By JANE HOUIN
Ohio Correspondent

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) Director Robert Boggs issued a one-year extension of a Permit to Install (PTI) for Harrison Ethanol, LLC at Cadiz in Harrison County. The extension is granted until June 12, 2008.

The initial PTI, issued by the ODA Livestock Environmental Permitting Program on Dec. 7, 2004, was valid for 24 months.

“The Harrison County Ethanol Project is exciting as it is our state’s first fully integrated project,” Boggs said.

Harrison Ethanol’s PTI includes construction of a new 2,000-cow dairy facility and a new 10,000-head beef facility. The dairy facility will consist of two freestall barns for housing the dairy cows, with one barn housing 1,332 cows and the other barn housing 668 cows.

The beef facility includes eight barns, four receiving barns (each capable of housing 350 head of cattle) and four beef finishing barns (each capable of housing a total of 2,150 head of cattle).
All of the housing areas for this facility would be under roof and no outside lots are planned. All manure generated at the facility would be handled as a liquid and would be flushed from each barn multiple times daily.

The dairy facility would produce an estimated 20.5 million gallons of manure annually, which also consists of bedding material and the wash water that would be used to clean the milking equipment and parlor area. The beef facility would produce an estimated 30.7 million gallons of manure.

This facility is unique in the fact that it would not have any manure storage structures or treatment facilities located within the feeding facilities boundaries and permitted by the ODA. All manure would be automatically collected and transported off-site to other operating divisions of Harrison Ethanol LLC approximately 60 times per day.

Biodigesters will be used to transfer animal waste from the project into either methanol or electric.

The facility would have a stormwater pond to store and collect the runoff from the 3.9-acre silage storage pad. This dual cell stormwater pond would have a capacity of approximately 2.7 million gallons to store the winter runoff and the runoff from a 25-year, 24-hour storm.

“Some of the site preparation for the Major Concentrated Animal Feeding Facility (MCAFF) was completed in the fall of 2006,” said Boggs. “However, that construction has not continued consistently during 2007 at Harrison Ethanol, LLC. Consequently, the farm requested an extension of its PTI, as allowed by department rules.
It is our understanding that construction will continue after financing for the project is finalized.”

The construction of a 12,800-animal facility requires the owners to obtain permits from ODA. Because the farm will exceed 10,000 cattle, it is considered a MCAFF. Constructing a MCAFF requires that the facility reach an agreement with local officials on any
improvements to infrastructure surrounding the facility, which has been completed and is included in this permit application.

In addition, all MCAFFs are required to have an individual that has training and experience with implementing best management practices for proper manure storage, land application of manure, controlling insects and rodents, protection of surface water and groundwater and proper disposal of mortalities.

The hope is that facility will provide a stable and reliable market for corn producers in the region.

In addition, once the corn is processed, it will be available for livestock feed.

Plans are for approximately half of the wet spent distiller’s grains to be fed to dairy and beef cattle on site with the balance being available for sale to other farmers. At their January 2006 groundbreaking, it was estimated that the plant will create 107 jobs onsite and 60 contract jobs, with a $7.2 million payroll. Harrison Ethanol estimates the plant will pump $85 million in annual cash flow to the region. Plans call for the operation to be fully operational in June of next year, with the dairy becoming operational this fall of winter.

The State of Ohio, through the Ohio Department of Development, offered Harrison Ethanol a competitive incentive package, including an Ohio Job Creation Tax credit, and Ohio Investment in Training grant and other financing.

Harrison Ethanol is a subsidiary of Farmers’ Ethanol, LLC.

This farm news was published in the June 27, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.