June 24, 2024

Bion, Stovall Ranching Companies team up to produce eco-friendly US, Montana beef

Stovall Ranching Companies, that includes diversified family ranches in Montana, the United States, and Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc., a leader in advanced livestock waste treatment and resource recovery technology, announced they will partner to develop a new-generation cattle feeding facility.

Turk Stovall, chief executive officer of the Stovall Ranching Companies, will join Bion's board of directors and lead a joint venture between Stovall Ranching Companies and Bion to develop the project. The facility will produce premium quality Montana beef that the partners believe will be the cleanest, most eco-friendly finished beef in the marketplace.

The Stovall/Bion cattle project is planned to construct a 15,000 head capacity facility at Stovall's Yellowstone Cattle Feeders, in Shepherd, Montana. Cattle will be finished in barns designed for feed efficiencies and cattle welfare, while being outfitted with solar generation and advanced waste treatment and resource recovery systems provided by Bion's patented closed-loop technologies.

The Bion Gen3Tech system will harvest organic and low-carbon nitrogen fertilisers from the volatile ammonia in the waste, methane that can be upgraded to renewable natural gas and clean water. Resource recovery will simultaneously minimise the facility's environmental impacts to air or water.

Most of the facility's energy requirements are anticipated to be generated onsite with solar. Environmental benefits and improved resource efficiencies will be independently verified and communicated to stakeholders as well as consumers who increasingly demand eco-sustainable choices and are willing to pay for it.

Stovall said: "We aren't focused on how beef was produced over the last 50 years; we are focused on how to produce it for the next 50 years. It is our mission to advance our production systems to be the best and at the high standards the market demands. Bion's clean, climate-controlled and efficient system will produce cattle 'programmed' to meet some of the highest eco-friendly standards in the marketplace and it may well become the future of cattle feeding. Once completed and proven, the facility can serve as a model to execute in other (US) states and other possible locations in Montana."

Craig Scott, Bion's head of business development, said: "We are excited to work with Turk and his companies to expand cattle feeding in Montana. Winters here make cattle feeding especially challenging. Bion's barn-based system addresses those issues, delivers improved feed efficiencies and economics, and our advanced waste treatment will help Montana stay clean and beautiful.

"We are equally pleased that Turk will bring his experience to Bion's board and lead our first beef project. We think it's the perfect fit."

- Bion