This fact sheet authored by Lauren Ray, Dairy Environmental Systems, was shared in the January 2024 PRO-DAIRY e-Leader newsletter distributed to an email list of nearly 7,000 dairy producers, agriservice, and legislators.
Dairy farms considering or already using anaerobic digestion (AD) of their manure have to account for the digestate effluent in their nutrient management planning. Impacts to volume of digester effluent compared to influent, digestate nutrient composition and remaining volatile solids that can convert to methane, are described in this manure storage and application fact sheet. The option of using an impermeable cover and flare system on digestate long-term storage eliminates precipitation volume and can yield additional carbon credits or value from the digester operation. This fact sheet provides an overview, and case study materials will be available soon.
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