For over five years Doug Marriott, a cattle producer and feed consultant with Masterfeeds' dealer Brussels Agri Services, has been an advocate for the use of CRYSTALYX^® brand supplements. In the fall of 2006, Ridley Block Operations, the manufacturers of CRYSTALYX^® and the BioBarrel^® container, asked Doug to evaluate the use of this new container.  Doug tried a few barrels with his own cattle.

The BioBarrel^® container is a biodegradable container made from wheat straw and soy starch (flour). The container walls or sides simply break down as the product inside is consumed. When the product is gone, the container is gone.

"We had no waste with the BioBarrel^® as is the case for all CRYSTALYX^® products in the steel barrels. With the BioBarrel,^® you have yet an added convenience in the fact that there is no empty barrel to discard," says Marriott. "The grass quality was poor when we used CRYSTALYX^® in the BioBarrel^® and consumption of the supplement was the same as what is typically seen using CRYSTALYX^® in the steel barrels on the same type of grass."

Doug sees the CRYSTALYX^® BioBarrel^® container as a good fit for pasture supplementation to stocker operators and cow-calf producers in summer and fall.

"Some of these customers are absentee owners and they like supplements that are easy to use. CRYSTALYX^® works well to supplement late season forages, and the BioBarrel^® should work well for the simple fact that there are no empty containers to collect. It's one more feature and benefit to provide."