Energy Conservation on the Farm at the Huls Dairy

“Energy Conservation on the Farm at the Huls Dairy” provides information about the operation of Montana's first methane digester for a dairy operation. The project was a huge success and is currently producing enough power to run the entire dairy operation and one home. The digesters are located at the Huls Dairy Farm in Corvallis, Montana. The video shows the digesters at work using the methane gasses to produce energy. The video also explains other benefits from the installation of the digesters including commercial composting, fuel, fertilizer, and irrigation savings.

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Energy Conservation on the Farm at the Huls Dairy (WMV; 11 minutes; 13.2 MB)

Transcript of "Energy Conservation on the Farm at the Huls Dairy" Video

NARRATOR:
Reducing energy costs to farmers and conserving energy is becoming increasingly important. There is a move to promote alternative and renewable energy strategies for on-farm energy generation and to reduce agricultural and greenhouse gas emissions.

A showplace for conservation efforts is the Huls Dairy operated by 4th and 5th generation farmers in the dairy business since first arriving in the Bitterroot Valley in 1908. In the 1930s the Huls had a creamery business that supported the family. In 1951 the Huls built one of the first grade A facilities in Ravalli County. The Huls now operate a 640 acre farm in Corvallis, Montana, 360 milking cows, a calving operation, a state-of-the-art energy production facility and a bio-gas system that turns waste into energy and at the same time controls odor. The Huls grow and harvest a majority of their feed and hay crops.

TIM HULS:
“My name is Tim Huls and I am President of Huls Dairy Incorporated. I’m just one of the brothers and their wives, there are eight of us who are stockholders and we just work together as a family. We’re fourth generation on this farm and our kids who are helping are fifth generation. We’re quite proud and last year was our 100th anniversary in agriculture in this county, so we’re pretty proud of our heritage and we are trying to take advantage of the latest technology and be good stewards and try to make a living as well. A lot of what we’ve done and the decisions we’ve made are to see if we can’t find the right way to make a living in the dairy business in an area that is growing rapidly.”

TRUDY HULS:
“I am Trudy Huls and Tim and I have been married since 1977. I was fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home Mom. We have two boys, Jonathon and Aaron and they are all grown up now. When we started this facility the guys were busy building this facility and The dairy cows which they had primarily been taking care of. It was kind of an afterthought because we were so intense on building the dairy and I kind of took over the herd management, making sure that they were pregnancy checked and stuff, When we moved into this facility they let me keep doing that. So I get to take care of the cows. Making sure they are healthy, making sure they get fed in time, who gets milked, making sure they get prepped on time, where they go as they flow through the barn, getting them vaccinated. I also take care of the bookkeeping part of the dairy –that’s really not my favorite part of it, I prefer to play with the cows.”

TIM HULS:
“Well one of the interesting things about the dairy farm is not only do cows make milk but they also make manure and we have to have a way to handle that ‘s environmentally friendly.”

TIM TACKES-MOUNTAIN WEST CO-OP:
“Here are the number of gallons that is produced per year, TIM HULS “Ok – Six million gallons – TIM TACKES “Six million gallons – According to the plan based on the fields of the crops, we’re going to by applying just a hair short of that five point six million. So that actually leaves us with a three-hundred-thousand gallon extra that we have to apply elsewhere. So we are going to apply the remainder of the manure to the pasture east of the pit.

TIM HULS:
“When we built the methane digester it really changed things and one of the big advantages that we anticipated with the methane digester was to do a better job of handling our manure waste. You save money on fertilizer, you save money on doing a better job of spreading the manure and getting the manure onto the fields, we have less compaction on the crops, we have more storage for the liquid that we have and farm manure by removing it from the farm and selling some of it – so we’ve experienced a number of drastic benefits and we envision as we go along we’ll even know more.”

HENRY BURKWHAT-NRCS MONTANA:
“Hello, I’m Henry Burkwhat – I’m the District Conservationist here in Hamilton, Montana and I want to talk a little about how we got involved with the Huls – We’ve been working with them for several years. They came to us through the EQIP Program to work with us on the Anaerobic Digester. Mr. Dave White, who is our current chief came down here to a meeting with the Huls and several other partners and he got behind it and that’s how this project really started off with the cooperation with the Huls Dairy.

DAN HULS:
“In our operation the delivery of the manure stream to the digester is one of the key components. It’s done with an automatic scraping system – the scrapers travel continuously back and forth – We scrape the alleys approximately 12 times a day, It takes about an hour for a trip one-way. The manure flows from the gravity-flows channel into Tank B. There we mix it with some water to get the hydration just right to pump into the digester. The effluent is then pumped into the digester and it is heated on the way into the digester, so that the temperature is proper for the bacteria. The effluent enters the digester at about 105 degrees, we keep the tanks at about 100 degrees plus, is ideal. The bacteria stratifies inside the digester. There are mainly three types of bacteria. acetogens, acidogens, and methanogens – methanogens are at the top and create the methane gas – the other two prepare the effluent for the next layer. The methane gas is captured at the tops of the tanks and is then piped over to our generator where the generator burns it – the generator then creates electricity – we capture the waste heat off that to heat the effluent from the end of the digester as well, so it is a combined heat and power unit making for a unit that is about 98% efficient. The methane gas not used by the generator is sent to the flare to be burned preventing the release of those gasses into the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas 21 to 24 times more powerful than Co2. After the digestion process is completed the effluent flows outside the digester and we pipe it to the solid separator. From that we extract our BOOST plant food and soil amendment fertilizer product that we will bag and sell. And the remainder, the liquid portion goes into our lime pond for delivery to our irrigation system allowing us to apply those nutrients throughout the growing season. Our electrical consumption right now, and we are just shortly after start-up is powering the entire Dairy operation plus about one Bitterroot Valley home.

The milking session , the milk weight is recorded, the flow rate is recorded, the electrical conductivity of the milk is recorded and the unit detaches automatically when the cow finishes milking. It takes about 5 minutes for the average cow to get done – it takes about ten minutes for a table to make a turn, so most of our cows are done about half way around the table.

Our feed mixture, it is a total mixed ration, it’s corn silage-based with alfalfa hay, ground corn, some soybean meal and protein concentrate mixed in and the total mixed ration is so that the cows can’t sort it. What the cows would like to do is to eat the grain portion and leave the rest – so we mix it so they have to eat their veggies along with their good stuff.

TRUDY HULS:
(The barn is) 360 feet long, 120 feet wide, and it is 62 feet tall. There is always an air flow coming through the barn. It’s built a lot like a Teepee.

DAN HULS:
I would estimate that the impact to the local economy directly from our project was about $750,000.

HENRY BURKWHAT:
When the Huls came to us initially, we put in part of the system and eventually we ended up with about $800,000 into this project. I think that without USDA assistance it would have been difficult for them to do on their own. We also had another CIG grant that was managed through the Northern Rocky Mountain RC&D and the Extension Service out of Montana State University and they provided approximately $75,000 to $85,000.

The dedication and enthusiasm of the Huls family has put this project on the ground.

NARRATOR:
The Huls Dairy Digester project was supported by a partnership of agencies including NRCS, Rocky Mountain Resources and Development Council, MSU Extension Service, Ravalli County Economic Development, Montana Community Development Corporation- Funding was received from CIG, EQIP, MSU Extension and Rural Development.

Last Modified: 08/03/2009