Ag Issues Questions
In the North Dakota State research, what materials were used to evaluate the 14 day rumen digestion?
The materials used in North Dakota State University's research consisted of net wrap as the non-biodegradable twine, while the biodegradable plastic twines included sisal twine, silage wrap, and polypropylene.
You mentioned in your script that the movement away from the traditional non biodegradable twine will have a tremendous impact on the U.S. hay producers and consumers. What impact will this transition exactly have?
This transition will save the lives of cattle, decreases time for the cattlemen and is cleaning up our coasts. But if we consider the main components of EdiBind, the price per bale would increase.
How is Edibind better than the traditional biodegradable baling materials?
Unlike the traditional "biodegradable" baling materials, EdiBind is fully digestible in the rumen of cattle, which is a huge plus considering that this can help relieve and stop the deaths of cattle due to traditional hay wrap causing damaging the cattle's digestive system.
You mentioned that the new product EdiBind will be produced using seaweed from the coast shore. How much seaweed is beached annually?
We have not been able to find an exact number of how much seaweed had been beached; however, What we do know is that hurricanes tremendously increase the amount of seaweed present on the shores. On May 28th, 2014, the 24 hour record period was 8,400 tons hit a 3.3-mile stretch of Galveston beach.
When conducting your research, where did you find statistics?
A great majority of our research was based on facts and statistics provided by the USDA as well as research provided by Texas A&M Agricultural research.
What percentage of texas cattlemen fall into the percentage of indirect or direct cattlemen?
Based on our research that we found from Texas A&M's EdiBind Executive Study, we found that roughly 88% of farmers consist of indirect cattlemen and 12% consist of direct cattlemen. From the graph found in Texas A&M's research, we found that the number of direct cattlemen are slowly expected to increase over the next coming years.
Based on your study, how many of the deaths caused by the ingestion of baling materials, how many of these deaths resulted from nonbiodegradable materials?
Based on our research, we found that 328 thousand head of cattle sadly die each year.
Within your presentation, you mentioned a product called EdiBind. Can you explain this product further?
Edibind is a product that is still in the making, but what we do know is that it is fully biodegradable within the cattle's rumen. It is also very environmentally friendly, in which it will be made from beached seaweed, corn zein, and tree biomass. These ingredients are also said to make the twine much stronger and easier to take off hay bales, which is a huge plus to farmers.
