political tragedies of the past resulted from what we would now call ineffective agriculture. Such disasters include the deforestation of Greece, the desertification of Northern Africa, and the environmental destruction of Central Asia. The questions of how to rationally use land resources and obtain ecologically pure food products are becoming more crucial with each passing year. For the FSU, these questions are paramount as countries struggle with the privatization of agriculture.

Hydroponics-the science of growing plants in nutrient-rich solutions instead of soil-has proven itself to be efficient both financially and environmentally. No special knowledge is required to install the necessary equipment, and a person who has experience working with cattle should have no problem maintaining a hydroponic facility.

While hydroponic methods have been used for a long time to grow plants, primarily vegetables, the use of hydroponics to grow feeds has been less tested. Through hydroponics, stable harvests of high quality feeds can be produced on an industrial scale in special facilities. Over an eight-day cycle, grain seeds such as oats, barley, rye and wheat germinate and turn into sprouts, forming a thick, green, grassy cover with interwoven roots. This product is a highly effective, particularly nutritious feed, rich in vitamins and enzymes.

Hydroponic feeds are 95-98 percent digestible, unlike unsprouted grains, which are at best 30 percent digestible. During the growth process, the amount of fodder increases fivefold. The cost of raising livestock therefore decreases, since approximately half of the cost of raising livestock is for feed. Also, between 60 and 75 percent of the diseases that afflict animals result from their feed; hydroponic feeds decrease disease and the ensuing veterinary expenses. The feed is appropriate for all types of animals and birds raised for agriculture, and it can also be used to feed carp.

The use of hydroponic feeds decreases the amount of land used in hay production and therefore is an asset both in regions where agriculture is difficult and in densely populated regions that lack sufficient growing space. The method also lessens dependency on climactic and weather conditions. Hydroponics has great promise for use in environmental disaster areas such as Chernobyl, Semipalatinsk, the Urals region and Chelyabinsk. It is always possible to obtain clean seeds for sowing and to purify the water to be used.

Often hydroponic farms do not use plain water but a special solution that helps young sprouts achieve the maximum possible growth. In Europe, this technology is fairly widely used. However, there has been some experience, particularly in the FSU, that indicates the same results can be obtained using clean drinking water. The productivity is 15 to 20 percent less, but the resultant feed is environmentally pure. What is left of the water is also clean and requires no additional purification to be used for watering crops or for other needs-or it can simply be poured out without harming the environment. Regular drinking water is also preferable to solutions on livestock farms since the chemical contents of solutions can damage fertility.

An additional advantage of hydroponic technology is that it removes the need for long-term storage of feeds. Hay, silage and other feeds lose some of their nutritional value in storage. In conditions such as those found in the FSU, this loss of nutrients is greater than 50 percent by the end of the winter.

Hydroponic techniques have been proven successful in sites in the FSU known for their extreme environmental contamination. Although attempts in the late '80s to use hydroponic agriculture in the zone contaminated by the Chernobyl accident met with only limited success, other projects have been much more effective. A hydroponic system was set up in eastern Kazakstan, three kilometers from one of the largest titanium/magnesium plants in the world. In this area, where winter can last 250 days, the death rate of newborn cattle was extremely high. The contaminated environment and unfavorable weather conditions made healthy fodder difficult to come by. With the introduction of hydroponically grown feed, the death rate has fallen sharply and the surviving animals are stronger and healthier.

Similar results have been seen in the Voronezh region of Russia, near the Novovoronezh Atomic Energy Station. There the hydroponically produced fodder has been used to feed swine, reducing death rates and improving the general health of the animals, while reducing feed expenses.

Pavel Rotar works for the scientific firm Mercury, where he heads a project to manufacture equipment for producing environmentally pure hydroponic feeds.