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MI dairies decommission manure storage areas

October 21, 2014 – Milk Source LLC has decommissioned multiple manure storage areas since acquiring dairies in Hillsdale and Lenawee counties in Michigan, company officials report.

At the Hudson Dairy:

• One manure storage area has been decommissioned and the site now is occupied by a new recycling/sand-separation facility.
• The former compost stacking area has been sanitized, concrete has been poured and it has been turned into a feed piling site.
• One of the largest manure storage areas has been emptied and the decommissioning process will be completed in 2015.
• The decommissioned areas represent nearly half of the on-site manure storage sites.

At the Medina Dairy:

• Three separate manure storage areas have been decommissioned.
• A fourth is scheduled for the process in 2015.
• Only three storage areas remain, one of which is used for storm water.
• A recycling/sand-separation facility has been added to the facility.

“We continue to seek strategies and tools that will allow our dairies to operate in the most environmentally sustainable and responsible way,” said Jim Ostrom, Milk Source co-partner.

In September, Milk Source was named one of three finalists for the prestigious 2014 Wisconsin Leopold Conservation Award in recognition of the company’s efforts to pursue integrate greater sustainability in modern agriculture. The company’s investments in Michigan — including plans to use a Livestock Water Recycling (LWR) system at the Hudson Dairy — were among the factors the judges took into consideration.

The former storage sites — whether decommissioned or in the process of decommissioning — will eventually be re-established back into farmland.