Last year, I visited a large, progressive dairy in Vermont with the “Agriculture and the Environment” class taught by Steve Kramer. Our host was very gracious and gave us a guided tour of the farm where we learned a lot about their operation and nutrient management.

In Idaho, where the number of dairy cows has increased around 88 percent in the past 12 years, USDA scientists are collecting data on greenhouse gas emissions from dairy facilities and identifying how those emissions fluctuate daily and throughout the year.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA is funding anaerobic digester projects in eight states to encourage renewable energy production, reduce energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and farm-based pollution. The announcement was made on the Secretary's behalf by Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager during a trip to Wisconsin.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are leading the way in learning more about "biochar," the charred biomass created from wood, other plant material, and manure. The studies by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists at laboratories across the country support the USDA priorities of promoting international food security and responding to global climate change. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency. Soil scientist Jeff Novak at the ARS Coastal Plains Soil, Water and Plant Research Center in Florence, South Carolina, is coordinating the multi-location effort. In one project, he led a laboratory study to see if different biochars could improve the sandy soils found on the Carolina coastal plain, and Pacific Northwest silt loam soils derived from volcanic ash.

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has revised its standard on manure storage safety. The revised standard, ASAE EP470.1, Manure Storage Safety, reflects field research on worker safety and proper removal of waste from confined manure storage structures. Additional changes include information on confined space entry with references to a relatively new ASABE safety standard, ANSI/ASABE S607, Ventilating Manure Storages to Reduce Entry Risk.

At a special AgSTAR seminar held at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, a number of dairy producers and anaerobic digester operators came together to speak openly about their systems by responding to audience questions.

In recent years dairy farms have grown in size and efficiency. When more livestock are housed in one location, the volume of stored manure and the manure hauling distance to reach the land base needed for application also increase.

As a technology, anaerobic digestion offers many potential environmental and economic benefits for dairy farms. However, anaerobic digestion can pose significant health and safety hazards when not operated properly.

Chaput Family Farms is a partnership between brothers Reg and Mike Chaput in North Troy, Vermont. The farm includes 950 cows, 900 heifers, 1,100 acres of tillable land and an anaerobic digester.

The concept of nutrient management is not new, as agricultural producers have always gone through some version of logically deciding the amount, source, placement, form and timing for nutrients delivered to their crops. It is to the farmer’s advantage to think this through and make good crop nutrition and soil fertility decisions, as crop productivity and farm profitability are impacted.