BIOCYCLE REFOR17 INSIGHTS: Farm Digester Developments

Several focused on the agricultural digester sector, including a national overview presented by Nick Elger, U.S. EPA AgSTAR Program Manager, and a West Coast state overview presented by Jenny Lester Moffitt, Deputy Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Prairie's Edge was among the first on-farm anaerobic digesters in the U.S. to upgrade it biogas into compressed renewable natural gas (RNG) vehicle fuel, which is used for its fleet of 42 tractortrailers hauling milk to processing facilities. There are 1.7 million milking cows on 1,400 dairies, with an average herd size of 1,215. * SB 1383, signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in September 2016, requires a reduction in dairy and livestock methane emissions (short-lived climate pollutants) by 40 percent from 2013 levels by 2030. * Approximately 91 percent of the state's dairy cows and more than 80 percent of dairies are in the Central Valley (primarily freestall barns with flush systems or drylots); 5.6 percent are in southern California (primarily on drylots), and 3 percent are in the North Coast region (primarily on pasture).