The Bakerview EcoDairy is committed to the development of sustainable and innovative farm practices. We are conscious of reducing our carbon footprint and staying in tune with the natural concerns of our animals.
Initiatives that demonstrate our commitment to innovation and sustainability include:
Robotic milker
We’ve employed DeLaval’s voluntary milking system that offers farmers a way of life not commonly found using traditional milking methods. This innovation allows farming families time away from a stringent daily milking schedule, freeing them up to invest time in other tasks.
The Robotic Milker also provides better milking hygiene through an automated process that cleans and dries the cow’s teats before milking, automatic floor cleaning, cups rinsed upside down between each cow, and teat rinsing before re-attachment.
The cows decide when they want to be milked and adapt relative to their stage of lactation. Each quarter of the udder is milked according to milk volume, and udder health is monitored by the robot at each milking. It’s sort of like a self-serve pumping station on demand. Better for the cows and better for the farmer!
Anaerobic digester
An ingenious system of renewable energy! We’ve teamed up with AVATAR Energy of Vermont to recycle our cows' manure to power the farm. AVATAR is dedicated to increasing profitability and sustainability of agriculture, capturing renewable energy, and protecting the environment. They’ve developed the world’s first anaerobic digester to employ a scalable, modular design platform, geared particularly to small and mid-sized farms of 100 to 500 cows.
Over a 21 day period, the system takes the cows' manure, heats it, and collects methane gas (biogas). The biogas is then burned by a generator to create electricity to power buildings and equipment. In the case of the Bakerview EcoDairy, it will provide enough power to offset a portion of the site’s electricity and natural gas needs.
The digester is also equipped with a unique trickling filter system, which helps convert ammonia to nitrate and cost effectively removes NPK from the liquid effluent. This process helps reduce ammonia loss to the environment and provides a nutrient management solution. It also removes any odour! By-products of the system are a soft fiber which we use for the cows’ bedding and a condensed liquid organic fertilizer that can be used for crops and gardens.