Complience with
Environmental Standards

In 1972 Congress passed the Clean Waters Act that formed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  In the years since, the EPA has promulgated regulations that Kimvale Farm must comply with by 2009.  New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) is given the responsibility of regulating Confined Feeding Operations (CAFO).  Kimvale has more than 200 cows so it must conform even though it doesn’t confine them!  We pasture them!  Go figure!  At any rate we have spent in excess of $300,000 the past year building and inventing a unique system that hopefully will satisfy the regulator and will also be within the rules that we voluntarily comply with for organic milk production.

Briefly, the system separates the manure.  The solids are currently stored to be applied to the far away fields that provide feed for the herd during the winter (non-pasture months) as well as some corn grain that provide the cows with energy year round.  The liquid portion is stored in a 2.4 million gallon liquid holding pond and applied to the pasture paddocks during the pasture season.

Click here for a more detailed decsription
and photos of our manure handling system