Could Indoor Vertical Farms Be the Future of Livestock Feed?

Photo caption: Grōv Technologies’ vertical farm is designed to minimize land and water use of conventional feed production. Photography courtesy of Grōv Technologies. Article by Lindsay Campbell. Modern Farmer – January 16, 2021.

Along Utah’s Highway 68 in the small community of Elberta, Utah stands an industrial dome. Inside is a futuristic collection of stacked shelves, towering 25 feet tall, that systematically flicker with pink lights.

The dome is home to a vertical farm, but it’s not your typical lettuce-growing operation you’d find in the warehouses of densely populated cities. This vertical farm doesn’t grow food for humans but for cows.

Three years ago, Lance Bateman and his three brothers agreed to be part of a pilot project that would use vertical farming to grow and feed the cows for their dairy and beef ranch, Bateman Mosida Farms. Grōv Technologies, an agriculture tech company in Vineyard, Utah, partnered with the Batemans on the project and developed all the equipment for the vertical farm.

The brothers are now using six towers to pump out fresh wheatgrass for their herd of 20,000 cows 365 days a year. […]

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