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Bill Rowell  - Franklin County Vermont - We need effective legislative leadership with a vision for Vermont, leadership capable of recognizing our needs, bringing the system to focus on today's challenges and delivering responsible timely solutions.

Green Mountain Dairy

Vermont's Dairy Farm of the Year 2008

           Green Mountain Dairy of Sheldon is a large farm operation operating under a LFO permit administered by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.

           The dairy has 900 lactating Holsteins and 150 dry cows on site. Three large state of the art barns, built in 1999, house the herd. A heifer barn was completed during 2008 to accommodate 650 heifers and calves ranging in age from 90 days to 22 months. Newborn calves are housed off site until weaned and join the herd 3 months later.

          The cows are milked in two shifts each day, which takes about 21 hours. The farm has a double 15 parallel parlor and milks 30 cows at a time. The herd produces over 23,000,000 lbs of milk annually for the St. Albans Coop, which supplies the Boston fluid milk market, Ben & Jerry's ice Cream as well as several cheese makers. There are 18 full time employees on payroll.

            Cropland consists of approximately 1500 tillable acres in four towns, Sheldon, Highgate, Swanton and St. Albans. The farthest fields are 7-8 miles from the dairy. The farm harvests 1000 acres of corn and 500 acres of grass. Nutrient management plans are developed in accordance with NRCS Nutrient Management Conservation Standards (code 590). Manure management plans are developed under AAP accepted agricultural practices criteria in conjunction with BMP best management practices program and administered by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to satisfy requirements of the LFO permit.

          Green Mountain Dairy is a large scale farming operation, resulting waste amounts to well over 30,000 gallons of cow manure daily. Increased environmental awareness and regulatory attention to manure disposal tends to focus on contaminants leaching to underground aquifers, contaminant runoff to surface waters, nutrient loading of soils, release of greenhouse gases (GHG) in to the atmosphere, and odor.

The Biodigester Project

           Anaerobic digestion is a method of utilizing unprocessed cow manure as a renewable resource and recognizes our responsibility to the environment. The digester process, completed in 21 days, greatly reduces pathogens, fly and insect larvae, weed seeds, and odor. The remaining bio solids are pumped from the effluent pit at the end of the vessel to a manure solids separator. Separated solids, which have little odor and look a good deal like peat moss, are used as bedding for the herd. The herd requires 60% of this material and the balance is sold to after markets such as nurseries or composters as soil amendment material. 

           The separated liquid gravity flows into the dairy's storage lagoon. A large advantage of the liquid from the treatment process is an apparent lack of odor during field spreading. Another benefit is the reduction of phosphorus, nutrient and pathogen loading when spreading, and a favorable response from society.

           The process of an on farm anaerobic digester system is to collect raw manure into a receiving tank or vessel. During the first stage, the manure is mixed and heated to 101 degrees Fahrenheit in a vessel creating volatile fatty acids. The second stage grows methanogenic bacteria, which convert volatile fatty acids into biogas, primarily methane and carbon dioxide. The methane biogas is collected from the vessel and used to fuel a combined heat and power generator set. CHP gensets are commercially available reciprocating engines designed to burn biogas.

           On a continuous basis of operation, the volume of manure at Green Mountain Dairy produces enough biogas to consistently generate a minimum of 275 kWh of electricity. No seasonal variations are experienced in the system. The local utility, CVPS, through its cow power program, purchases 3-phase power under contract with Green Mountain Dairy. The anaerobic digester and resulting electricity, classed as renewable energy or green power, provides multiple benefits to the environment, our farm and society. During the past 12 months of operation, we have produced 2,000,000 kWh of electricity to the grid, enough to power 300 average sized homes. Additionally, during the past 2 ½ years we have shared our insight with over 10,000 visitors from 23 countries, show casing agriculture and environmental stewardship.