Homestead mailing list

[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

The last sentence of the article from the farmer : “It’s a strange world when 
poop is more valuable than milk.” 

----------------------------------------------------------------------



Town Green


>From Tons of Manure, a Growth Industry 

 Wendy Carlson for The New York Times

THE PRODUCERS Matt Freund, above, and his brother turned manure at their farm 
into flowerpots. 

GERRI HIRSHEY

Published: February 26, 2009 

IN almost-spring, as itchy gardeners drag out grow lights and seed-starting 
flats, it seems a fitting moment to trace the germ of a new and very green 
gardening idea. It first took root beside a reeking, unspeakable lagoon in 
the northwest corner of Connecticut and is blossoming sweetly nationwide. 
Kindly summon a gardener’s tolerance for earthy subject matter as this gritty 
tale unfolds:

More than a decade ago — she thinks it was in 1998 — Jane Slupecki, a 
marketing representative for the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, took 
a group of Litchfield County dairy farmers to a brainstorming dinner at a 
lovely lakeside inn there. Her agency had a small grant to try to find 
possible solutions to a big, stinky problem. 

“Cow manure,” Ms. Slupecki recalls. “Endless tons of it. We were concerned 
about how farmers returned manure nutrients to their fields, and how we could 
prevent runoff of excess nitrogen and phosphorus into watersheds.” Since 
farms in riparian areas were of particular concern, most of the dairymen 
invited to dinner were grazing cows near the Blackberry River, which in turn 
feeds the mighty Housatonic. Their hostess remembers it as “just a lovely 
dinner,” but we will spare the reader the technical points of the 
conversation. 

“Cow poop is cow poop,” admits Ms. Slupecki, who was feeling some frustration 
at the paucity of workable suggestions by the time they reached dessert and 
coffee. Half in jest, she blurted, “Can’t you guys do something with this 
stuff — make a flowerpot or something?”

Those were fateful words for brothers Ben and Matthew Freund, 
second-generation dairy farmers who at the time maintained a herd of 225 
Holsteins in East Canaan. Each cow produces 120 pounds of manure daily. Why 
not grow flowers and tomatoes from cow flops? It took eight years’ 
development, a $72,000 federal grant secured through Connecticut’s 
Agricultural Businesses Cluster, and countless grim experiments. Now their 
manure-based CowPots — biodegradable seed-starting containers — are being 
made on the farm and sold to commercial and backyard growers who prefer their 
advantages over plastic pots.

Molded of dried, deodorized manure fibers, CowPots hold water well, last for 
months in a greenhouse and can then be planted directly into the ground, 
sparing the seedling transplant shock and letting tender new roots penetrate 
easily. As the pots decompose, they continue to fertilize the plant and 
attract beneficial worms. 

According to Matthew Freund, CowPots are the natural evolution of the 
family’s farming philosophy. Their father, Eugene, who died in late 2008, was 
a graduate of Cornell University’s veterinary school and had been committed 
to sound environmental practices since beginning dairy farming in 1949. At 
the time of Ms. Slupecki’s dinner, the Freunds already had a methane digester 
to process manure, built in part with a government grant. Beginning in 1997, 
theirs has been one of the rare farms in the United States continually 
extracting methane gas from cow manure in a digester. The methane can power a 
generator to save electricity costs, and the digester also removes the most 
pungent odors. 

“With a small herd like we have now, 250 cows, there’s not a lot of monetary 
payback from it,” Mr. Freund says. “But it heats our house, gives us hot 
water and lets us heat the manure, making it easier to pump.” While the 
digester does not reduce the nutrient load, it makes the waste easier to 
manage in accordance with requirements of the 1972 Clean Water Act. Shipping 
off the solids as CowPots certainly helps. “We’re in compliance,” Mr. Freund 
says. “But a lot of guys are in trouble.” 

The cows’ byproduct is bulldozed daily, transported and forced through a 
chamber with an auger that separates solids and liquids. “The digester tank 
is 100 degrees, the same temperature as a cow’s stomach,” Mr. Freund says.

The liquid fertilizer is stored in an 800,000 gallon holding pond for use on 
the fields. Taking Ms. Slupecki’s suggestion to heart, Mr. Freund addressed 
the mountains of fibrous, grainy-smelling solids. His early experiments — 
shaping pots of dried manure and Elmer’s Glue, then baking them in his wife 
Theresa’s toaster oven — were hardly marriage-enhancing. “O.K., she couldn’t 
use the oven anymore. But she was all for it. She’s a farm girl herself. 
We’re conservative and cheap, and make do with what we have.”

The first marketable CowPots were produced by hand in December 2007 for the 
2008 growing season. Now the process is mechanized, the patent is pending and 
the Freunds have offloaded what Mr. Freund calls “the really hard jobs” — 
marketing and distribution — to the Liquid Fence Company, makers of 
all-natural animal and insect repellents. 

The Freunds have green dreams far beyond CowPots, though most are too 
proprietary to divulge. Just one? “Think about golf tees made of composted 
manure that fertilize greens when discarded.” With other local dairymen, they 
are looking into the feasibility of a cooperative venture to combine the 
methane gas produced by 2,500 cows on three farms to contribute to the power 
grid. “By our calculations, we could deliver three megawatts and light the 
town of Canaan,” Mr. Freund says. “It would be a lot of fun.”

He only hopes that he and his neighboring farmers can last in their primary 
business. Nationwide, dairy farmers are struggling as never before. As 
exports have plunged and financially ailing Americans buy less milk, prices 
set by the commodities market have been in free fall. Already, herds are 
being auctioned off throughout the country. 

Last June, milk was selling for nearly $20 a hundredweight. Mr. Freund 
expects that to drop to $12 by next year — far less than farmers’ expenses to 
bring milk to market. He says that the Agriculture Department’s 
cost-of-production calculations average $26 per hundredweight in New England 
states. Though he is pleased with the modest success of his value-added 
product, he muses, “It’s a strange world when poop is more valuable than 
milk.” 

E-mail: conn AT nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/nyregion/connecticut/0301colct.html?em