Recent and ongoing wildfires in the Texas Panhandle have charred acres of grazing land, leaving ranchers in a bind as to what to feed their cattle, but one firm in Louisiana is stepping up to offer an innovative solution.
Approximately 100,000 head of cattle graze the pastureland in Hemphill, Roberts, Gray, Hutchinson, Oldham, Potter, and Carson Counties in Texas, where wildfires have destroyed as much as 50% of the acreage, according to AgriLife Today. While thousands of cows died in the fires, and more may have to be euthanized due to related injuries, that still leaves many that need to be fed.
In neighboring Louisana, Impact Fusion International is working to fill that need by providing feed made from crushed sugarcane. Bagasse is the fibrous pulp that remains after crushing sugarcane stalks to extract the sugar. The company processes the bagasse, adds the needed minerals to meet the nutritional needs of the cattle, and then compacts it into bails for feeding.
Turning bagasse into cattle feed makes efficient use of what would otherwise be considered a waste by-product.
“I take a product called bagasse which is crushed sugar cane, renewable, and it’s in the mountains. Everyone in Louisiana knows it’s in mountains down here and there’s not a lot of things to use it for,” Marc Walther, the CEO of Impact International, told WAFB 9.
“Now we take these mountains of waste that are renewable, that grow every year by 20%, sometimes more, like last year, and we make it into something edible,” he added.
The feed is an economical and healthy alternative to traditional feedstocks, according to the Impact Fusion website. Walther claims that cattle fed the bagasse mix are absorbing a healthier option.
“What’s coming out of your cow, tells you what’s going on. If you have no smell, it means you’ve got total digestion,” he explained.
Last week, the company earmarked two truckloads of the feed for cattle ranchers in North Texas, per WAFB.