Water • Air • Renewable Energy
Overview: The Anaerobic Digester Workforce Development Project is a NYSERDA funded project aimed at developing and delivering high quality educational programs targeted to a range of workforces within the dairy farm-based anaerobic digestion sector of the clean energy field. Included in the project plans, are five technical short-courses that will provide educational training to persons who are involved in the planning and implementation of dairy farm-based anaerobic digestion systems and to those currently or who will soon be managing existing operating systems. Also part of this project is to design and install 5-7 bench-scale lab setups to be used on farm and run by the digester operators.
USDA-NRCS and NYSERDA funded project: NYS Dairy Power Project
This project consisted of the following initiatives:
- Small Farm Anaerobic Digestion White Paper
To help inform funding decisions for small farm digesters, USDA-NRCS commissioned Cornell PRO-DAIRY to prepare a white paper outlining the challenges facing small farm digesters. The purpose of this paper is to assist granting agencies in developing policy to make best use of their grant dollars. In this paper, technical, regulatory and financial hurdles are discussed. Further, an economic analysis of varying funding sources and costs on digester feasibility was conducted.
Full Report:
Small Farm Manure-Based Anaerobic Digestion Systems and Barriers to
Increasing their Implementation in New York State
- National Manure Management Conference
Cornell PRO-DAIRY, in collaboration with USEPA AgSTAR, USDA-NRCS and
NYSERDA, hosted a National Manure Management Conference Entitled “Got
Manure? Enhancing Environmental and Economic Sustainability.” Held in
Syracuse NY, on March 28th and 29th 2012, this conference featured 30
speakers in 10 sessions, and 11 posters. In addition, the conference had
a digester operator panel consisting of producers from New York,
Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin. The conference was attended by 300
registered people with a good representation of local, national and
international backgrounds. A conference proceedings was developed from
submitted papers which is available on this website, under “Past
Events”.
In conjunction with the national manure management conference, Cornell
PRO-DAIRY organized both a half day and full day tour for interested
conference attendees. The half day tour consisted of visits to the
Cayuga County Soil and Water Conservation District’s Community Digester,
and Patterson Dairy Farm (both located in Auburn, NY.) The full day tour
visited the same sites as the half day tour, but also included a visit
to Synergy Dairy, in Covington, NY. On March 27th, 2012 104 people
attended the full day tour, and 44 people attended the half day tour.
Additionally, some individuals elected to drive to the tour locations
themselves.
In conjunction with the “Got Manure?” conference, Cornell PRO-DAIRY,
organized an industry trade show with 38 booths. The 34 companies (and 4
conference sponsors) represented national and international industry and
government.
USDA funded project: National Facilitation of Extension
Programming in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation for Animal
Agriculture
The overall goal of the proposed project is that Extension, working with partner organizations, effectively informs and influences livestock and poultry producers and consumers of animal products in all regions of the U.S. to move animal production toward practices that are environmentally sound, climatically compatible, and economically viable. A primary desired outcome is that stakeholder decisions result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions without sacrificing America’s capacity to produce meat, milk, eggs and other animal products.
Project objectives are to:
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Equip extension personnel and stakeholder representatives to assess stakeholder needs relative to climate change mitigation and adaptation and to deliver educational programs that target those needs;
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Provide on-demand web access to science-based information, educational resources, and decision-support tools to stakeholder groups and the public on climate change related to animal agriculture; and
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Coordinate efforts so information and resources are utilized optimally at the state, regional and national levels.