Vermont farm getting power from cows

BRIDPORT, Vt. (AP) – The cows at the Audet family’s Blue Spruce Farm make nearly 9,000 gallons of milk a day — and about 35,000 gallons of manure.

It’s long been the milk that pays, but now the Audets have figured out how to make the manure pay as well. They’re using it — actually, the methane that comes from it — to generate electricity.

With the help of their power company, Central Vermont Public Service Corp., the Audets have devised a way to extract the methane from the manure and pipe it to a generator.

They make enough electricity to power 300 to 400 average Vermont homes. It’s renewable energy, and they’re not the only ones interested in it. Four other Vermont farms now have similar projects in the planning or early construction stages, power company officials said.

AP