Grainswest - Tech 2023

Tech 2023 grainswest.com 21 Ag closed a round of private capital fundraising and secured $4 million on top of an initial $700,000 from family and friends. The 16-person company continues to prototype its product in two Saskatchewan farm fields. As the technology proves itself, the company will move into additional crops beyond CWRS, said Folk. In the near term, he and his staff will hit the tradeshow circuit to speak with farmers and manufacturers. THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF Most farmers don’t want to deal with chaff. This harvest byproduct often holds little use for farmers who do not own livestock. Eldon Obach has spent a lifetime in ag machinery sales and well understands this. Since 2018, his company FeedWorks has marketed an Australian designed chaff cart under the Canadian name Boomerang. The 33-foot-long, 11-foot- wide cart is billed as a means to lower feed costs and reduce weed pressure. He built his first chaff cart in 2019 and now manufactures the carts with minor modifications. Chaff mixed with straw, or straff, is a welcome feed ingredient, and the chaff cart may serve as a practical solution for farmers who raise cattle and look to save on feed. The mixture is highly nutritious, with pea chaff topping the list, followed by barley, oat, wheat and canola. Chaff yield is also tied to crop type. Wheat, followed by canola, are the top two producers. Obach estimated a bushel of CWRS nets 20 to 25 pounds of chaff while canola sits around 15 pounds. In addition, Obach believes the chaff cart, which has a capacity of about 600 cubic feet, is particularly valuable because most combines are rotary style and not conventional. “A rotary [combine] is far more aggressive on the straw,” he said. “There’s more chaff from a rotary combine because it has bits of straw in with it. The straw content in rotary straw puts enough structure into the chaff so that we can bale it.” That alone was a game changer for Obach. He thinks farmers will see the benefit, especially since moving it is now much easier. “The biggest challenge with chaff has been how do you move it?” he said. “It’s small, fine and light. If you can bale it, your transportation costs decrease dramatically. You can include more chaff in a ration than you would straw, because it’s got more nutrition in it, so you don’t need as much of your higher quality feed to mix with it.” The cart itself is a simple add-on that can be towed directly behind a combine. The cart is essentially a swather, canvas-style conveyor that fills the cart and elevates chaff into it. Once full, the operator presses a button to open the tailgate, then gravity dumps the chaff onto the ground. The user can make the heap as tall, short, shallow or long as desired. “We can control the shape of the heap as we unload,” he said. “A typical cart was designed to just drop it in a lump, which is fine for collecting, but not fine for grazing. Our control panel gives you the ability to regulate how high you open the door and how long you hold it open.” For a short, tall pile, the door is open at 100 per cent for two seconds. If a farmer wants it grazed, a 50 per cent open for seven seconds delivers a nice, long windrow, which can also be baled later. “It depends what you want to do with it; if you can stretch that pile out, the cattle will make better use of it,” said Obach. Having livestock graze the chaff is beneficial for additional reasons. An average 70 to 80 per cent of weed seeds will not be viable after passing through a cow; for lamb and goats, it’s close to 100 per cent, he said. Obach points out that if a farmer first ammoniates the chaff, it ensures virtually zero survival rate for the seeds. “If you treat it with anhydrous ammonia, you increase the feed value of the chaff by breaking down the fibre so it’s more digestible, and you also destroy the ability of anything in it to germinate.” This sort of tool is on the radar for farmers dealing with, or expecting to deal with, resistant weeds, he added. The implement could also prove to be a valuable tool for farmers who do not raise livestock if a means to turn chaff into fuel is developed. Obach intends to explore this idea. “Right now, it’s still just a nuisance,” he said. “You’re not going to get livestock just to process your chaff, but if you could dry your grain or heat your farm, I think you’ll have a lot more uptake. The light will go on when we can close that loop.” The Boomerang chaff cart by Feed Works is intended to reduce feed cost and weed pressure. The tow-behind cart’s control panel shapes the load for grazing or baling. Photo:CourtesyofFeedWorks Photo:CourtesyofGroundTruthAg