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Despite the difficult hurdles it’s faced building its digester system, California dairy is praised as ‘an environmental hero.’

Influx of younger dairy farmers bodes well for the economy and environment.

Dairy digester mixes manure with waste from local food processors to produce power.

KINDERHOOK -- Eric Ooms remembers the financial “carnage” that hit dairyfarmers when milk prices soured as the recession took hold in 2009. “The price of our milk just collapsed. It was tough for a lot of people. “Now, the 37-year farmer is getting a breather as prices paid for milk have recovered to an all-time high. But he is hedging his bets, using some of that extra cash to buy a grain dryer so he can sell his excess corn for feed.

John Noble, a sixth generation dairyfarmer, got his first taste of the benefits of biogas about a decade ago, when he installed a small system on his Wyoming County farm.Now, Noble and a host of investors, including a handful of local farm families, are getting into biogas in a big way. Synergy Biogas, an entity owned by Florida-based renewable energy company CH4 Biogas, last week took the wraps off its new biogas power project, located on the 1,850-cow dairyfarm that Synergy owns in Wyoming County.

Herds with 300 or more cows will need 180 days of manure storage.

Effective July 1, herds larger than the trigger levels will be required to have 180 days of manure storage, up from the current 120-day limit.

The program has gained widespread support from key organizations, including Elanco, the U.S. Dairy Export Council, the Center for Advanced Energy Studies/Idaho National Laboratory, USDA, the World Wildlife Fund, MilkPEP and the Dairy Research Institute.

The “30x20” effort hopes to grow the state’s milk production to 30 billion pounds by 2020, a 15% increase over the next eight years and a doubling of the annual rate of growth.

Jersey milk leads to a hugely significant reduction in water use and greenhouse gas emissions, it was claimed at a South West conference.Speaking at the Creating our Golden Future conference, organised by the UK Jerseys Cattle Society and held at the Royal Bath & West of England showground at Shepton Mallet, Dr Jude Capper, of Washington State University, reported on her research which compared Jersey and Holstein milk in the USA.