2024 - 54 YEARS OF PASSION AND EXPERTISE!

Photo Credit: Jasper Hill Farm

Photo Credit: Jasper Hill Farm, Greensboro, Vermont (USA) and AgriCompact Technologies GmbH, Germany

The documentary piece on WCAX TV by Judy Simpson, Channel 3 news, WCAX: "New Facility makes Hay while the Sun doesn´t shine" - featuring award-winning gourmet raw-milk cheesemakers Jasper Hill Farm, Vt, USA and AgriCompact Technologies GmbH, Germany, producer of the cutting-edge hay drying technology -is not online anymore - but you can still read the transcript further down:

By Judy Simpson

EAST CRAFTSBURY, Vt. -

"All the dry weather this summer is stunting hay growth in some areas, but Judy Simpson found a new facility that's helping produce hay no matter the weather.

Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro produces international award winning cheeses. In 2014 founders Andy and Mateo Kehler purchased Andersonville Farm, right up the road, to increase milk production. There is a total of 500 animals.

It all comes down to the cows. To get the best quality milk to make the award winning cheeses, what the cows are fed matters a lot. Kelher says the key is dry hay. "Dry hay has a fundamentally different microbiology than fermented feeds like silage, corn silage, haylage -- the microbial ecology of raw milk really is a sum of the practices on a farm and that microbiology really forms the quality of a cheese," he said.

To make sure there is a constant supply of dry hay, the Kehlers spent almost a million dollars to build a 6-thousand square foot, state-of-the-art hay dryer. "We purchased this technology which is the first of its kind in the U.S. from the Reggio Emilia region of Italy, where Parmigiano Reggiano is produced," Kelher said.

It is powered by a 150 Kilowatt rooftop solar array, which can produce 100 bales of dry hay in 36 to 48 hours of sunshine versus the 4 to 5 days it usually takes to dry the hay in the fields.

"We have been able this summer to harvest as soon as 48 hours of mowing," said James Coe, who manages Andersonville Farm and the hay dryer.  

Bales are loaded in with about 20 to 30 percent moisture content. They are placed on holes in the flooring. "We load the facility with 50 bales on each side. We close the doors -- it is a well insulated building -- and then we hit "on" to our hay dryer. We estimate the amount of time we believe it will take to fully dry it. We stand back and let it do it's work and we go back to the field and continue,"Coe said.

 It takes anywhere from 8 to 16 hours to dry the bales to zero-percent moisture. Kehler says this year they will produce about 7,500 bales, which is more than enough to feed the cows for the year. "There is nothing  worse than being at the mercy of the market in a season where production has been terrible, and you don't know what you are going to be feeding your cows heading into winter -- that is quite stressful and that stress for us is over," Kehler said.

Kehler sees this facility as part of an infrastructure to support the dairy operations producing milk that are going into cheeses aged at Cellar at Jasper Hill Farm. He calls it an investment in quality." 

Click to read the whole article: "Behind every wedge of great raw milk cheese there´s a bale of dry hay"

Click here to read Jasper Hill Farm´s awesome feedback - celebrating their newest production facility with our Hay Dryer, COMPACT

>> jasperhillfarm Introducing our 2016 marketing campaign! This year we've featured the native pasture grasses of Vermont to celebrate the completion of our newest production facility--the Eureka Cropping Center. The Cropping Center features a hay dryer, hay fields, and an ample hay loft, and was built by @haydryerscompact, who came all way from Germany to build this unique facility--the very first of its kind on American soil. Hay is an integral part of our cows' diet, and the installation of this facility gives us a lot of control over our own feed supply — paramount in maintaining a quality milk source for artisan cheese. The ECC will support grass-based dairying in the Northeast Kingdom for generations to come. Artwork by the talented @natalya_zahn. <<

"Eureka Cropping Center is a great example of how innovative technology can be employed to support Vermont's working landscape."
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"James Coe, our resident farming architect, worked with AgriCompact Technologies to design the first hay dryer to operate in the United States."
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"We can now remove the amount of water that days of sunshine would take in about six hours. This quick drying method preserves the aroma, color and nutrients of the hay. The cows find it more delicious and we can reduce their grain ration due to the boost in nutrition, as well as further localizing their feed sources."
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Read the entire article:
http://www.jasperhillfarm.com/eureka/

Cheese in Vermont - Listen to what Mateo Kehler, Jasper Hill Farm has to say in the radio interview held by Heritage Radio Network - Hay Dryer Compact - Click the button below:

"Grass-fed milk. GMO grain. Silage. Dry Hay. These are terms about animal feed many cheese lovers have heard... but what do they really meann for cheese, animal welfare and the environment? On this episode of Cutting the Curd, host Greg Blais talks with Jasper Hill Farm's Mateo Kehler about what they feed their cows throughout the year and the investments the´ve made in ensuring the health of their animals and the environment."