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Amanda Freund standing in her family's dairy barn.

Please Pass the Gas: Sustainability on the Family Farm

Gas is where it’s at on Freund’s family dairy in Connecticut!  Now, let me tell you more!

Amanda Freund is one of four children born into a dairy farming family.  As the children grew so did the demand for more income. So her mother Teresa went from selling corn at a roadside stand to expanding the farm market

Freund's Farm pepper jack cheese grown on their dairy.

A Methane Gas Digester

The family is full of innovators. Twenty-two years ago Amanda’s father made the decision to put in a methane digester – one of the first in the country. 

The digester allowed them to make a useful product out of the manure that came from the dairy – thousands of pounds a day!  The manure is gathered up each day and put into the digester where the methane gas is produced, which, along with solar is used to power the farm.  Then, the liquid is separated from the solid.  The liquid is used as fertilizer on their fields and the solid is used to make the family’s Cow Pots

CowPots are biodegradable pots used for planting flowers.

Cow Pots: Giving Plants a Healthy Home

The Cow Pots are another invention in the quest to have less waste and use than they had.  They form the dried byproduct into various sizes of pots that are then used for garden plants. This gives the plant a biodegradable and self-fertilizing home!  

I arrived at the farm, greeted by Teresa and rows of beautiful flowering plants. All planted in Cow Pots, of course! 

A greenhouse lined with fresh flowers.

The greenhouse is now part of Freund’s Farm Market.  Teresa showed us around the market. She told us about the uniqueness of her store. She also talked about all of the vegetables grown on the farm which she not only sells at the store but also uses in her catering business and bakery! 

During peak growing season the Freund harvest thousands of pounds of tomatoes from the greenhouses each day!  Her youngest daughter Rachel also works at the farm full-time. 

We caught up with her a bit too. We watched her tend to the flock of chickens which started as an FFA project when she was in high school!

A woman in a red tee shirt holding a chicken next to a chicken coop.

A Family Affair

Once we were done at the store, I walked to a different part of the farm where I met Amanda. She is another of the Freund girls who have returned to the farm. 

She balances her days between the dairy and Cow Pots. This morning she was getting ready to start feeding the waiting cows.  She jumped up in the cab of a big front loader and got the silage she needed to mix feed out of a huge pile.  Then, she switch to a smaller tractor with a wagon where she mixed the feed. Then pulled up to the waiting cows in the free-stall barn. 

After feeding was done, she stopped for a minute to show me a few of the cool pieces of technology on the farm. This technology makes the farm much more sustainable

A woman driving a John Deere tractor on a dairy.

Robots for Sustainability

She explained that they built a new barn a few years ago. It is the housing and milking area for their herd.  From the great ventilation and airflow to the scratchers for the cows, it was clear that cow comfort is high on their list. 

Then she showed me the robots.  First, Juno which I thought of as a very large Roomba vacuum.  It is a robot that automatically moves around the barn at set times to move the feed back up the bunks for the cows. She also pointed out the automatic scraper which removes the manure from the floor so it can be used in the digester! 

We then crossed through the barn to the milking area.  There, they had a series of robotic milkers installed where the cows are milked by the robots a few times each day.  While I have seen robotic milkers before, the technology and efficiency are always impressive!  

After we were done in the barn we made our way down to take a look at the methane digester.  Amanda explained that it is very old: 22 years! But still works well for their farm.  She explained the process from the top of the structure that holds the methane gas.  There was no denying that the air was pretty poo-scented around the digester, but the efficiency and sustainability of what it can do are worth it!  

16 thoughts on “Please Pass the Gas: Sustainability on the Family Farm

  1. I like this story because not all people have plants and it is really y cool having plants and many plants look cool. Plants are a big part of our world

  2. Hi, I’m Nadera from Mrs. Arey’s 6th grade 4E Health Class. I loved reading this story about some family and friends work together and save plants, work with animals, and more. This story inspired me about our family starting a family farm someday. Thanks for your time!

  3. I liked the article because it tells me what cow manure can be used for. Something I learned in this article is that cow manure can be used for self-fertilizing flower pots, I think this is very useful information because I never knew that cow manure can be used for flower pots.

  4. Hi,
    I love how this story is about a family farm. I think that it is good to have a family farm so that you know that your family is there to support you. I love that they help plants and I think that it can be an inspiration to others. I think this article can inspire other people to want to help plants as well. This story can make the environment a better place.

  5. I’m Gavin from Mrs. Areys 3E class, i loved this article because it shows how good or easy it can be to help the environment and have nice plants in a good way.

  6. Nice job on your farm I like how you use manure to keep the soil good.
    Have you ever thought about putting scraps on the soil because then worms would eat the scraps then their manure is richer and better than normal animal manure?

  7. I like this article because it is about a family farm and it doesn’t just talk about one person. i learned that cows can make pots for flowers to stay healthy. this information is helpful because it shows that you can make a lot of this out of waste and can help other people.

  8. I liked this article a lot! I think its cool that manure can be used to make cow pots! I learned about what manure might be used to make. I think it would be useful information to people who are trying to start a farm.

  9. I liked this story because it taught me about different farming techniques like Cow Pots, that can help the environment.

  10. I liked this Article because I have never heard of cow pots or a digester but I just learned about it. Also this is useful because if i ever have a farm these are some things that could help.

  11. I love that she is using her resources to help the environment around her. I also found it interesting that her and her dad were able to make fertilizers out of environment friendly resources.

  12. I loved this story I live on a farm and I think this is such a great idea that a family could do together.

  13. I Liked this article because it tell me how useful cow manure actually is. I learned that cow manure is used for plant pots. This is useful to know because it is always nice to know where products come from.

  14. I liked the article because of how well they used their resources. Something I learned in this article is that even if it takes a little more effort to do something it’s still doable and you could make more out of it.(As in, it takes extra work and commitment to make something sustainable) This is useful information because I could use this info in the future.

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