Who is Alliance Dairies? Established 1990 Co-owned by William Sandy McArthur & Ron St. John Permit allows 8,750 mature cows; currently have 6,300 mature cows Manage 6,088 acres including 3,719 acres of cropland
What is Alliance Dairies? First permitted dairy in north Florida Operate under a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan Industrial Wastewater Permit through Florida Department of Environmental Protection Agency Employ over 120 people Family farm: Employees are assets, not expenses Outside crew responsible for all planting and harvesting, equipment repairs and maintenance, construction and manure management Herd crew responsible for raising all heifer replacements, reproduction and animal surgeries
Large Part of the Local Community
Alliance Dairies NPDES Permit Permitted for: 6750 Lactating Cows 1700 Dry Cows 300 Springers 6252 Heifers Nutrient Management Plan Required Manure Management System Design Complete Nutrient Balance for Croplands Higher Environmental Control than Municipal WWT and any other Agricultural Operations
NPDES Permit Requirements Daily Record Keeping Animal Numbers, Purchased Commodities, Milk Yields Applied Effluent & Fertilizers by Field Crop Yield Data Water Use Equipment Maintenance Quarterly Reporting Groundwater Monitoring Data Harvested Crop Nutrients by Field Nutrients Applied by Field Net Nutrient Balance by Field Nutrient Transported off Dairy Number of Animals on Dairy Potential Penalties $10,000/day for being out of compliance
Alliance Housing Barn, Parlors, and Wastewater Management System Freestall Barn Freestall Barn GenSet Methane Digester Recycle Pit Screens Waste Storage Pond Milk Parlor 1 Composted Solids Solids Storage Irrigation Pumps Sand Lane Freestall Barn Freestall Barn Freestall Barn Freestall Barn Freestall Barn
State of Art Waste Management System
Nutrient Balance
Recent Innovative Projects Biogas/Methane Digester Electrical Power and Odor Control High Efficiency Irrigation Reduces Nitrate Loads to Groundwater by about 25% Nitrate Mitigation Project Interceptor Wells for Reuse Nitrate Striping Bioreactor May Virtually Eliminate Nitrates to Groundwater Connect Hilltop Dry Cow Barns to Alliance s Waste Management System Improves Nutrient Utilization by Crops, thus Reducing Ground Water Losses Integrity Composting for Animal Bedding & Sale
Alliance The Power Dairies of Biogas Digestion Digester
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Alliance s DVO Digester 1,000 kilowatt generator Capable of producing power for 425 homes 1.5 times the size of a football field 6,777,600 gallon capacity Daily volume of 450,000 500,000 gallons DVO s Mixed Plug Flow Digester
Benefits of Anaerobic Digesters Reduces odor Reduce GHG emissions Can help to remove nutrients from farm Composts manure bio-solids to use as a soil amendment or bedding (revenue) Generates electricity/biofuels from biogas (revenue)
Biological Processes Do the Work Anaerobic digestion is a series of biological processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen and release methane and CO2 as a by product.
Biological Processes Biogas CO 2 Methane Effluent Manure Bacterial Hydrolysis Acidogenic Bacteria Acetogenic Bacteria Methanogens Ammonia Organic Acids
View Facing Gen-Set Building Looking into the Digester at Heat Exchangers
Guns to Drops Nozzles Old Guns Pivot Lower Pressure Less Energy Greater Uniformity Less Nitrate Leaching Requires Fine Screens New Drop Nozzles Pivot
Nitrate Mitigation for Agricultural Fields Existing Condition Farm Boundary Farm Boundary Sprayfield or Irrigated Vegetables HIA Pasture Leaching Nitrate Leaching Nitrate Groundwater Table Water Table Mound Native Groundwater Flow Condition Nitrate Plume in Surficial Aquifer
Farm Boundary Conceptual Groundwater Nitrate Mitigation System Denitrification Bioreactor High Sprayfield Nitrate or Water Irrigated Used Row for Irrigation Crops Farm Boundary HIA Pasture Recharge/ Infiltration Ditch Leaching Nitrate Leaching Nitrate
Denitrification Bioreactor Plastic Cover (prevents evaporation, warms matrix, but vents N 2 ) N 2 Gas Ponded Water N 2 Gas Outflow Denitrification Matrix Gravel GS Inflow Manifold Perforated Drainpipes
Hilltop to Alliance Pipelines Better Nutrient Utilization for Less Nitrate Leaching Additional Manure to Fuel Biogas Digester
Solids Composting Animal Bedding Sand bedding is major maintenance issue Marketable Product Added revenue Nutrients removal from dairy