Haubenschild Farms Extends Sustainability

Photo: Haubenschild Farms

In 1952, the Haubenschild family farm began with two cows and no electricity. Today, the farm's 850 head milking herd generates enough electricity to meet the farm’s needs, plus the farm sells enough excess electricity to power the equivalent of 70 homes. With a mission to be a sustainable, environmentally friendly farm, Haubenschild has become a leader in agricultural sustainability in the United States. The farm recently became one of first dairies in the country to sell carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange.

Built in 1999 as an AgSTAR Charter Farm, the 350,000 gallon plug-flow anaerobic digester generates biogas from manure and four tons per week of newspaper that is used as animal bedding. Bedding and manure are scraped to the digester, where the biogas produced is then used to fuel a 135 kW engine-generator set. Regular maintenance on the engine-generator set has ensured greater than 96 percent operating availability since startup.

Haubenschild Farm's digester includes the following financial benefits:

• A reduction in the cost of heating hot water and the milking center by capture and use of waste heat from the engine-generator set
• Increased revenue from the sale of carbon credits
• Sale of digester solids to other farms for soil amendment generates revenue

In a four-year Minnesota Project study, the farm partnered with the University of Minnesota and others to study the economics and benefits of digesters and to educate farmers. The farm’s digester, generator, and associated operations serve as a model for renewable energy development according to the University of Minnesota and East Central Energy. East Central Energy welcomes biogas energy as a low cost renewable energy for their green energy program.

Today, the farm continues to demonstrate leadership and innovation. In 2005, Dennis Haubenschild and a team of researchers celebrated being the first to intermittently run a small fuel cell (5 kW) using biogas from animal manure. Researchers have found that fuel cell emissions are essentially undetectable when operated using biogas.

Sustainability in agriculture is achieved by using all of Mother Nature's tools.
—Dennis Haubenschild, Haubenschild Farms

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