Anaerobic Digestion at Sheland Farms, Inc.

Sheland Farms is located in the town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County, NY. The farm is a fourth generation family farm operated by Donald, Douglas, and Todd Shelmidine. The farm property has been in the family for over 100 years and has grown significantly from 50 milking cows in 1963, to 650 total dairy cows at the present time. Cows are housed in one 6-row and one 4-row freestall barn and are milked three-times-a-day. Digester effluent is recycled to a land base of 1,100 acres, used to raise forage crops. Lactating cows and heifers are fed Rumensin® Copper Sulfate is used in two footbaths, one located in the dry cow pen and the other in the springing heifer pen. Considerable time was spent identifying, investigating, and responding to multiple financial grant opportunities. After receiving grant funds from several sources, digester construction began the fall of 2005 with commissioning in the summer of 2007. A flow diagram for the digester is shown on the following page