Green farming & sustainability at yippee!
Animal Care
The number one priority on the farm - and the thought at the forefront of all employees’ minds - is cow comfort. This applies to the bed she lays in, the path she walks, the parlor she is milked in, the pastures she “vacations” in prior to calf delivery, to the birthing pen… her needs are our top priority. Their walking environment is maintained many times a day with cleaning and scraping. Other means of comfort include: foam mattresses for all the beds, daily foot baths, twice a year they receive nail pedicures, there are cooling fans and sprinklers for the summers to keep the cows cool, daily vet care, we even have cow back-scratchers to tend to every itch.
To meet the cows’ nutritional needs through every stage of life - from one-day old, through pregnancy, delivering, to our ultimate goal of having her be a happy, healthy, productive dairy cow - we work with a dairy nutritionist. Our dairy nutritionist formulates over 14 different balanced meal plans daily varying in ingredients such as: grain, alfalfa, rye, wheat straw, corn, brewer's yeast, plus a whole host of vitamins and minerals. We always plan meals according to the current need of each cow and according to the latest nutritional research in the field for dairy herd health. The pulse of our farm is literally the pulse of our cows.
To meet the cows’ nutritional needs through every stage of life - from one-day old, through pregnancy, delivering, to our ultimate goal of having her be a happy, healthy, productive dairy cow - we work with a dairy nutritionist. Our dairy nutritionist formulates over 14 different balanced meal plans daily varying in ingredients such as: grain, alfalfa, rye, wheat straw, corn, brewer's yeast, plus a whole host of vitamins and minerals. We always plan meals according to the current need of each cow and according to the latest nutritional research in the field for dairy herd health. The pulse of our farm is literally the pulse of our cows.
Manure Treatment (Anaerobic Digester)
An anaerobic digester is an oxygen-free container that holds 1.1 million gallons of a manure and food waste mixture to generate energy. Specifically, we take the manure from our farms, food waste from restaurants, and combine them in the digester at certain controlled ratios for these three main benefits:
(1) Electricity - we sell our generated electricity to the regional electrical company. The digester produces enough electricity to supply energy for 250 homes.
(2) Liquid Manure - liquid manure from the digester is spread on our fields to put nutrients back in the soil. This maximizes our manure management plan.
(3) Manure Solids - the solids separated from the digester are used for cow bedding and compost.
Further digester benefits include: odor control, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and the capture of methane and carbon dioxide (commonly known as biogas). Biogas can be sold as clean burning energy.
The digester runs 24/7 and everything it produces is utilized. Simply put, our digester allows us to produce true green, renewable energy.
(1) Electricity - we sell our generated electricity to the regional electrical company. The digester produces enough electricity to supply energy for 250 homes.
(2) Liquid Manure - liquid manure from the digester is spread on our fields to put nutrients back in the soil. This maximizes our manure management plan.
(3) Manure Solids - the solids separated from the digester are used for cow bedding and compost.
Further digester benefits include: odor control, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and the capture of methane and carbon dioxide (commonly known as biogas). Biogas can be sold as clean burning energy.
The digester runs 24/7 and everything it produces is utilized. Simply put, our digester allows us to produce true green, renewable energy.
Anaerobic Digester on YIPPEE! Farms
Solar Panels
We love to utilize solar energy primarily for its sustainability and its indefinite renewability. As long as the sun is burning, they are generating electricity! The solar panels are used to heat water in the milk houses for cleaning cow parlors and milking facilities.
