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Mason Dixon Farms: Change Is Inevitable, Success Is Optional
| Location |
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania |
| Project Type |
Farm scale |
| Animal Type |
Dairy |
| Population |
2,200 head milking herd |
| Baseline System |
Anaerobic lagoon |
| Digester Type |
Horizontal plug flow (two plug flow digesters and one slurry-based loop digester) |
| System Designer |
Energy Cycle, Inc. and Mason Dixon Farms |
| Biogas Use |
Cogeneration |
| Generating Capacity |
Three 150-kW Caterpillar G342 |
| Receiving Utility |
Metropolitan Edison |
When Richard Waybright leads tours of Mason Dixon Farms, visitors frequently hear the farm's motto: "Change is inevitable, success is optional." For decades, visitors have clearly seen that Mason Dixon has embraced change and followed a path of innovation to success. For example, Mason Dixon Farms responded to the energy crisis of the late 1970s by exploring “cow power” to make the farm energy self-sufficient.
In 1979, Mason Dixon Farms began operating the first plug flow digester at a commercial farm. For over 25 years, the farm has produced enough electricity for the farm, with excess sold to the grid. Today, a total of three digesters produce biogas that fuels up to five engine-generator sets that reliably produce electricity in excess of 95 percent of the time.
Automatic scrapers push manure and bedding into collection pits. From there, manure is pumped into the three digesters. Heat recovered from the engines heats water that is circulated through the digester to increase biogas production, which is estimated to be 120,000 ft3/day. Excess heat is also used for home heat on the farm.
Mason Dixon Farm's digester project includes the following financial benefits:
- Increased revenue from the sale of electricity
- Composted manure is used as bedding material, saving bedding expense
- Sale of digester solids as soil amendment generates revenue
- Application of nutrient-rich slurry to over 3,000 acres of silage greatly decreases the need for commercial fertilizers and lime, and increases the crop yield on the irrigated land in dry periods
Our farm has been "cow powered" since 1979. Our cows not only provide the public with a healthy and wholesome product, they provide our farm with our electricity needs.
—Richard Waybright, President, Mason Dixon Farms (Quoted at Dairy Farming Today.org)
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