06/13/05 Dairy turns to anaerobic digester

A lot of dairymen are keeping an eye on the Whitesides Dairy. Brothers Steve and Brent Whitesides had a problem at their four thousand head dairy north of Rupert. WHITESIDES "We have a challenge with our liquid manure. We have a machine, a low vacuum machine they call it, that can actually vacuum up the liquid but they you have to be able to go somewhere with it." That somewhere is now a loading ramp that drains into a 13-foot deep tank. From there the manure and water are feed into two metal tanks, each 32 feet tall, each operating at 100 degree temperatures and using nature's bacteria. FRAZEE "They start to break down that manure just like we're breaking down food in the body. We're breaking that down into fundamental building blocks like methane, water and carbon dioxide." Intrepid's Brad Frazee says the methane that his company will capture and sell will help them recoup the cost of the digester. And this is just the beginning. Intrepid is about to start construction of a second larger digester project at the West Point Dairy near Wendell. That dairy is also supposed to anchor a pipeline that will eventually collect methane gas from other dairies in the area. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott