04/14/05 Idaho`s first commercial methane digester

You'll find some of the latest technology at the Whitesides Dairy north of Rupert. Brothers Steve and Brent Whitesides know everything there is to know about each of their four thousand cows from its birth to the amount of milk she give a few minutes ago. Brent said they saw what Intrepid Technologies was proposing as a better way to handle a major concern. WHITESIDES "We have a challenge with our liquid manure. Liquid manure does not stack or is very difficult to haul. We have a machine, a low vacuum machine they call it, that can actually vacuum up the liquid but they you have to be able to go somewhere with it." That somewhere is now a loading ramp that drains into a 13-foot deep tank. From there the manure and water is feed into the digester that consists of two tanks, each 32 feet tall, each operating at 100 degree temperatures and using nature's bacteria. FRAZEE "They start to break down that manure just like we're breaking down food in the body. We're breaking that down into fundamental building blocks like methane, water and carbon dioxide." Intrepid's Brad Frazee says the methane that his company will capture and sell will help them recoup the cost of the digester. He's won't say what it cost to build the digester but many industry experts put the cost between 500 and 600 dollars per animal. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott