Brooten, MN – Jerry and Linda Jennissen of Brooten hosted a field day today on their 200 acre, 160 cow dairy farm, featuring a methane digester project that recently became operational.
“We are excited to have begun this project and we think that this is only the beginning of trying to create another revenue stream for our farm, to create clean, renewable energy and make our manure product more environmentally friendly. We think that digesters may be a part of the future for most livestock farms and it is exciting to be at the forefront. It is has been a very challenging but exciting project and we look forward to showcasing it,” said Jerry Jennissen, farm owner.
The methane digester project was part of a pilot-scale research demonstration project, funded by the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. Research partners included the Minnesota Milk Producers Association, the Minnesota Project, Stearns County Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and the University of Minnesota Departments of Applied Economics and Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering.
The Jennissen digester, when fully operational, will product 400 to 460 kwh of electricity per day, of which approximately 95 kwh will be used per day on the farm to operate the system. The Jennissens are utilizing solid separation equipment to use separated digested solids as bedding for their dairy cow herd.
The Project team went through a year and half process of soliciting systems bids from qualified engineers to select the right system for demonstration project. Last fall a contract was signed with Genex Farm Systems using technology developed by Andigen of Utah. The Jennissen digester is the first installed system in Minnesota for Genex and Andigen.
“This project worked to accomplish two main goals; first to test cutting edge technology that could prove to be profitable for a majority of Minnesota farms, second to demonstrate the immense interest among Minnesota producers to utilize this technology and move the digester industry towards offering a variety of system designs that could work for a variety of farms,” said Amanda Bilek with the Minnesota Project, one of the project partners.
Bob Lefebvre, Executive Director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association—one of the project partners—also spoke highly of this project, “We are excited and hopeful that through this pilot project at the Jennissen farm we are able to move this technology to more of Minnesota’s dairy farmers.”
Media from the small biogas digester field day:
Star Tribune – Minn. farmers turns manure to power
MPR – Farmer uses methane to make electricity
St. Cloud Times – Farmer sees profit in manure
Contact Amanda Bilek with the Minnesota Project at abilek@mnproject.org with questions about the Jennissen digester project.
