Huge amounts of manure and huge electricity bills are two never ending problems that livestock farmers have to deal with. With the introduction of carbon tax and concerns about global warming, the greenhouse emissions from the mountains of manure are of even greater concern to intensive animal based industries.
But the ABC Rural program recently reported on a piggery owner in Young, NSW, who has been capturing the methane from her piggery effluent ponds and converting it to electricity to meet the entire needs of the farm. This is a significant and exciting step forward to improving farm sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint from livestock farming.
With farm gate milk prices hindering local dairy farms in the south west of WA, there are more than a few farmers who will be investigating this option to turn their mountains of manure into savings on electricity and reduce greenhouse emissions at the same time.
