Members of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) along with CARB and San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District staff toured the Bar 20 farm owned by Steve Shehadey in western Fresno County recently looking to evaluate the dairy community’s emissions trends and see the technology farms are using to cut harmful air emissions. These visitors are responsible for regulating greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane, as well as air quality pollutants including oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). For some on the tour, whether CARB Board Members or staff, this was their first time visiting a dairy.
The regulators are under tremendous pressure to end the state incentive program that the dairy industry is fighting to save.
A recent report says California has 238 dairy digestive projects from 259 dairy farms with 129 of these in operation and the remainder in development
According to a report in last week’s Milk Producers Council(MPC) newsletter ” thanks to the Shehadey family, we were able to showcase a variety of sustainable technologies on a single dairy, which we noted are being employed on many dairies throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Our regulator audience learned about animal care, carousel milking parlors, weeping walls, nutrient management, digesters, fuel cells, electric feed-mixing wagons, feeding byproducts, solar panels, as well as hydrogen production from dairy biogas.”
Milk Producers Council notes that” We’re more than halfway toward meeting the State’ 2030 goal of reducing manure methane emissions by 40% from 2013 levels, anaccording to expert analysis by CARB, we will hit that mark.”
“How have California dairy families achieved this impressive milestone? Collaboration. Thanks to CARB’s voluntary, incentive-based approach, our dairy families have significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere, all while creating renewable energy and carbon-negative transportation fuel.”
There are about 20 digesters in Kings County and over 50 in Tulare County where milk is the top crop.
But anti-dairy activists want to end the state program helping dairies cut emissions.
Last year nearly 200 environmental groups called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reconsider extending federal funding to farms that turn manure into biofuel through anaerobic digestion, arguing it undermines the agency’s effort to fight climate change, says one report,″Manure biogas entrenches factory farms, worsens market consolidation, deepens environmental injustices with air and water pollution, fails to address climate change, and is a waste of taxpayer resources,” the groups wrote in a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.
MPC says the activists promulgate several myths:
MYTH #1
The California dairy industry is growing due to incentive-based programs to install digesters.
FACT
If you’re done laughing (or crying), here are the numbers. More than 1,000 dairy farms have gone out of business in California over the past 20 years. But surely you’re thinking those cows just went to other dairies so that the total California herd size remained the same, and according to activists, probably even grew so digesters could be built, right?!? Nope. Look at the graph below. You’ll see that since the adoption of SB 1383 to regulate methane, the California milk cow population has been in steady decline.
And now for the icing on the cake. At the hearing in Fresno on Thursday, CARB staff reported that an “analyses of dairy trends suggest that there has not been any relationship between the installation of digesters and dairy growth rates.” That’s from CARB’s own detailed analysis from years of work to accurately quantify California’s herd size.
MYTH #2
Lagoon manure-holding ponds are being built on dairies just because of digesters.
FACT
Lagoons have been an integral part of California dairy farming since the 1980s. Their advent – and prevalence today – has nothing to do with dairy digesters or methane. In short, lagoons were designed to promote cow health, improve manure management, and protect water quality.
Lagoons help keep cows clean, thanks to a gravity flush system that removes manure from barn floors with recycled water. This flush water is stored in the lagoon where it is recycled throughout the year as a nutrient-rich fertilizer to grow feed for cows. Having a lagoon on a dairy also provides stormwater protection to ensure that all water used on the farm stays on the farm, where it can be recycled multiple times.
MYTH #3
Dairies are actively working to maximize methane production from manure due to the installation of
digesters.
FACT
Dairies – including those with digesters – are doing the opposite. As we showed our tour guests on Wednesday, the Shehadey family is avoiding methane production from manure thanks to its use of a weeping wall in front of its digester. Conservatively, the weeping wall is reducing methane emissions by 60%. Many dairies are using some type of mechanical solids separator in front of a digester, which can reduce methane emissions from manure by up to 30% before hitting the digester.Weeping walls offer non-mechanical separation of manure solids from water that reduce methane production while improving management of nitrogen.
Voters Strongly Support State’s Dairy Methane Reduction Efforts
Recent statewide and San Joaquin Valley voter research demonstrates that California’s current incentive-based programs to reduce livestock methane are broadly supported. This means voters share the views of state and local elected leaders who support the incentive-based approach.
As shown below, the current incentive programs provided by the state to California’s dairy farmers for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and producing renewable natural gas are strongly supported.
The current programs are supported by 69% of voters statewide with 42% of voters “strongly” in support. Support is strongest among democrats (80%) and independent voters (73%).
Voters also recognize farming and food production as essential to the state’s economy with 86% of voters describing the industry as “very important,” leading all industries by a wide margin.
California has implemented a highly successful incentive-based approach to dairy methane reduction. Support for these incentives is clear and unmistakable. Two-thirds of voters (65%) statewide and three-quarters (72%) in the San Joaquin Valley oppose having the state directly regulate dairy farms and eliminate current incentive programs.