Two KEENAN diet feeders are part of an environmentally-friendly farming operation in Austria. In collaboration with Wasserbauer, the KEENAN machines are on the farm of Hannes Hubinger, who milks a herd of 70 cows and feeds them solely on two different varieties of organic hay.

Wasserbauer, an Austrian company that was established more than 30 years ago, specialises in bespoke automatic feeding systems. Like KEENAN, they have customers all over the world. Wasserbauer’s employees have a deep understanding of farmers’ everyday tasks and take that viewpoint when offering solutions.

Producing organic milk using hay as the only forage

Seeking to collaborate with companies with shared values and goals led Wasserbauer to work with KEENAN’s Ralf Hoffman in tailoring this unique solution for their customer. Interestingly, the farmer, Hannes Hubinger, was already a KEENAN customer, having purchased a second-hand trailed diet feeder from Ralf a few years previously, when he had just 15 cows. Hannes wanted the creamery he was supplying to process and sell a niche product of organic, hay-only milk. However, the creamery required scale and told him that he would need another 10 farmers to produce the hay-only milk before they would agree. Hannes quickly identified two more interested farmers, and between them, they spread the word. Before long, they had gathered the 10 farms required. Hannes and his group now successfully produce organic milk using hay as the only forage!

The hay is loaded into the feeder using an overhead crane (common in Austria, Switzerland and South Germany).

The KEENAN diet feeders empty into a Shuttle Eco feeding robot

The feed is mixed in two stationary electric-powered KEENAN diet feeders, and a Shuttle Eco feeding robot completes feed-out. The robot uses environmentally-friendly batteries, and the route guidance works through ground magnets.

Planet of Plenty^TM

In addition, the farmer has fitted 100 Kw solar panels onto the roof of the shed, selling the power to the national grid and buying it back at a lower rate to run the farm. A great story of the move towards zero environmental impact farming! A story that aligns with our parent company, Alltech's vision for a Planet of Plenty^TM

To learn more about our static diet feeders click here