The Peru Gazette

Shane St. Cyr points to the digester

Joe Giroux thanks Assemblyman Jones for his efforts on behalf of North Country farmers.

Trucks transport the gas to the pipeline

Jon Rulfs handles the dried material used for bedding

Some of the farm’s new equipment

Adirondack Farms Digester

Cornell engineer Lauren Ray

By John T Ryan

Peru – While dairy farming contributes a small percentage of overall greenhouse gas emissions, North Country farmers say they want to do their part in achieving national and state gas reduction goals.

Last Friday, the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) conducted a media day at Adirondack Farms to highlight its latest research programs, especially two case studies: one a farm digester converting dairy manure into electrical energy with the capacity to add food waste for co-digestion and one being conducted at Adirondack Farms involving the installation of a new anaerobic co-digestion system to generate natural gas energy. The presenters included Beekmantown farmer and NNYADP Co-Chair Joe Giroux, Jon Rulfs and Shane St. Cyr of Adirondack Farms, Lauren Ray from Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Assemblyman Billy Jones.

Adirondack Farms has been utilizing an anaerobic digester system to process its manure since 2017. The digester system breaks down manure’s organic solid and gaseous material to the point where the liquid portion is used as fertilizer, the dried portion as cow bedding, and the gas portion for energy production. The liquid portion is delivered to Adirondack’s nearby fields by pipeline, eliminating truck hauling.

Up until about ten months ago, Adirondack’s gas-powered generators fed electricity into the power grid; however, as of about thirty days ago, the gas is being piped to a Suburban Propane truck for transport to a natural gas pipeline. Jon Rulfs explained, “We had been producing electricity, but we found it wasn’t financially feasible over time. We hope this will be better for us, but that has yet to be seen. We hope to be part of the solution to the climate issues we face today.”

In June 2022, Michael Stivala, President and Chief Executive Officer of Suburban Propane, stated, “Our investment in a digester system at Adirondack Farms is the latest endeavor in our ongoing commitment to bring renewable energy to local communities.” Federal and state governments are supporting the farmers’ efforts. Lauren Ray, one of Cornell University Agriculture Energy Systems Engineers involved in the case studies, noted the federal Inflation Reduction Act’s 30% investment tax credit and New York State’s recently enacted state 20% investment tax credit for future projects. New York State aims to reduce greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050. The national dairy industry aims to be carbon neutral by 2050.

Assemblyman Billy Jones has secured over $1,500,000 in state funding for NNYADP since 2019. He commented, “Many do not realize that innovative agricultural research is happening here in the North Country. As dairy farmers across the country face challenges, the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program’s projects provide vital data and insights to help our local agricultural industry adopt the most recent green technologies and be a leader in groundbreaking research.”

Joe Giroux described NNYADP’s long research history, such as drainage tile, water quality pest control, and phosphorus management, to enhance agriculture’s environmental stewardship. He stated, “People don’t realize how much farming has changed over the past forty years.”