They're turning manure into black gold

CALDWELL - Bernie Teunissen recently made a major technological investment in his 3,800-cow dairy to ensure its operations will remain sustainable long into the future.

Teunissen, who runs Caldwell-based Beranna Dairy with his sons Bernard and Derek, had been disposing of manure by vacuuming it into a 5,000-gallon tank, mounted on a tractor, and spreading it on their nearby farm fields.

But after years of applications, the family's fields were approaching maximum nutrient limits, especially for phosphorus.

To remedy the problem, Teunissen and his family installed a high-tech system that separates the solid waste from manure for conversion into a high-value - and easily manageable - compost, some of which they sell to neighbors' farms and orchards. The remaining liquid component of manure is recycled for reuse in the separation process, saving Teunissen roughly 40,000 gallons of water per day, and is ultimately pumped into his irrigation pivots. The irrigation water has the added benefit of having some fertilizer value.

Teunissen purchased the system from DariTech, Inc., based in Lynden, Wash., and finished installing it last summer. At $1.5 million, it wasn't cheap - especially given the poor current state of the dairy market. But Teunissen is pleased by the system's performance, and believes manure separation technology has made great strides recently, and he's convinced installing it was the right call.

"There isn't necessarily a black-and-white return on this investment. It's just a model that really can benefit not only our own operation, but also provide compost a lot of neighboring farmers and everybody can benefit from," Teunissen said. "From a sustainable model standpoint, it was the right thing to do."

Rick Naerebout, CEO of the Idaho Dairymen's Association, credits Teunissen with having one of the state's most progressive systems for handling manure.

"Dairymen are always looking at their manure-handling system and trying to see if there is a better way of doing it and making improvements," Naerebout said. "Manure is an amazing soil amendment. It does a lot of great things, but like all good things, if you overdo it, there are negatives with it, as well."

The state requires farmers who apply manure to their crops to sample and test soil to make certain phosphorus levels remain below 40 parts per million. Once nutrient levels reach that threshold, farmers may apply phosphorus only at levels needed for plant uptake.

"Our land around our farm is getting at those levels," Teunissen said.

With his modern separation process, Teunissen can remove more than 96 percent of solids from manure. He empties his 5,000-gallon manure tank into a concrete basin, where it's mixed with 10,000 gallons of water.

The slurry is pumped into a primary separator, where the largest solids are strained before it's pumped into a secondary separator. The liquid continuously re-circulates through a filter within the secondary separator until it's ready to be reused for blending with more manure or pumped to supplement the farm's irrigation system.

Teunissen explained that about 12.5 percent of manure is dry matter, which is easy to manage once it's removed from the liquid. Hauling the liquid along with solids for manure application is inefficient, Teunissen said.

Teunissen opened his Idaho dairy in June 2000, after moving from San Bernardino, Calif. As development swallowed more land in Southern California, Teunissen had to ship in feed from farther and farther away. He also had to transport manure long distances to apply on the closest remaining farm fields.

He found affordable land in Idaho for a new dairy and moved 1,400 cows from California.

"We had family in Idaho for 30 years already at that time," Teunissen said. "It became the most viable option."

His dairy has grown steadily since then. He sells all of his milk to the local Sorrento Lactalis, Inc., cheese plant.

Teunissen said his margins are thin, but he's managed to remain financially solvent, due in part to his philosophy of investing heavily in the health and comfort of his cows, which reward him with an abundance of high-quality milk. Finding a reliable pool of workers has been a challenge.

Many Idaho dairies are mechanizing their milking processes to shrink their labor forces. Teunissen plans to eventually mechanize his operation, but said he'll wait for a while longer, as the technology is progressing rapidly and machinery costs are steadily dropping.