Four years ago, dairy farmer Jay Richardson and his wife, Kristi – owners of Son-Bow Farms in Northwest Wisconsin – sat down for a heart-to-heart to discuss the future of their business.

Earthworms eat biological material in the soil to survive. Now, their abilities are being put to work by a company called BioFiltro. They are used in a controlled environment to clean liquid manure waste streams in a matter of hours where it would otherwise have taken weeks.

Clinton, IA – While doing a follow-up check on manure application just north of Clinton on September 12, an official with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources found manure in a tributary of Silver Creek flowing into Silver Creek and about three miles to the Mississippi River. The manure came…

Green Bay, WI - State, county and Oneida Nation staff are responding to a large manure spill causing a fish kill in Silver Creek on the Oneida reservation about four miles west of Ashwaubenon. The spill occurred on a dairy farm located west of the Outagamie-Brown county line. It was…

Dirty cows have a negative impact on milk quality, including greater chances of getting mastitis and a high somatic cell count. Dirty cows usually mean a dirty tail, and dirty tails can come from dirty stalls. Since the ban on tail docking of dairy cattle, managing manure for cow hygiene…

A new, state-of-the-art system for managing dairy manure with an all-mechanical separation process in operation at Son-Bow Farms near Spring Valley is sure to be of interest when dairy producers from throughout the region hit the road mid-July, for the Wisconsin Dairy Tours.Son-Bow Farms, which milks 1,300 cows and operates…

In the summer 2017, the family-owned and operated Dukestead Acres dairy farm, located outside of Abbotsford, Wisc., wanted to add onto their milk barn.

Sharon, Wisconsin – AQUA Innovations is proud to announce Son-Bow Farms as the first farm in Wisconsin to install its fully commercialized NuWay nutrient concentration system. The company has had systems running in other states, such as Oregon, for nearly eight years.The AQUA Innovations NuWay nutrient concentration system eases the…

Farmers and manure managers in North America have known for years that phosphorus is a huge concern, but solutions for handling this nutrient have not come easy. Hauling manure away to locations where fields aren’t already saturated isn’t always practical or cost-effective.

February 15, 2018, Tillamook, OR – An Oregon dairy has been fined $16,800 for a massive manure spill that shut down Tillamook Bay last spring. About 190,000 gallons of liquid manure were released from an above-ground storage tank at the dairy operation on April 12, 2017, the Oregon Department of Agriculture…

February 1, 2018, Sacramento, CA – The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has awarded $9.64 million in grant funding to 17 alternative manure management projects across the state. These projects, part of the Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP), will reduce greenhouse gas emissions on California dairy farms and…

January 23, 2018, Auburn, NY – A manure overflow in the town of Venice, NY, impacted Salmon Creek earlier this month, but it was not seen in Cayuga Lake, nor did it affect residents' water supplies, according to state and local officials. The NY Department of Environmental Conservation said it…

January 22, 2018, Madison, WI – The University of Wisconsin-Extension and the Department of Natural Resources are co-hosting a series of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) update meetings throughout Wisconsin in early February. The meetings are specifically designed for WPDES permitted CAFO owners/managers, producers considering expansion, nutrient management plan writers…

January 18, 2018, Kewaunee, WI – Kewaunee County officials Jan. 16 declined to pursue a moratorium on dairy herd expansion, saying it could hamper recent progress toward groundwater protection. Corporation Counsel Jeff Wisnicky told the county Land & Water Conservation Committee that enforcement of regulations on manure land-spreading is better…

January 17, 2018, Salem, OR – How did a Salem-area dairy rack up dozens of environmental violations over 15 years without the public knowing anything about it? That’s what attendees at a public hearing on a new permit for the dairy asked the Oregon Department of Agriculture Jan. 10. READ…