RENNER, S.D. (KELO) — HydroGreen near Renner has been producing livestock feed for more than five years now.
It’s come a long way from its humble beginnings, and just like its product the business is growing.
While many farmers have struggled this year because of the drought, HydroGreen takes mother nature out of the equation.
“At the end of the day what we are selling is live green feed, daily,” President of HydroGreen Dan Schmidt said.
President of HydroGreen, Dan Schmidt, says they can grow feed for livestock in just six days and the demand has grown especially during a drought.
That’s why HydroGreen built this new 21,000 square foot facility, where we took a tour today.
Here, they not only grow the nutritious feed in six days, but also sell operating systems for smaller farming operations or the much larger commercial operations.
“With a drought happening if you don’t have fresh water to water the crops you don’t have fresh food for your animals so absolutely we’ve seen demand pick up significantly,” Schmidt said.
HydroGreen, which started locally by a group of farmers in 2015, now has a parent company too; Canada based Cubic Farms.
Its CEO says a HydroGreen one acre system, can replace 500 acres of cropland using a simple formula; seed, water and a controlled environment.
“Our technology allows you to feed your livestock, reliably, 12 months a year anywhere on earth regardless of what is happening outside,” CEO of Cubic Farms Dave Dinesen said.
Because they say what’s happening inside could be the future of farming.
Hydrogreen had less than 35 employees when Schmidt started, by the end of the year they plan to have over 50.