They say a happy cow is a productive cow. And saving money on energy can make a farmer happy too. We visit an organic dairy farm that’s going even greener.
This glass tube, cool on the outside, is actually almost 500 degrees inside and it's helping to heat the water at a local dairy.
“It's a wonderful feeling to be on the cutting edge of this type of thing that this country's got to go to.”
"Farmer" Tom Trantham knows quite a bit about being cutting edge. He's won awards for "green" farming at his Happy Cow Creamery in Pelzer.
“To know someone is as passionate about something as they are as I am about what I am. I think that's a great thing.”
“Tom is the rock star of organic dairy farms.”
Larry Jordan of American Micro Solar made Happy Cow the first dairy in the country to heat water with their solar water heating system.
“Here at Happy Cow, Tom was using water that was coming out of a well at 50 degrees. He's got to get it up to 160 degrees. Well that's a big boost,” says Jordan.
And hot water is extremely important to Tom's dairy.
“We can't make one little mistake. So the hot water can't fail,” explains Trantham.
The Thermosyphon system takes the infrared rays from the sun to do the job...even if it's cloudy.
“Just like when you go to the beach and you don't put sunscreen on and it's a cloudy day at the beach, you still get sunburned...well that's how this works.”
“This unit will actually boil water which is just unheard of. It's just that efficient,” says Jordan.
Which makes Tom and his cows...happy.
“If it keeps on like its going and does better than it's doing already and they think even better, I imagine almost all of our water heating will be done with the sun.”
Another way that the Happy Cow Creamery goes green is by being chemical free in the pasture, where the cows are all grass fed.
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