Jon and Tami Tollenaar's dairy farm in Elk Grove is one of the many dairy farms in California that is turning waste into something positive - energy! The Tollenaar's 300-acre ranch is home to about 2,000 cows that not only produce milk, but also 1.5 million kilowatt-hours annually (enough energy to power 180 Sacramento homes). The Tollenaar's create energy by using a methane digester system-one of only two in Sacramento County. Many dairy producers in other parts of the state are also using methane digesters to power their operations and are even returning power to the public grid.

Methane digesters help lessen the impact of the byproducts like manure that come from running a farm. With a methane digester in place, cow manure is flushed into a containment lagoon where a natural microbial process converts the biomass into methane. The "biogas" resulting from this process is then treated and used to fuel a generator rather than being released into the atmosphere.

While every dairy is different, these digesters offer one option to help increase sustainability and continue the entrepreneurial spirit that exemplifies California's innovative dairy practices.

What’s that smell? It’s Power!
The California dairy industry is proud to be a leader in efforts to make the dairy industry a more sustainable business. Capturing methane gas that is released from cow manure and then turning the methane into energy and power to fuel a dairy's own operations is one of the many methods being researched in an effort to reduce the industry's greenhouse gas emissions. California is one of the leaders in conducting research on this subject and the University of California, Davis is one of five nationwide test sites for a new Purdue University study that will look at the gas that comes from both the cow and the manure. As a part of the study, data on gas concentrations will be monitored by the minute and collected through January 31, 2010. With an active role in the Purdue University study, the California dairy industry is hopeful for the new findings that will potentially increase the productivity of this revolutionary cow power technology. The dairy industry is proactively working toward an even more rigorous 25 percent greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2020 and research such as this continues to move the industry closer to that goal.</p>