Pasture milk products are extremely popular foodstuffs for many consumers. A large proportion of the pasture milk produced in Europe comes from more than 8,000 farmers in Austria. To ensure appropriate quality, more and more attention is being paid to the topic of hay drying. Just as in pasture milk production, a leading role in hay-drying has been played by Austria – or rather, one firm in particular, from Lochen am See – LASCO Heutechnik GmbH.
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While the necessity of hay-drying was once always associated with the safety aspects of potential spontaneous combustion, demand for pasture milk products has ensured increasingly more effective developments in perfect drying techniques for hay as a feed, thus improving the quality of pasture milk and pasture milk cheese.

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LASCO Heutechnik GmbH has achieved great international renown through its innovations in developing hay-drying techniques. The best example of a pasture milk showcase operation we can mention is the farm run by Henning Lorenzen in Denmark. Henning Lorenzen farms an area of 200 ha and his pastures can be mown 4x annually. The hay is stored in a bespoke barn that is 50m in length by 24m in width, and here is where the hay-drying takes place; he has chosen the Austrian manufacturer LASCO Heutechnik GmbH for his hay-drying needs.

Henning Lorenzen has built two hay boxes with a total floor area of about 550m2 with a stacking height of about 7m. Use of two ventilators allows both hay boxes to be ventilated simultaneously and the ventilators used each have a power rating of 15 kW. Integrating an air injection jet and optimizing the grate height for the air speed, allows the drying air to be distributed extremely equally across the hay boxes. This mode of construction makes it possible to use ventilators that at first sight would appear insufficiently powerful.

During fine weather, a roof extraction unit provides the necessary drying air, and the farmer has some 1000 m2 of roof surface to provide this ventilation. To enable drying even in cold temperatures or at night, an air dehumidifier has also been integrated into the circulation system. This starts up automatically, depending on the weather. As a result of the proximity of the sea and the concomitant higher air humidity in comparison to our region, and especially because of the farm’s low elevation, drying technology is particularly necessary. Henning Lorenzen has no doubts about the hay-growing business; for his additional outlay, Henning Lorenzen receives a pasture milk bonus of 4.5 cent per liter of milk, calculated over the year. He is considering the purchase of a warm air oven that runs on wood chips to increase the effectiveness of his system and to achieve better results for his hay business.

This success shows that Henning Lorenzen and his dairy have made the right choice; as recently as February 2012, a cheese named »Hodde Kristian« won gold at the annual Biocaseus awards in the semi-hard cheese (4-8 months’ maturing) category. Biocaseus is a European cheese competition based in Italy in which only cheese products from exclusively farming are allowed to take part.

Individual advice and evaluation of a perfect hay-drying system for your hay business is available for all enquiries to LASCO Heutechnik GmbH.

Press contact:
LASCO Heutechnik GmbH
Scherscham 14, A-5221 Lochen am See
Tel: +43 7745 8613-0
Fax: +43 7745 8613-4

E-Mail: office@lasco.at
Web: http://www.lasco.at/

contact person: Johann Landrichinger