America’s Dairyland lights the way again
BEING AMERICA’S DAIRYLAND DOES
have its down sides.
One of those might be all that manure produced by all those cows who produce all that milk used to make all those fine dairy products that have made Wisconsin proud — and famous — over all these years.
But now it appears that there may be something good to come after all from that most awful of dairy byproducts.
A New York-based company, Efrim Energy, revealed at the winter quarterly meeting of the Glacierland Resource Conservation and Development Council recently their plans to convert manure into briquettes that could be used to fuel electric generating plants.
With the cooperation of state officials, and hopefully with a financial grant from the federal Department of Agriculture, Efrim is hoping to start producing briquettes using the manure from six large-scale farms in nearby Brown and Kewaunee counties sometime before the end of this year.
The six pilot farms could turn out 90,000 tons of the three-inch diameter, five-inch long a year, according to Efrim officials, in a process that should not cause any environmental harm or pollution.
Indeed, the use of the tons of manure produced on the concentrated animal feeding operation dairy farm in such a process would greatly reduce the negative impact many of these farms have on their neighbors and the environment.
Efrim is still trying to put all the pieces in place to start this operation, but company officials have already said they could easily expand the operation to more than two dozen such large-scale farms, with a limitless potential should it prove successful — as we can all hope it will.
Company officials selected Wisconsin over many other possible states to launch their venture, not just because of our world-renowned, first-class dairy industry but perhaps more importantly because of the assistance, support and encouragement they have received from both the public and private sector in Wisconsin.
It’s just another example of how those two sectors can — and do — work together successfully in this state to foster and encourage the growth and development of cuttingedge industries and technologies that lead the way for the rest of the nation, promising a bright, cleaner and healthier future for us all.
If this project works out as it should, we may have to change the name of our state song to “Power On, Wisconsin!”
At issue: Briquettes from manure Bottom line: Our cows on the cutting edge
