Marilyn Hershey owns and operates an 800-cow dairy in Cochranville, Pennsylvania with her husband, Duane. Their farm was awarded the 2018 Farmers of the Year award for the installation of a cutting-edge methane digester technology on their farm, as well as for their strong advocacy work on behalf of the dairy industry both locally and nationwide.
Marilyn says the methane digester will capture the methane from the cow’s manure and it will convert it into electricity. She says it will convert enough electricity to run the electric needs of our farm and then also have some to put back on the grid.
Digesters are also used to create biofuel and not just electricity. Marilyn says it is a technology they have been able to implement on our farm and use to become more sustainable and last year the U.S. Dairy Industry set goals to be carbon neutral or better by the year 2050 and we are going to need new technology and new practices to be able to get there.
Marilyn says every farmer can do something on their farm to improve the soil quality, the water quality to improve the overall health of the cow and all of those coming together make us better farmers. She says it is something she and her husband look at their dairy operation every year and we say how can we leave this planet in a better place than we are now, and it is something ingrained in us to be better caretakers of the land.
For more information visit us.dairy.com/sustainability
