DEP Secretary E. Christopher Abruzzo and External Affairs Director Katherine Hetherington Cunfer participated in the Center for Dairy Excellence Bio Digester Tour on May 20 with visits to Cliff and Andrea Sensenigs’ Farm and the S&A Kreider Farm in Lancaster County.

Also participating in the tour was Agriculture Secretary George Grieg, Agriculture Deputy Secretary for Consumer Protection and Regulatory Affairs Jay Howes, CDE Executive Director John Frey, State Conservation Commission Director Karl Brown, and Lancaster County District Administration Don McNutt.

The tour focused on the exemplary stewardship being conducted by the Sensenig and Kreider family farms. Cliff and Andrea Sensenig operate a 100 cow dairy and Scott and Herb Kreider, along with their sons, operate a 1,300 cow dairy.

Both farms use manure digesters to process the manure from their dairy operations and the Sensenigs' digester also pipes in manure from neighboring hog, poultry and dairy farms operated by extended family that combine their wastes to make the digester more economical.

Anaerobic manure digesters (or methane digesters) collect manure and through a process of decomposing the organic matter in the manure with bacteria at 120-130 degrees F in the absence of oxygen produce methane gas which is used to produce renewable energy for on-farm or off-farm use. 

The digesters can also process food waste and other organic materials.  The dry sterilized solids from the manure digester are then used for animal bedding.

The use of the manure digester helps manage the manure on these farms and limits the nitrogen and phosphorus from the manure from getting into the Conowingo Creek, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.  Pennsylvania has over two dozen manure digesters in production and the typical farm size is 500 cows or more.

The Sensenigs’ operation is unique because it combines the manure from three farms, via underground pipes as well as food waste and was recognized by the Department of Agriculture with a proclamation to highlight the success of the project.

This small farm co-op approach makes the digester profitable for all three farms while producing the bedding needed by the two dairy farms. The hog and poultry farm is compensated for the litter, which had been a source of income before the digester.

The digester helped the Sensenigs turn around the profitability of the farm and with assistance of state and federal grant funding; they are now selling their excess energy back to PPL.

DEP works closely with the local conservation districts and the agricultural community to find winning solutions like manure digesters and other conservation practices.

To learn more about these programs, please visit DEP’s Bureau of Conservation and Restoration webpage. For more information on opportunities through the Center for Dairy Excellence, visit their website.

(Reprinted from the May 29 DEP News.  Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)

6/2/2014