Long Green Farms is an eighth-generation, bicentennial dairy located in Rising Sun, Maryland. Purchased in Great British pounds from England in 1759, Long Green Farms is one of the oldest dairies in the state. Caleb and Alice Crothers and their family are the current stewards of the land, milking 150 cows as a member of the Land O Lakes cooperative and farming about 425 acres of cover crops as feed for their herd.
Case Studies
Challenge
Sustainability is a driving force behind the decisions the Crothers family makes for Long Green Farms.
“Long Green Farms has been an operational dairy for 265 years, so sustainability is a core focus,” Alice said. “I don’t think you have the opportunity to farm the same piece of ground for 265 years if you’re not making intentional efforts to conserve and preserve the environment.”
Most recently as part of their sustainability efforts, the Crothers family decided to install an anaerobic digester to turn their cows’ manure into energy to power their farm as well as the local community.
However, Long Green Farms has been bedding on sand since before Caleb was born, and Alice said moving away from sand bedding was “not really a choice that we wanted to make for our farm.”
“At the end of the day, I am unwilling to sacrifice the health of our animals,” Caleb shared. “I felt that from a health standpoint, we would set our cows back if we switched from sand.”
To successfully operate the digester and still bed on sand, the Crothers knew they needed to be able to remove as much sand as possible from the manure stream before it would enter the digester.
Solution
Caleb had heard about McLanahan from a neighbor who was operating a McLanahan Sand Separation System on their dairy. He researched McLanahan’s product offering and reached out for a solution.
“We didn’t feel like there was anybody else that could compete on the mechanical side other than McLanahan,” Caleb said.
McLanahan recommended its SMS12 System, which is a sand separation system for dairies with fewer than 700 cows. The system contains a Sand Washer, Rotary Drum Separator, Sand-Laden Manure Pump and an Agricultural Hydrocyclone.
In the system, undiluted manure is pumped from a reception pit into a conditioning box where closed-loop water is added from the Agricultural Hydrocyclone overflow, creating a diluted manure. The diluted manure flows into the Rotary Drum Separator for fiber and debris removal. The remaining water and sand flow into a sump and are pumped to the Hydrocyclone. The Hydrocyclone separates the sand and drops it into the Sand Washer for cleaning and rinsing. Excess liquid from the system combines with the fibers that were removed earlier in the process and are pumped to a storage location. Clean sand discharges from the Sand Washer for reuse under the cows.
“We estimate that we go through between 800 and 900 tons of sand per year,” Caleb said. “With a minimum 90% reclamation expectation from McLanahan, we thought that it was the best option for reclaiming our sand for this farm.”
Results
Reclaiming bedding sand with the McLanahan SMS12 further adds to Long Green Farms’ sustainability efforts and provides cost savings by reducing new sand purchases.
“I’m really excited about being able to reclaim our sand. There’s a price tag with every truckload that comes in, so I’m excited that price is going to drop significantly in terms of the end of the year,” Caleb shared. “We calculate savings with the SMS12 on a yearly basis with a minimum of $13,000 to $17,000 with just sand alone, not counting trucking and not counting wear and tear.”
He added that the most beneficial part of the SMS12 is not having to dig the sand out of the manure pit at the end of the year.
“Before the McLanahan system, we pushed it into the manure pit and we spent the end of the year doing the worst job on the farm, which was digging all that sand back out,” said Caleb. “By the time we pump our storage out and get a payloader in and multiple spreaders come in, and the manpower that we need combined with the right conditions to actually do it, it’s a challenge. I’m super excited about not spending the end of my year stressing or fighting to get that job done.”
Even with all these benefits, the main goal for putting in the McLanahan SMS12 was so Long Green Farms can operate its digester and remain on sand bedding. Alice said the SMS12 is “essential for operation” and without it, they wouldn’t be able to move forward with the digester project.
Caleb said, “The SMS12 is helping us to meet our future goals in terms of our next project. In order for that to work, this machine has to function within its specs. It has to. We are relying heavily on this to get the phase 2 running, which is our digester. It will fail if this machine fails.
“We have a lot of faith that McLanahan won’t let that happen.”
Caleb’s trust in McLanahan stems from the manufacturer’s commitment to ensuring the best solution for his family’s dairy that meets their goals for sustainability as well as for cow health and comfort.
“The best thing with McLanahan so far was their recognition of the things that we were trying to overcome and their willingness to solve that problem,” Caleb said.
