Turning Cowpies Into Power Is Profitable For Indiana Farm

For most farms, manure is a pungent problem. At Homestead Dairy, it smells like money.

The family-run American farm invested in a bio-gas recovery system which transforms cow poo and other waste into electricity.

Enough electricity, in fact, to power 1,000 homes, a service which the local utility company pays for handsomely.

But that's just a side benefit.

"It works economically, but one of the main reasons we did it was to try to help take care of the odor control for the neighbors," said Floyd Houin, whose family has owned the farm in Plymouth, Indiana since 1945.

"The land's important to us also because we produce a crop for feeding cows. So we want to do everything we can to take care of the land and the water. We drink the same water as everyone else."

Livestock farms typically store their effluent in open lagoons and the stench does not make them very popular with the neighbors.

The lagoons also have a significant environmental impact because they emit methane and carbon dioxide -- major contributors to climate change -- and can sully the groundwater if they leak or overflow during heavy rains.

Setting up an anaerobic digester -- essentially a giant shed that uses heat to speed up decomposition -- captures both the smell and the greenhouse gases.

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