A dairy farmer in the Atlantic province of Newfoundland and Labrador has made his operation a lot more environmentally friendly, while saving on substantial electrical bills.
New World Dairy runs a 1,200 cow farm in St David’s in western Newfoundland.
Naturally, that many cattle produce a lot of waste, and for many years operation president Brent Chaffey knew there was potential in the tons of “output” by the cattle.
He and staff members made several trips outside the country to see how others have used anaerobic digesters which use heat and water to enable bacteria to break down the manure eventually into methane gas which runs generators creating electricity.
With a five-million dollar digester now set up, Mr Chaffey estimates they can generate about 4 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually.
Mr Chaffey says that can power all the farm’s need with about 75 percent left over.
He’d like to be able to sell that excess back into the provincial grid.
However, unlike other provinces such as Ontario, that option is not currently available in Newfoundland, but he is waiting on a decision by the Department of Natural Resources to allow that to happen.
In addition to power, the project also creates nutrient-rich water for crops, and fertilizer for cow beds.
(with files from CBC)
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