HAMILTON, Ohio — The animals at Double J Farm get fresh green grass year-round; some of it is grown hydroponically on a plastic tray.

Pricey? A little. But one has to weigh that against the circumstances.

“Our ground is sand and gravel,” said Joe Streit, who owns and operates the farm with his wife, Janet, and grandson Joshua Crout. “If we don’t get rain in July and August, our pasture dries up. Many years we would have to start feeding hay real early. It was a struggle for us to have enough hay.”

Now Double J can survive that dry period by using hydroponic grass. Streit studied and considered for two years before investing in the system, which was not cheap. The fact is, they don’t have enough land to grow enough hay to support the cattle all winter.

It was inconvenient to rent a patch of land here and there; the traveling was difficult on tractor tires. Plus, the family farms organically, Streit said. They did not want to invest a great deal of money in a piece of land, not knowing how long it would be available to rent.

Instead, they invested in the hydroponic system. The grass is grown on a plastic tray 16 inches wide and 6 feet, 3 inches long, Streit said. The seeds are soaked in a tank for 24 hours; they swell and are ready to sprout when they are placed on the tray. That tray will be ready to harvest in seven days.

“We produce 1,500 pounds of grass per day, and that is 28 of those trays,” he said. “We have 28 times 7 trays in a big rack, and every day we harvest 28 trays and then reseed those 28 trays.”

The family built a room, 16-by-56 feet, inside one of the barns. It has artificial light. They closely control the humidity, pH and water temperature.

“We’ve still got some little bugs to work out,” Streit said.

“We did buy a new TMR mixer. It mixes the hay and the grass, and it is augured out a conveyor into the feed bunks. It is like a big food processor for livestock. If you give the plain grass feed to the cows, their bowels get loose, and the object is to keep that feed in the cow for a longer period of time.”

They drop a big round bale in the mixer, add the grass, mix it, then drop the result into a feed bunk.

During past winters, the Streits were not be able to keep up the protein level for their grass-fed Jerseys, and so had to add some grain. The quality of the milk and the amount of cream would go down. This year that has not happened.

“Our clientele is city people,” Streit said. “They don’t understand that things change with the season. When winter comes and there is less cream, they don’t understand. We have control of the hydroponic grass, and it is right here.”

Visitors can see the hydroponic system on the Butler County Farm Day to be held at Double J, located on 3070 Wehr Road, this Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.