7-13 IAN Dairy Solar Water Heating

 Even though there’s a lot of gloom and doom in the dairy industry right now, there can be some bright spots if you open your mind up to technology. Here’s a thought…solar panels! Not to produce electricity, but to produce hot water. I’m David Sparks and I’ll be right back with the story. Things have been so bad in the dairy industry for so long due to low prices, that Idaho’s congressional delegation has joined other members of Congress has jumped in to ask members of the Obama Administration to do something about what many feel to be a one-sided international deal known as the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Another way to help the dairy business is to reduce input costs and Mike Garner at Webb Farms has an intriguing idea. “Thermal solar is extracting heat, we’re not making electricity, we’re collecting heat and heating water. We use a lot of water at our calf facility for mixing milk. We feed about 1200 calves a day, twice a day. Then we have all the wash up and sterilization of the bottles twice a day as well. Propane just keeps going up and with the 30% federal rebate on solar, it’s making this project economically feasible to do.