This is the first in a series of articles by the Kewaunee County Star-News on emerging manure treatment technologies that may help address the groundwater and surface water contamination problems in Kewaunee County.
Ross Thurston, president of Livestock Water Recycling Inc., is drinking potable water from a test tube that an hour ago was part of liquid manure from the 2,600 dairy cows at Shiloh Dairy in Brillion, Wisconsin.
Standing in the 5,000-square-foot building that houses the manure treatment technology, Thurston said that since 2008, his company, based in Calgary, Canada, has been developing technology to allow maximum recovery of nutrients from cow and hog manure and recycle the liquid into potable water for use on farms.
The result is the Livestock Water Recycling (LWR) system, which Thurston says safely removes the disease-causing pathogens found in livestock manure, including E. coli, cryptosporidium and fecal coliform. It recovers clean water, concentrates the nutrients for use as fertilizer, segregates phosphorus and significantly reduces the handling and transport costs of manure, he said.
"LWR is committed to improving manure management practices on the farm, " Thurston said, sitting in the conference room of the Shiloh Dairy in Brillion, one of 10 sites where the LWR technology has been installed in the Midwest.
"The epicenter of manure opportunity in the world right now is right here in the Great Lakes," says Thurston.
The LWR technology is the latest outgrowth of Thurston's company, which has 25 employees, and prior to 2008 manufactured pollution-control devices and managed the cleanup of Superfund sites in the U.S. He said that "sustainability" is the goal of the company's technologies.
Because 70 percent of the world's water is used for agriculture, the LWR system has worldwide application, particularly in arid regions, Thurston said. LWR has patents in Canada and New Zealand with patents pending in six other countries, including the United States.
Gordon Speirs, the owner of Shiloh Dairy, said that he began looking for a manure treatment system for their farm in 2013.
"We were not interested in a centrifuged system; we wanted a chemical-based system," he said.
Shiloh Dairy has 4,400 cows on site, of which approximately 2,000 are used for milking, according to Speirs. He and his family, including two sons who help manage the farm, moved to their Calumet County farm 12 years ago from Calgary. They are fourth-generation dairy farmers who employ 35 people at their farm.
The LWR manure treatment system and building on the Shiloh Dairy took four months to install in 2014. It will eventually process 30 million gallons of liquid manure annually, producing 18 million gallons of recycled water, 6 million gallons of liquid nutrient concentrate and 6,000 to 12,000 tons of solid fertilizer, according to LWR's brochure on the test site.
The LWC technology can process the daily waste of 800 to 5,000 cows and costs between $600,000 to $2 million to install, said Thurston. Operating costs vary per site, including power, labor, chemical and material handling, he said.
As Thurston walks through the plant, he explains the three-step process of the technology. As the liquid manure is flushed into the plant from the barns, a patented screen filters the removal of the solids.
"Historically, it would have been used for field application, but now it comes through the water recycling system," Thurston said.
The screen removes 99.9 percent of the solids, including the phosphorus, organic nitrogen and potassium. The solid becomes a soft, mud-like putty that is then applied as fertilizer on up to 1,000 acres that the dairy uses for growing feed.
"The solid fertilizer is odorless," said Thurston. "This fertilizer will get fully utilized by the plants and not get lost as runoff,"said Thurston.
In addition, Thurston noted that because the liquid has been removed, the nutrients from the manure are easier to transport.
"Instead of using four trucks to bring manure to my far fields, I only have to use one," said Speirs.
The second step involves removing the fine solids and organic particles in the liquid using a central separation system.
Finally, the dissolved solids in the remaining liquid are separated out using a reverse osmosis membrane separation system, creating potable water.
"The water can be used for cleaning, flushing and irrigating," Thurston said. "It meets drinking water standards for humans."
He said a dairy's veterinarian should make the decision on whether the water is appropriate for livestock to drink.
Several Kewaunee County dairy operations are interested in the system. Randy Ebert of Ebert Enterprises said that while LWR's capital costs are a "solid number," the variable is the operating costs of the system.
"Their system is not operating at a full-time maximum yet as they figure out the consistency and chemistry," Ebert said. "They need to be operating at full flow . . .you need consistency . . .then you can determine the operating costs."
Speirs agrees. He said that they are currently operating the LWR system on average six hours a day, five days a week with the goal of having it treat manure 18 hours a day, seven days a week.
"We are closed to get it dialed in – we are 95 percent there," Speirs said. "This system will make a big difference at Shiloh Dairy once we get it working 18 hours a day."
He said that the system would require only a part-time employee to operate and manage it.
A Kiel farm, Robinway Dairy, last month received the Wisconsin Business Friend of the Environment Award from the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Association for its efforts in environmental innovation. Robinway is in the process of installing LWR technology.
"Robinway Dairy continues to raise the bar in sustainable farming and environmental innovation," Thurston said, noting that by 2050 farmers will need to increase world food production by 70 percent in order to meet the needs of the world's population, expected to reach 9 billion people by then.
"By installing the LWR system, Robinway Dairy will eliminate the risk of groundwater contamination through strategic and surgical nutrient application and will significantly reduce their groundwater withdrawals," Thurston said
Ebert said that many dairy farmers in the county are watching how the trials of the LWR system are progressing.
"They are one of several technologies that could hold the answer to our manure treatment issues," he said.
— kyancey@kewauneestarnews.com and Twitter @KCStarNews
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