Our Farms
Meet the Vanderkooi Family
Background
Raised on a dairy farm in Abbotsford, BC, Bill Vanderkooi has been involved in farming his whole life. Married for the past twelve years to his wife Helinda, and with five child, two boys and three girls, Bill has a real passion for adopting innovative technologies into current farming practices.
Anaerobic digester
Although Bill first heard about anaerobic digestion through his friends, the Vander Haaks in Lynden, Washington, who have an anaerobic digester, it wasn’t until Bill took part in an education mission to Vermont, US in 2008 that he decided to install his own anaerobic digester.
Bill’s anaerobic digester converts manure from the farm's 55 dairy cows, as well as some locally produced waste milk fat and bakery by-products, into biogas and valuable co-products. The biogas is used to run 15kW clean burning engine to produce clean renewable electricity that is used on-site and injected onto BC's energy grid, and hot water for use on the farm. The digestate from the anaerobic digester is separated into a liquid and solid. The dry, solid fraction is used as bedding for Bill’s cows, while the liquid fraction is used as a fertilizer on Bill’s fields where he grows crops to feed his cows. Each year, Bill's anaerobic digester reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 165 tonnes a year.
Location
Bill’s anaerobic digester is located at 1356 Suma way, Abbotsford, BC (northwest corner of Highway 11 and the Trans Canada highway, known as the Sumas Interchange).
Cows
Production
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