Keenan's Seth Wareing was in Japan when the earthquake hit just over a month ago. The Keenan system is being adopted in Japan as a valued management tool for reducing the farmers' reliance on expensive imported feedstuffs

Over a month on from the earthquake Seth is encouraging other businesses within the UK farming industry to offer their support to help the Japanese rebuild their food supply chain.

He said: "Japan is only 40% self sufficient in food, compared with 59% food self sufficiency in the UK. Neither figure is very good, but Japan's situation was a huge concern nationally before the earthquake, now the situation is even worse. The quest for improvement in home-production has been delivered a mighty blow given the massive issues the country is now dealing with following the combined earthquake and tsunami."

To exacerbate the situation, over recent generations Japan has seen a shift away from the traditional, locally sourced diets of fish, rice and vegetables to more red meat, dairy and processed foods, explaining some of the import reliance figures. A further issue is the average age of farmers, particularly the rice farmers so important to Japanese farming and culture, who are in the main, over 70 years of age. "In some parts of Japan, including the north east where the tsunami hit hardest, there had been a very good start to integrating young people back into agriculture; this now will have stalled with so much else in Japan."

During his trip Seth spent days time with both dairy and beef producers. To put Japanese cattle markets into perspective, Japan slaughters 1-1.2million F1 Wagyu dairy cross and 500-600k Wagyu beef cattle a year and milks between around 1.5 Million dairy cows. Some of these cattle are now out of the food supply chain because of restrictions resulting from the Fuskushima power station radiation exclusion zone, putting even more pressure on the remaining producers. "Whilst I was there I spent most of my time talking to groups of farmers, setting up Keenan machines and PACE feed monitoring systems with my time spent between the North Island of Kyushu and in the south of the country on Kyushu island

Seth said that what was very apparent from the farms he visited, is how reliant they were on baled fodder crops. "Common feeds for both dairy and beef cattle were very high dry matter grass silage, whole rice crop, lucerne, hay, tofu residue [similar to brewers grains] and concentrate mixes of maize, whole cotton seed and pelleted feeds."

TMR is seen as a crucial tool for cattle farmers in Japan so that they can make use of whatever feeds they can access cheaply as well as ensuring quality milk and beef. "Beef quality is of particular importance to the Wagyu beef guys who can sell highly prized animals for well over £15,000 when they are sold fat at nearly 900kgs and 30 months of age

TMR is seen as a crucial tool for cattle farmers in Japan so that they can make use of whatever feeds they can access cheaply as well as ensuring quality milk and beef. "Beef quality is of particular importance to the Wagyu beef guys who can sell highly prized animals for well over £15,000 when they are sold fat at nearly 900kgs and 30 months of age

The drive towards TMR is prompting greater uptake of systems like Keenan as well as opportunities for sale of pre-made TMR rations. "I met a guy who farms and operates a feed firm; he is producing branded TMR bales which can be stored for up to six months. He has also set up a processing business for which he takes supply of finished beef for slaughter from which he produces branded meat for sale."

Over a month on from the earthquake the aftermath has disrupted the supply of raw ingredients and fuel as well as the supply of finished goods to market. "Farmers were seen as of great importance before the awful series of events the nation has had to endure, but their role in rebuilding the country will be even greater going forward." Seth and his colleagues at Keenan say that they will continue to work with Japanese farmers; "I'd encourage other companies and the UK's wider farming industry to see if they too can offer practical and valuable support to Japanese agriculture."