As with any vendor on a dairy farm, companies and organizations that help farms install and run manure digesters have to approach the challenges and opportunities presented with a common mindset. During the August 18 Hoard’s Dairyman DairyLivestream, Goodrich Family Farm’s Danielle Goodrich Gingras described the benefits her operation’s manure digester team had brought to the farm.
“As soon as we started having these conversations, we knew we were part of something special,” she said. “You have to work with people that you are comfortable with, and I think that as soon as we started these conversations with Vermont Gas, Vangaurd Renewables, and Middlebury College, we immediately were comfortable and confident with our partners.”
Those partners helped her and her brother, who together own their 900-cow dairy, ideate and bring to reality a manure digester, which now captures methane and also provides bedding and fertilizer for the farm.
“I think that was really important for us that we knew we respected and trusted our partners,” Goodrich Gingras commented. “Recently, Neale Lunderville, the CEO of Vermont Gas, said that homegrown energy is made in coveralls and mud-caked boots. I think from a farmer’s standpoint, working with someone that understood us that well and was also willing to get his boots a little dirty, we knew that we were working with the right people and that this was a right fit.”
Make it work for your dairy
During the webcast, Newtrient’s chief operating officer Mark Stoermann also commented on the importance of working with a good team.
“The key takeaway is that you need to find something that is going to work for you as a dairy,” he shared. “Work with those people that you’re comfortable with in a way that exemplifies good communication and that you both value the participation and the expertise of the other entities that are getting this project done.”
To watch the recording of the August 18 DairyLivestream, go to the link above. The program recording is now also available as an audio-only podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and downloadable from the Hoard’s Dairyman website.
An ongoing series of events
The next broadcast of DairyLivestream will be on Wednesday, September 15 at 11 a.m. CDT. Each episode is designed for panelists to answer over 30 minutes of audience questions. If you haven’t joined a DairyLivestream broadcast yet, register here for free. Registering once registers you for all future events.
