An air quality specialist says methane is creating another “gold rush” for California farmers. While the goal is to reduce methane emissions, Frank Mitloehner with UC-Davis says producers don’t want to eliminate them.
He tells Brownfield they would end up with a net loss. “About 10 percent of the energy you feed cattle gets lost as methane,” he says. “Nobody just wants to burn that money – so you don’t want to lose that methane.”
Instead, Mitloehner says producers are better off trapping emissions. “On the dairy side, a cow normally makes around $4,000 to $4,500 per year in milk sales,” he says. “This additional sale of biogas, that’s then made into fuel will add another $1,500.”
He says more California producers are aggressively implementing these technologies because they’re seeing such a large return on investment.
