On-farm energy use in milking and refrigeration
Energy is required throughout the dairy supply chain. Examples listed in this key area are focused on reducing energy use.
Crave Brothers Farm and Farmstead Cheese - Wisconsin, USA
| Source : Innovation Center For US Dairy |
“Through our dairy farm and cheese factory, we enjoy telling the story of dairy farming that emphasizes cow comfort, quality milk and working in harmony with the land to produce quality milk and award winning cheeses.” - George Crave
Crave Brothers Farm is an early adopter of:
- Methane digester
Green Mountain Dairy – Vermont, USA
| Source : Innovation Center For US Dairy |
“We saw this as an economic and environmental management tool. It's helped to diversify our farm.” - Bill Rowell
Converting manure into:
- Biogas: Creating electricity to power 300-350 area homes
- Bedding
- Fertilizer
The Sustainable Dairy Chain - commitment of the Dutch dairy industry
| Source : NZO (Nederlandse Zuivel Organisatie) |
The Sustainable Dairy Chain initiative ('Duurzame Zuivelketen' in Dutch) embodies the commitment of the Dutch dairy industry to take significant steps concerning three major themes:
- Energy and Climate;
- Animal health and welfare;
- Grazing, and
- Biodiversity (closing of mineral loops, sustainable soy, landscape conservation).
Working together, dairy farmers and the processing industry in the Netherlands have set collective goals. These goals are being pursued more specifically through a number of ongoing projects. For more information on their progress, see the attached 2010 annual report “Breakthrough in sustainability”.
Pictures Files Links Contact all info
Solar hot water reduces costs in the dairy - Mark and Joanne Seng, Australia
| Source : DairyingForTomorrow |
The Sengs decided to replace an old, inefficient electric hot water system used for cleaning milk equipment with a solar system at the same time as a new milk vat was installed in the dairy.
Electricity costs are estimated to rise by more than 60 per cent over the next three years.
The Sengs expect at least 15 years of reliable service from the solar hot water system. They use a total of 119 litres of hot water in the dairy per day, including cleaning the milking machine and vat. The Sengs estimate they will save at least $360 per year on power bills or A$5,400 over a 15 year life of the unit based on 80 per cent solar energy used. This will cover the purchase cost including rebates though excluding GST of A$5,345.
Energy efficiency: capturing waste heat - Gippsland, Victoria, Australia
| Source : Macalister Demonstration Farm, Gippsland, Victoria |
The Macalister Demonstration Farm installed a heat extraction unit on the milk vat compressor. The waste heat from the refrigeration gases used for cooling milk is captured to heat the hot water. By reducing the heat required for the refrigeration gases this makes the refrigeration unit work more efficiently and cools the milk quicker. The result is lower electricity costs.
Refer to the following video:
Green cleaning system - Gippsland, Victoria, Australia
| Source : AgVet Projects |
‘Green Cleaning’ was a three year collaborative research, development and commercialisation project delivered by Government, industry, commercial companies and private researchers. The project has developed and introduced new energy efficient milking machine cleaning systems that require much less energy, chemicals and water than conventional wash systems. The resultant Green CleaningTM systems use low temperature chemicals, capture the wash solutions for re-use and apply energy efficient design principles. The systems deliver:
- At least a 75% reduction in electricity used for heating water for machine cleaning;
- Around a 60% reduction in the volume of water used for cleaning the milking machine; and
- At least a 20% reduction in chemical use.
Refer to the following video: 
Solar panels reducing demand for energy in milking shed - Peter Telford, Mt Gambier, South Australia
| Source : Dairy Australia |
Peter installed six solar units on the roof of his milking shed. His farm's energy bill has declined from A$1,200 per month to as low as A$300 to A$400 per month in summer.
Refer to the following video:
Efficient Use of Water Energy and Nutrient Resources (EWEN) program - Australia
| Source : Dairy Australia |
EWEN is a collaborative project involving Federal and state government departments in partnership with the dairy industry. The project audits of water and energy use on dairy farms.
Approximately 80 energy audits were conducted on the mid north coast of New South Wales (NSW). Each farmer receives a report outlining how they compare to a group of similar sized dairy farms and an action plan for improving energy and water use efficiency. The audits have been supported by a NSW state government grant that offers up to A$5,000 for eligible on-farm work that has a pay back period of more than two years.
Specifically for the Murphy's the audit recommended a heat recover unit be installed to per-heat water using the hot gasses in the vat compressors; refer to attachment. The change from a pressure type heater to a non-pressure heater allows hot water to be used without cold water being added to the tank. This means that morning and evening hot water washes of the milking shed can be discharged from the heater without the need to reheat for the evening wash.
The benefits are savings of around A$1,000 per year in water heating costs alone. This results in a pay back time of 9.8 years. The pay back period is halved, though, as a result of rebate from the state government of 50 per cent of the total cost of the project. The total cost is $9,872 excluding GST.
Fonterra’s Dairy Electricity Advisory Programme (DEAP) - New Zealand
| Source : Fonterra |
- Electricity is a significant on-farm cost. It accounts for approximately 1.2% of the dairy farm carbon footprint.
- Total dairy farm electricity use is estimated at 1,000,000 MWh - slightly more than used in our processing plants. Fonterra has completed a pilot energy efficiency programme.
- This pilot has identified the potential to reduce electricity use by 16% on the sample farms with a payback of less than 3 years. Ways of rolling this initiative out to all New Zealand's dairy farms are now being considered.
Decarbonisation of farm activities with energy generation from solar panels - Cremona Province, Italy
| Source : BARBISELLE S.A.S. |
Barbiselle s.a.s. is 300-hectare farm breeding horses, 1.000 dairy cattle out of which 480 milking cows. It is a family owned farm employing eleven staff. The farm is located at Persico Dosimo in the Province of Cremona, Lombardy, Italy. Milk from Barbiselle is delivered to a local cooperative dairy and processed into high-quality cheese such as Grana Padano D.O.P. and Provolone Valpadana.
Since December 2010, the farm has been equipped with a photovoltaic (PV) system where solar panels are placed on farm buildings’ roof tops to produce green energy, mainly for the farm’s use and partly sold outside the farm. The technology is increasingly being adopted on dairy farms in the region in order to contribute to meet government green energy targets.
The entire PV system on the Barbiselle farm is set to generate 782 MWh per year. The nominal power of the photovoltaic modules is 680 kilowatts-peak (kWp).
The roof-top solar system entirely covers the farms’ electrical energy consumption of around 300 MWh per year. The additional amount of electricity generated by sun on the farm is being sold to national electrical grid.
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Milk Roadmap improving energy efficiency – United Kingdom
| Source : Dairy UK |
Dairy farmers to improve energy efficiency by 15% by 2010
Activity and Progress:
The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) is currently undertaking a survey on energy efficiency on farms through the Geronimo Survey.
Measurement:
Establish current level of energy use on dairy farms
Target Status:
Currently gathering data
Milk Roadmap anaerobic digestion – United Kingdom
| Source : Dairy UK |
Target: Anaerobic Digestion: 30 on-farm AD units by 2010
Activity and Progress:
- The Environment Agency’s decision to revise its regulatory position on the waste status of anaerobic digestate produced from farm-based inputs in December 2008 removed a strong disincentive to the use of AD digestate and the advancement of AD technology on-farm generally.
- Under the regulations, previously manure and slurry treated in AD plants were considered ‘wastes’. Farmers were required to take out an environmental permit or waste management exemption if they wanted to spread the digestate on their land which meant unnecessary administrative and cost burdens. Now the digestate will not be considered as ‘waste’ provided it is used as fertiliser on agricultural land in the way undigested manure and slurry would be.
- This decision by the Environment Agency removes a significant barrier to the development of small-scale on-farm AD. This should help stimulate greater use of digestates on farm land and hopefully encourage more farmer investment in AD technology.
Measurement:
- Case studies (to include individual farm installations and collaborations)
- Government / RDA supported initiatives / AD plant equipment sales.
Target Status:
- Currently gathering data
Pioneer farmer powers dairy with slurry biogas - United Kingdom
| Source : Dairy UK |
- Alan Hogarth, a Scottish farmer based near Saltcoats in Ayrshire, is a pioneer or anaerobic digestion in the UK.
- He runs a plant capable of turning the combined slurry of his 250-cow dairy herd into 85,000m³ of biogas each year.
- This is burnt to generate 170,000 kWh of ‘greener’ electricity and lots of heat – enough to power his farm, his home and a new milk processing and bottling operation.
Hardie Farms - New York, USA
| Source : Innovation Center For US Dairy |
“My personal philosophy is that we need to be supportive of ideas that may or may not end up having merit. Different practices work for different farms. But innovation is how you move up the ladder of success." - Skip Hardie
Hardie Farms was an early adopter of:
- Variable speed pumps
- Drag hosing
Haubenschild Farms – Minnesota, USA
| Source : Innovation Center For US Dairy |
“I believe in ‘earth-neutral’ farming” - Dennis Haubenschild
Practicing:
- Variable speed pumps
- Methane digester technology : Producing enough electricity for dairy and 70 area homes
- Water recycling
- Testing fuel cell technology
Industry association initiatives: DemoDAIRY - Australia
| Source : DemoDAIRY |
Creating Energy From Effluent Project
- In June 2009 a project commenced at DemoDAIRY to ascertain if there is enough methane emission from first effluent pond (sludge lagoon) to generate energy
- The project will determine the methane’s energy value, its potential for beneficial uses such as electricity generation, heating or refrigeration and if this could be achieved at an affordable price. DemoDAIRY’s farm effluent lagoon will be covered to capture its biogas emissions and the system monitored to determine methane concentration and volume
- The biogas shall be flared as at this stage it is a monitoring project - see ‘Notes Page’ for Background.
Renewable energy: cradle to processing – The Netherlands
| Source : CONO Cheesemakers (CONO Kaasmakers) |
- All our farmers and both factories (CONO and Ben&Jerry’s) only use renewable energy sources
- In practice this means that we use green electricity (from renewable sources- not being nuclear energy) for our cheese factory, our ice-cream factory and all our 500 farmers
- Furthermore we have invested in a compensation program that helps a Tapioca based starch manufacturing plant to reduce methane emissions
- The reduction of methane emissions as a result of our investments in this Wastewater Treatment with Biogas Production is equal to our CO2 emissions form the natural gas use of our Cheese factory and all our 500 dairy farmers.
- This means that we produce our cheese CO2-neutral. In the future the energy use in our production chain will be produced by our dairy farmers.
Creating an energy-neutral chain of production – The Netherlands
| Source : NZO (Nederlandse Zuivel Organisatie) |
One of the “icons” of the Sustainable Dairy Chain initiative is to create an energy-neutral chain of production from raw farm milk to the finished dairy product by 2020
- This means that 100% of the energy that is consumed by each of the different links in the chain must be generated within the chain itself
- The energy consumption of the Dutch dairy farming sector and dairy industry has been taken as the area of focus within the total energy consumption of the chain
- These two sectors together account for a consumption of 26.3 PJ. The goal can be achieved by using energy from sustainable sources that is produced within the chain, e.g. solar energy, wind energy or energy generated from biomass
The National goal is that 20% of the energy use is sustainable energy in 2020
- Currently on a National level 3,5% of the energy consumption in the Netherlands is sustainable produced (source CBS, statistics Netherlands)
At present the energy production of Dutch dairy farmers is 2.25 PJ. The energy is produced as power by windmills and green gas by anaerobic digestion
- So 8% of the total energy consumption of the dairy chain is already being produced by dairy farmers
Energy efficiency - Greece
| Source : IDF National Committee of Greece |
- On-farm energy use in milking and refrigeration: tremendous progress has been done in modernizing equipment, mainly with the support of big dairy plants
- Optimised processing: very high progress has been done by applying new methodologies and techniques in cooperation with foreign dairy companies
Optimisation of the performance of tractor engines - France
| Source : IDF National Committee of France |
Context
Tractors represent 50% of direct energy consumption. Combined with an economic driving, a good tuning of agricultural equipments can allow the economy of 1,5L fuel /hour of work.
Action
National call for project for the installation of tractors test beds within the context of the “Energetic performance plan”.
Leader
Ministry of Agriculture
Calendar
2009-2013
Impact
Each region will be equipped with a travelling test and tuning bed open to all dairy farmers
Wilco Hilhorst, Noord-Steen, the Netherlands
| Source : Beemster - Caring Dairy - Ben & Jerry’s |
See picture
