Farmer Builds First Methane Digester to Handle 10 Farms
A multi-million-dollar silo digester that can handle manure from about 10 dairy farms is nearing completion on Thurler Farms, southwest of Winchester. It’s the first in a planned fleet of 310 units nationwide to extract methane from most of the manure produced on Canada’s 10,000 dairy farms by 2030.
Ontario will see an initial pilot group of six digesters — three in Eastern Ontario, three in Western Ontario and valued at a combined $56.5 million — starting with the Thurler farm location. Construction on the other five should begin this year, according to Nick Thurler, co-owner of the farm and co-founder of the project owned by developing company, GET (Green Energy Trading) Corp. Thurler is the former vice-chair of Dairy Farmers of Ontario.