Lafayette Ag Stewardship Alliance members Jim, Katie and Mila DiGangi hosted a field day and tour at their farm, Darlington Ridge Farms. The DiGangis farm about 5,000 acres of land and milk about 4,000 cows three times a day in a double 40 stall parlor. All heifer calves are raised out of state and return to the farm shortly before calving. Their farm participates in multiple research projects, including a cover crop plot and rain fall simulator project in partnership with UW- Platteville.
Dr. Dennis Busch of UW-Platteville shared the cover crop plot layout and results from last year with attendees. Results demonstrate most runoff came from conventional tillage. More water was retained when cover crops were used and manure was kept in place better at higher seeding rates. In the future, this project will continue to grow and evolve to answer other research questions.
Darlington Ridge installed a manure digester as part of a project with Amp Americas. Andy Dvoracek, Amp Americas Vice President of Business Development, explained to the group how the digestor works. All the manure is owned by the farm, and the digester is just one more stop until the manure eventually makes it out to the fields to be used as nutrients for the crops. The digester is kept at 105 degrees Fahrenheit and runs around the clock. The manure stays in the digester for 15-18 days and is sent out to the lagoon. Inside, bacteria feeds on sugar in the manure and releases methane. The process of digestion allows the nitrogen in the manure to be more available to the crops when it is applied to the fields. The methane collected from this process is converted to natural gas and goes into an Alliant Energy pipeline. In the summer, enough gas is produced to provide for all of Belmont and half of the Platteville area, and in the winter, it provides for 75% of Belmont.
Thank you to all who attended!