I can't help but wonder how much of this interest is from federal subsidies
for manure handling, farm power generation, and ethanol production.
Sumner Roberts
Meadowsweet Farm
Swanville, Maine
> From: "gene schriefer" <sheepfarm@charter.net>
> Reply-To: graze-l@witt.ac.nz
> Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 19:18:40 -0500
> To: <SHEEP-L@LISTSERV.UU.SE>, <graze-l@witt.ac.nz>
> Subject: [Graze-l] [SPAM] - - Bayesian Filter detected spam
>
> Banks finance Hinkley dairy, energy farm
> Futuristic complex would produce milk and cheese, ethanol and electricity
> By LARRY RAND/Staff Writer
>
> VICTORVILLE The Desert Community Bank has joined The Business Bank of St.
> Louis to finance $8 million worth of development on a Hinkley dairy-energy
> farm that could eventually generate 1,500 new jobs.
>
> The money represents the first major investment by banks into the
> dairy-energy farm in Hinkley, according to Buck Johns, co-developer of the
> venture. The farm would churn millions of dollars into the High Desert
> economy primarily by turning cow manure into power.
>
> "This is an interesting deal," said Robert Hughling, president and chief
> credit officer of Desert Community Bank. "I didn't know anything about the
> dairy industry in California when I started, but I know now.
>
> "The project is based on present operating technology that is working in
> various parts of the world, but ought to be the standard by which the dairy
> industry is run in the U.S. To have that in our back yard is fascinating
> it's political, not just economic."
>
> Johns, co-developer of the High Desert Power Project, a 750-megawatt power
> plant in Victorville, said the $8 million investment will be enough to pay
> for much of the pre-construction costs. It will pay the permitting costs and
> consolidate any indebtedness on the land and water rights, plus cover the
> costs of starting the environmental studies, Johns said.
>
> Johns envisions 30 $10 million dairy barns, each owned by a different
> dairyman, that would hold 90,000 cows kept indoors in a hygienic
> environment, with bovine waste rinsed every four hours into a $100 million
> manure cooker. The methane produced by the cooker would produce commercial
> power from a $50 million, 49 megawatt gas turbine generator.
>
> The cows would feed on distiller's grain, the corn leftovers from a $50
> million factory on the Hinkley site that would produce ethanol, a gasoline
> additive since 2003 in California. A $50 million Scott's fertilizer plant on
> the site will use the cooked cow manure, a $50 million cheese factory will
> use some of the milk, and the rest of the milk would go to markets like Las
> Vegas and Los Angeles. There would be a meat packing facility on the
> premises, too.
>
> The dairy operation aims to eliminate the pollution and health risks
> associated with traditional dairy farming.
>
> Agriculture is a major factor in the San Bernardino County economy, with a
> yearly value of more than $600 million, according to a county agricultural
> commissioner's report. The High Desert has traditionally generated about 10
> percent of the value.
>
> Hughling said that his bank was the logical local business bank to
> participate in the Hinkley project, because of its knowledge of local land
> and water rights, and credited bank director Terry Caldwell, Victorville's
> mayor, for urging participation.
>
> The lead bank, Business Bank of St. Louis, is located in Clayton, a suburb
> of St. Louis. It was brought into the project by Midwestern investors Rick
> Mahue and his brother Wally Senney. Mahue had business experience with
> Johns' co-developer, Henry Orlosky of Sacramento, who owned the land and
> water rights in Hinkley. Both Orlosky and Mahue had run companies that sold
> dental tools.
>
> "Business Bank of St. Louis is a young, aggressive bank," said Mahue on
> Thursday in a telephone interview. "In only two years, they have taken their
> original $10 million in assets to more than $150 million. Their second
> public offering just oversold."
>
> Johns expected quick action now that initial funding has been approved.
>
> "We expect the funds to be released in about three weeks," he said. "Shortly
> thereafter, we'll make application to the county; there are no state
> applications, because the energy plant is less than 50 megawatts. The
> environmental studies will begin, and the architect will make some rough
> designs to show prospective tenants."
>
> The architect for the dairy-energy farm will be Eric Lloyd Wright, grandson
> of Frank Lloyd Wright.
>
> "There will be a Frank Lloyd Wright flavor and an organic feel to everything
> we do," Johns said. "We are trying to elevate all of this. This is a
> once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we want to do something that we can look
> back on and say, 'we did something spectacular.' We understand that we are
> going to be the standard by which others are measured."
>
> Orlosky echoed the others' lofty ambitions.
>
> "I'm kind of a guy who is a visionary," he said Friday. "I want us to do
> things that are different and cleaner. I am certainly a capitalist and would
> like to profit from development, but if you can do a project for the right
> reasons, to clean up air and water and enhance the quality of life for
> dairymen and workers, that's great."
>
> Paul Tracy of Victorville, regional sales manager for DeLaval, the world's
> oldest and largest producer of dairy equipment, said, "When I saw this
> project, I said, this is the next generation. It's fascinating I read
> about it in the Daily Press on Sunday, and by noon Monday I was talking with
> Buck Johns. My company is going to outfit a demonstration barn to show
> dairymen how it will work."
>
> The primary market for the condominium-style Hinkley dairy complex is the
> Chino dairy district, where land has become too valuable to farm and
> neighbors are increasingly upset with the polluting aspects of traditional
> dairy operations. There are more than 200 dairies in Chino. Johns, Orlosky
> and company need only 30 of them to move to Hinkley.
>
> Johns already has the dairy's neighbor in mind. Next to the dairy complex
> would be a $300 million solar/geothermal power plant that Johns said already
> is generating interest from Southern California Edison and municipal
> utilities.
>
> - - - - - -
> Larry Rand can be reached at larry_rand@link.freedom.com or 951-6232.
> - - - - - -
>
>
> Gene Schriefer
> Shepherd
> Dodgeville, Wisconsin USA
> Commercial Texel-x and Charollais-x Sheep
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Graze-l mailing list
> Graze-l@witt.ac.nz
> http://graze-l.witt.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/graze-l
