For years, dairy farmers have used cow manure as fertilizer to spread over crops like corn and hay. But two farms in Western Massachusetts have a new use for many that manure — renewable energy.

Luther Belden Park in Hatfield and Rockwood Farms in Granville are embarking on a project to show cow manure into energy as a way to become self-sustaining and stabilize their funds in the things they say can be a volatile market. The plants work in partnership with the Authorities and Pennsylvania’s Hampshire Council -based startup Ag-Grid Electricity.

The plants desire to break ground on two on-site agricultural anaerobic digesters.

“We’re just starting out. They say we will be breaking ground in June,” said Richard Woodger, 73, operator of Rockwood Village. “The reason we are achieving this is to make ourselves lasting… We’ve noticed an actual recession the last couple of years, and it does not recover as quickly because it comes.”

It’s no easy marketplace to workin, dairy farmers say.

“Milk prices are extremely volatile, they will have been. The thing is, we’re sort of the main world market, so weare susceptible to world prices,” said Darryl Williams, 56, of Luther Belden Facilities, which is of Northampton.

Williams said the digester can be an approximately $2 million investment made possible using the help of a number of state and federal grants.

The energy created by the digesters perseverence the facilities, and leftover power is going to be distributed inside the type of net metering loans to public organizations inside the Eversource client zone. The Hampshire Council of Governments, a consortium of villages in Western Massachusetts based in Northampton, will help the internet metering credit income, says HCOG Director Todd Ford.

” We love to assist local business and local farmers, and we are professionals at creating these systems of selling to towns, selling net metering loans,” Ford said. “That Is a part of our commitment local renewable energy.”

Ford said the energy created by the two facilities may be 5.3 million kilowatt hours annually — enough to power some 10 public buildings like town halls and libraries, universities. To make that electricity, the 2 digester systems may address 40 a lot of waste each day, or some 14,600 tons a year.

The Hampshire Council of Governments presented an identical net metering credit method to partner with those that generate solar energy in 2015. That plan has some 80,000 consumers, Ford said.

The renewable electricity produced from the dairy plants will be available for purchase at a 15-percent discount, Ford said, meaning villages will pay 85 dollars for every dollar of energy they use. The Hampshire Council of Governments signed a contract to offer the energy May19, and Ford wants to offer the web metering loans from the end of the summertime.

About 25 miles west of Springfield, Granville, may be the first community to invest in powering its municipal structures with breaks produced by Rockwood Plants, Ford said.

To use the energy-creating digesters, farmers put cow manure and off-site food waste into a concrete cylinder with a versatile, bladder-like top, explained Ag- President Raski Akki and Grid Energy CEO. Bacteria within the digester “eat” the waste and emit biogas — methane and carbon dioxide. The gas increases and experiences pipes to some motor-like generator where it is burned and converted to electricity.

Akki says the digesters are -worthy of dairy farms after being prepared by the digester, because producers can still use the manure as fertilizer. Akki estimates there are 280 and between 260 agricultural digesters in the United States.

“It reduces odors in the plantation, the farm doesn’t always have to rely on the grid,” Akki said. “It fits nicely with local needs.”

After the method is complete, the food and manure waste may smell less pungent, something Williams says can be a pleasant change. He says he does not notice the distinctive smell of his dairy farm, but other people who live in the residential location near his farm do.

“We Would want to not smell. We want to be good neighbors,” Williams said.

Today, fall and Luther Belden park maintains your pet waste in manure storages to become spread over plants within the spring.

“We employ up to we could. It cuts down on the fertilizer bill. He said receiving offsite food waste increase the total amount of content he is able to spread on his crops. The digester process can make that fertilizer more secure, he added, indicating it’ll keep more strongly within the earth.

“Dairy farmers are form of battling,” Williams said. “Something we can do to help sustain ourselves and keep our area, to maintain open spaces and productive farmland is an excellent thing.”