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VOLUME XVII, NO. 7 |
TEXAS DAIRY REVIEW |
JULY 2008 |
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Do taxpayers know why Waco keeps stirring the pot? Cow Power: Dublin welcomes new Microgy, Inc., plant CWT herd retirement is underway |
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Do taxpayers know why Waco keeps stirring the pot? |
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It is pretty clear the ongoing estrangement between the City of Waco and upstream North Bosque River dairies is not going to be laid to rest as long as Waco city administrators continue to come up with ironic and contradictory reports such as the new 1.8 million study conducted by Ken Wagner of ENSR. The study appears to be based on unsubstantial and invalid information and disregards scientific evidence while rehashing information long ago settled.
Environmental attorney Jim Bradbury last month pointed out the many sewage spills by the city that went directly into Lake Waco and the Brazos River. Bradbury said the $54,000 fine for two 2007 spills was nothing compared to the many spills in the past that should have been addressed and assessed a fine by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The Waco Tribune-Herald recently reported on Wagner’s study in an article written by J.B. Smith. One contradictory statement that especially catches the eye is, “despite the efforts of upstream dairies to remove manure from the watershed, the lake’s water taste and odor are still double the amount it needs to be.” If this is the case, upstream dairies should be shouting “hallelujah” since it clearly implies dairies are not the source of Waco’s water problem. Yet, the report goes on to say, “the key to fixing the problem lies with Erath County dairies which account for some 55 percent of Lake Waco’s phosphorus.” Such contradiction and irony in a 1,000 page million dollar study points to unrealistic and unbelievable information. But, Waco officials got what they wanted and paid an exorbitant price for it. Unfortunately, they apparently assume their taxpayers will believe such garbage while the world beyond Waco would find good reason to laugh. How long it is going to be before Waco taxpayers wake up to the fact their hard-earned dollars are being spent frivolously to satisfy the needs of a small-minded band of city officials who apparently have just as little regard for their taxpayers as for the dairy industry. After years of going through the same mish-mash and propaganda promulgated by the City of Waco, it is a mystery as to why City Manager Larry Groth and Assistant City Manager Wiley Stem continue to carry out the efforts invented years ago by former mayor Linda Etheridge. Etheridge initiated the crusade against the dairies, persistently blaming them for the city’s bad tasting and smelly water of which the main source comes from Lake Waco. She made blatant accusations never backed up by scientific fact or evidence and even went so far as to sue the dairy industry that resulted in a settlement. Still, her puppets continue to perform where she left off and that alone is worthy of an investigation into the matter. Waco taxpayers paid dearly for Etheridge’s unwarranted efforts and they are still paying for the fruitless efforts of Groth and Stem with no end in mind. They need to find out the overall purpose of the Wagner study. The truth of the matter may be quite surprising. The remaining North Bosque River dairies are solid. They have “dug in” and do not intend to let Waco city officials determine their future. This is their home and they like it. The games and tactics the city has initiated has stalled the permitting process but the dairies are performing their duties by state and federal regulations. Sooner or later, that must win out over falsehoods created by the likes of Wagner’s study and Waco city officials. |
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Cow Power: Dublin welcomes new Microgy, Inc., plant |
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Dairy cows are such common creatures to Erath County that most people take them for granted to perform their intended purpose of eating, drinking, and producing milk. No doubt, this natural process produces mounds of manure considered by many to be the downside of dairy operations. In the past few years, however, manure has taken a turn for the better and, in fact, is a valuable resource to Microgy, Inc., for making renewal natural gas (RNG). Because of the tons of dairy manure produced in Central Texas, Microgy chose Dublin, Texas, as the new home for their second RNG plant in Erath County. Last year they completed Huckabay Ridge located 10 miles north of Stephenville.
At a recent groundbreaking, Dublin officials turned out to grant a warm welcome to Microgy representatives and to express their appreciation for the company’s selection of Dublin for the new plant site. The Microgy plant, a subsidiary of Environmental Power, will be located at the former Rio Leche Dairy called Rio Leche Estates. Karen Wright, executive director of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce; Sandy Reed, executive director of the Dublin Economic Development Corp.; and Jerry Guillory, Dublin City Manager, agree the state-of-the art facility will be a great benefit to the City of Dublin, the surrounding community, and to area dairymen. “If ever there is a win-win, it’s when an industry can produce a pipeline-ready bio-fuel from an undesirable by-product of a major industry. The removal of manure has been costly and troublesome for the dairies of Erath County. Now, manure can be transformed into a commodity which helps meet increasing energy demands.”
Reed and Wright both said Microgy would bring
new jobs to the Dublin area, boosting the economy. “Having toured their facility at Huckabay, we have every reason to believe this new plant will be a good neighbor to our community,” Wright said. At the groundbreaking ceremony, Guillory expressed his pleasure for the new plant and his resolve to accommodate Microgy representatives in every possible way. “I’m always glad to see people do something with manure besides stir it or sling it,” he said. Although the facility site is currently located outside the city limits, Guillory said the city would annex the area. “I’m going out there and get it,” he said. Guillory said the city is looking forward to an economic boost provided by the many resources from the building stage of the plant to its final existence. The plant will generate methane-rich biogas from manure and other agricultural waste, condition it to natural gas standards, and distribute it through a commercial pipeline. The purified biogas is Microgy’s branded, renewable, pipeline-quality methane product. Rio Leche will be similar in size and configuration to Huckabay Ridge, processing the waste from approximately 10,000 dairy cows per day and other food industry waste. Microgy estimates cows produce 120 pounds of manure individually daily that together generates 219 tons of manure per year. The plant will operate 365 days per year. The company will incorporate some improvements over previous designs including six larger digester tanks and a mechanical gas conditioning system to extract methane-rich biogas from waste. Anaerobic digestion changes the composition of manure, creating fertilizer and other useful products. The facility will produce energy that is cost-effective, clean, reliable, and domestic. Microgy expects that once completed, Rio Leche will supply enough pipe-line grade RNG annually to heat approximately 11,000 homes. |
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CWT herd retirement is underway |
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While the June 30 deadline for the Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) herd retirement program has passed, producers now anxiously await news of the outcome for accepted bids. This is the fifth herd retirement conducted since CWT began operations in the summer of 2003. It is the first that will offer bidding producers the option of including all their bred heifers, for a flat fee of $1,050 per animal. Producers get to keep the slaughter value of the animals as well. Unlike past herd retirements, regional safeguard limits will not be utilized and, therefore, CWT bidders will not be competing regionally, but nationally. Through the herd retirement program, if a farmer’s bid is accepted, CWT pays that farmer for the volume of milk produced by that herd in a 12 month period. The farmer is responsible for selling the cows for slaughter, and retains the proceeds from that transaction. It is not surprising producers are taking advantage of the CWT herd retirement in this most recent “buy-out” effort. Continued increases in production costs consistently have eroded dairy farmers’ margins making it impossible for many of them to stay in business. Depending on what the bidding outcome brings, some will gladly say farwell to the industry and look forward to the cow removal process starting toward the end of July. "All of the economic indicators and benchmarks that guide CWT’s decisions, including farmers’ cost of production, show that now is the appropriate time for us to initiate this herd retirement,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF, which manages CWT. “In particular,” Kozak continued, “significantly higher feed and energy costs have put dairy farmers between a financial rock and a hard place.” All dairy producers submitting bids to sell their herds must have been members of CWT as of January 2008, either through their membership in a fully participating cooperative, or as an independent member of CWT. Bids will be reviewed in early July, with field auditors proceeding after mid-July to visit each accepted farm to begin the cow removal process. CWT has no set number as far as how many pounds of milk, cows, or herds will be removed. “The final tally will be determined by the quality and quantity of the bids,” Kozak said. “As always, we will operate CWT in a cost-effective and frugal manner.” As in the past, any producer who had a bid accepted in any of the previous herd retirements is not eligible to participate again. Also, those producers who have a financial interest in more than one dairy farming operation must include all their cows on all operations in their bid. A producer cannot place a bid for just one herd if he/she has an interest in multiple operations. |
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Texas Dairy Review Gets Face Lift |
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Dear Readers: No, I'm not the one getting a face lift (even though that’s an entertaining yet staggering thought) but the Texas Dairy Review, is. Within the next few months, the Texas Dairy Review, (among other improvements) will be undergoing cosmetic changes to make the publication more aesthetically appealing. When the Texas Dairy Review was born more than 17 years ago, obviously, it was not intended to win a beauty contest but instead initiated as a “much-needed” publication to promote and support the dairy industry. I never gave much thought to its looks then, or now, until recently. The Texas Dairy Review, plain, simple, and homely (like our beloved dairy cows) is "my child” and comparatively speaking, like ‘having a baby every month." Over the last 17 years, this “so-called labor of love” has done its job to serve the industry by focusing on dairy news, technology, the milk market, features, and the continuing saga of Waco. I simply have not had time to worry about how it looks on the outside since I’ve been more committed to what is on the inside Over the years, it has become an understood fact within the industry that the Texas Dairy Review’s (bless it's little heart) place in dairy society has primarily been to occupy the bathroom---kind of like the Sears & Roebuck catalog... (I prefer to think it is being read--- instead of the alternative.) For whatever novel purpose---the very most I can ask for is that perhaps the new face lift will promote it out of the bathroom and onto the coffee table where it will lay side by side with other manure publications. The inevitable is knocking at my door with new and innovative printing technology that requires the Texas Dairy Review to grow up and into the 21st century. We hope our readers and advertisers will bear with us during our face lift experience (and experiment.) As always, we promise to provide them with pertinent dairy industry information. The current July edition is shorter in length than usual as a requirement to conform to standards recently adopted by our printing company, the Brownwood Bulletin. Copy space has been revised but ad space will remain the same and unaffected by these changes. In the near future, we hope to offer our advertisers full color and additional incentives. We sincerely hope our new endeavor will bring to our readers a brighter and more creative publication and provide a greater benefit to our advertisers. Please bear with us during this transition period. Thank you for your kind patience. Hope to see you on the coffee table. Sincerely, Sherry Webb, publisher |
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Air Force Staff Sergeant fulfills Iraq duty |
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Although much of the American public is undecided as to whether or not US military troops should be in Iraq, Tonya Nettles of Dublin, Texas, does not falter when sharing her own personal view. “We need to be there,” she said plainly, while packing her belongings to leave for Iraq on a 6-month tour of duty at the end of June.
Tonya, 32,a Staff Sergeant in the US Air Force, said telling friends and family goodbye was hard but leaving her 11-year-old son, James, would be the toughest. James, who was only a baby when Tonya joined the Air Force more than nine years ago is conditioned to a military lifestyle. But, he’s looking forward to his own new experience that includes living with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Jim Bagley of Dublin, which eases the situation. Although concerned deeply about his feelings regarding her overseas tour, Tonya was happy and proud James has a good attitude about the event and is excited about staying with her parents. “He just said, ‘go for it. We’ll handle it,’ ” Tonya said. Tonya said she is very fortunate her parents are willing and able to take on the responsibility for her son while she’s gone. As a single mother, Tonya chose to join the Air Force because it provided a good opportunity for her to support her son without becoming a government statistic on welfare. “I knew I needed a secure and stable job that offered good healthcare and other benefits,” she said. When Tonya joined the Air Force, she was aware she might someday be required to spend time in Iraq. That day came earlier this year. “I found out in February that I would be leaving for Iraq at the end of June.” As well as training in her own field of interest, she went through combat training conducted by the US Army and was also briefed on the Iraqi situation. She is in business finance and is to be stationed in the Green Zone of Iraq where there is a minimal amount of danger. Tonya feels strongly about supporting the troops in Iraq. “I think we need to be there and finish what we started,” she said. “The main thing for me to do while over there is to pay attention and stay alert at all times.” During her Air Force career, Tonya was at Dyess AFB in Abilene, Hickman AFB in Honolulu, Hawaii; and Davis Montham AFB in Tucson, Arizona, where she was stationed before deploying to Iraq. She graduated from Barttlett High School near Austin and moved to Dublin in 1990. “I’m excited, nervous, but ready to go,” Tonya said. |
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