With about 800 dairy cows dropping tons of manure each day, visitors to Reinford Farms here in Juniata County would expect to be walloped by certain barnyard scents. On a recent breezy autumn afternoon, though, only a hint of Holstein wafted through the air. That’s on account of the methane digester downhill from the barns. It resembles a covered swimming pool, 18 feet deep, filled with cow manure. Methane, the gas produced by that manure, is pumped out to heat and electrify the barns, the milking carousel, and even the farmhouse where Brett Reinford’s parents live. There’s so much manure, making so much methane, that Reinford sends electricity back to the grid. “We make enough electricity here to power a hundred houses,” said Brett Reinford, a partner in the farm his father started. And now they’re accepting food waste as well. More >>
