The potential future of cow manure handling in northeast Wisconsin was introduced on Tuesday during the Kewaunee County Land and Water Conservation meeting in Luxemburg.

The Kewaunee County Fairgrounds 4-H Room was filled with residents and other stakeholders wanting to learn more about the proposed partnership between Kinnard Farms and Sedron Technologies. The project plays a role in the agreement Kinnard Farms reached with the state Department of Natural Resources in May. The DNR would not require groundwater monitoring of land application sites if Kinnard Farms can substantially eliminate the use of liquid manure on its field by 2027.
Lucas Reid and Tim Evenson of Sedron Technologies provided those gathered information on its Varcor system, which processes the liquid manure and is already in use at dairy facilities in Texas and Indiana. The facility would process all of the liquid manure generated at the farm, removing the pathogens and separating it into clean water, dry organic fertilizer, and organic ammonia.

Reid says the system would help Kinnard Farms decrease its carbon footprint, end the need for land application of manure, be more efficient with nutrient use, and protect waterways. Reid provided information about the amount of water being discharged from the facility to Casco Creek and the purity of it, which was a question some in the audience had going into the presentation.

Reid confirmed that the system will only handle Kinnard Farms and the existing lagoons would not be relied on unless there was a service interruption with its technology. The company will have approximately two to three employees working at the facility 24/7 and it will have a large engineering presence in the region due to a similar facility being built at Fair Oaks Farm in Indiana. Sedron Technologies is working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources on the finer details of the project. Lee Kinnard added at the end of the presentation that water quality and soil health go hand in hand and that this project could help them with that.

Supervisor Tim Kinnard, who also serves on the Village of Casco Board, updated the committee on its water concerns, saying that it is in the initial stages of exploring adding a municipal water system. Recent spikes in nitrates in the Village of Casco wells have been a consistent topic at the last several Kewaunee County Land and Water Conservation meetings. You can watch the meeting, including the Sedron Technologies presentation, below.