For the past 63 years, Keith Spicher’s family has been running Kish View Farms in Belleville, Pennsylvania. The 650-acre operation is a partnership between Keith and his brother. Kent is in charge of managing the crops and books while Keith manages the dairy. Although he is no longer an official partner, their father, David, still helps out on the operation.
In 1992, the farm was milking about 70 cows. Under Keith and Kent’s direction, the dairy has grown and now milks between 430 and 450 cows. They also own 350 replacement heifers housed on a separate farm.
The dairy is located on the edge of town, and the Spichers were concerned the smell might bother their neighbors. In 2009, they started talking to TeamAg Inc. about installing a digester on the farm as a way to control odor.
In the fall of 2009, they received a call from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation offering to install a digester on their farm as part of a project. The foundation had received a $23 million grant and had contacted TeamAg asking if they knew of any dairies interested in installing a digester. TeamAg put them in contact with the Spichers, and construction started in January of 2010.
RCM International designed and installed the digester. Winter weather and making the digester work with the existing farm proved to be their greatest hindrances. Their biggest challenge was installing a gravity flow system to take the manure from their four dairy barns and channel it to the digester. In February 2011, a little over a year after they began work, it was completed and has been up and running ever since.
In 2012, the Spichers received their permit to accept food waste. Currently, the two products they receive are reject beer and old cooking oil. Keith considers it a win-win situation for both parties involved. Food waste companies have to pay to deposit food into landfills.
They pay Keith about half of what they would pay the landfill to take the food off their hands. He adds the waste food to the gravity-flow manure system to help wash it through to the digester. This is especially important in the winter when the manure can sometimes freeze in the pipes and back up.
Once the waste food is in the digester, it gives the bacteria even more to feed on. This greatly increases the methane output and, in turn, the amount of electricity generated. Without the food waste, Keith said the electricity generation stays between 80 and 90 kilowatts per hour, but with the food waste it will run closer to 120 kilowatts per hour or maximum capacity. Inconsistency is his biggest problem with the food waste.
Click here to download a diagram of this digester. (PDF, 1MB)
The company that sells it moves around each week, so they might send Keith three truckloads one week but then he might not see them again for another month. Although his storage tank holds 12,000 gallons, or two truck loads, he has had problems running out between deliveries.
Although the Spichers weren’t looking for an additional profit source, the digester has turned into that. They own two houses, two farms and rent another farm within a two-mile radius of the digester.
They have five net meters, one for each property, plus one additional meter the digester exports electricity to. According to Keith, their monthly electricity bill is zero plus credit. Once a year, the farm gets a check for the credit they’ve accumulated over the year.
In addition to heating the digester, the Spichers also use the heat generated by the engine to heat the farmhouse, milking parlor and the water for the milking parlor. Previously, heating the water for the milking parlor alone could be 300 gallons of oil per month.
They also no longer need to buy bedding for their cattle. Once the effluent or waste material leaves the digester, it goes through a separator, which divides it into solid and liquid waste. The solid waste is composted and used as bedding while the liquid waste is used to fertilize their fields.
While in the digester, the nitrogen is converted to a different form. As a result, it no longer burns the plants when it is applied. The smell is also reduced considerably and goes away within a day of application.
Unfortunately, the digester also has its downsides. Running the digester takes up at least 25 percent of Keith’s time, so he does not recommend one for producers who are already short on time. As a trained diesel mechanic, he is able to make many of his own repairs to the engine. It is a labor-intensive endeavor, and producers need to realize that running it is the job of a skilled worker.
Keith also feels that while the food waste business is a nice supplement, it shouldn’t be the main focus.
“To me the food waste business is like the registered cattle business,” Keith says. “There are a few people out there making a lot of money at it. You don’t buy your farm planning to make your mortgage selling embryos.
If you happen to do that, that’s fine, but you just can’t run relying on that because that may or may not come. Some people seem to have a knack for it, but I don’t think it’s something to really depend on to make your payments.”
In the end, Keith says they’re pleased with the outcome. They were willing to break even on a system if it meant decreasing the smell from their farm. Now they’re doing just that and making a little extra money off of it. Additionally, Keith says their neighbors appreciate their endeavors, and it has turned into a great public relations opportunity for them. PD
Jenna Hurty is a 2014 Progressive Dairyman editorial intern.
