Farmer Spotlight >Pete Wright
Cow Power Lights Up 30 Homes Every Month
| Pete Wright |
Georgia |
3,500 |
Over the last 74 years, four generations of the Wright family have been farming – initially in Florida, and now in the Baxley area of Appling County, Georgia.
In 1935, my father established the Wright Family Farm in Nassau County, Florida. Today, I work under the Wright Family name with my two sons, Billy and Levi. Each day my family and I work to maintain nearly 2,400 acres of land, while also caring for more than 3,500 cows at three locations. As dairy farmers, we have a great responsibility to conserve the land and resources we use every day. To fulfill this responsibility, we have spent the last five years using a newly developed and environmentally friendly farming process that some refer to as “cow power.”
Five years ago we purchased a methane digester, which enables us to compress 880,000 gallons of manure into reusable resources every 21 days. Through this process, solids in the manure are converted into fresh, organism-free cow bedding; liquids are turned into 70 percent nutrient soluble water for plants. The remains left in the digester are methane gas, which is recycled to energy companies, which then convert the methane into green energy. This allows us to provide enough reusable energy to power our dairy and 30 homes each month!
The use of the digester allows us to give back to the community and to recycle resources for multiple uses, expanding its value beyond natural fertilizer. With the use of this technology, 100 percent of our manure is used to benefit crops, cows and people.
We hope to enhance our green initiatives in the future by expanding our community outreach efforts. We are working on a project with the Coffee County Development Authority, located in Douglas, Georgia, to purchase used grease and food scraps that we can convert into methane with the use of the digester – this keeps these materials from entering a landfill.
As a dairy farmer, my top priority is to ensure our on-farm practices are safe for the animals, consumers and the environment. I want to make sure the work I do today helps preserve the land for future generations to come.
