Survival and efficiency are the two drivers behind Bar 20 Dairy’s sustainability efforts. The owners say owning and operating a dairy in today’s day and age is all about doing more with less and being as efficient as possible.
“Energy is a major cost on dairies and farms,” says Steve Shehadey, a third-generation farmer who owns Bar 20 Dairy along with seven family members in Kerman, Calif.
Cost of Power
The cost of power in the Golden State has skyrocketed the past several years, making the state among the highest in the country. This led Bar 20 to focus sustainability efforts on energy efficiency. Their initial goal was to produce electricity from methane and offset their power costs. Doing this would create two positive outcomes: reduce methane and produce clean, renewable energy available 24/7.
“Minimizing our power costs helps us become more efficient and contributes to our overall sustainability,” Steve says.
Bar 20’s drive to invest in energy to minimize costs and maximize efficiencies is obvious. Some of their investments include:
- In 2007, the family began working with a methane digester company.
- In 2016, a 1 MW solar farm was completed and LED lighting was installed on the dairy.
- In 2017, a 1 MW solar dairy was completed.
- In 2019, an electric feed mixing station was completed.
- In 2021, a digester with California Bioenergy & Bloom Fuel Cell was completed.
The return on these energy investments have made a huge difference for Bar 20.
“The solar and digester are expected to produce more power than the dairy and farm use,” Steve says.
The electric feed mixer is using renewable electricity to mix the feed instead of diesel fuel. Installing energy-efficient lighting reduced the dairy’s lighting usage by 75%.
“These projects are an investment into the future,” Steve remarks.
BMW Partnership
The new climate-smart dairy technology captures methane from manure and turns it into renewable energy without combustion, offsetting 100% of carbon emissions and sending renewable energy back
to the electricity grid. Building upon that opportunity and collaborating with BMW of North America, California Bioenergy expanded a partnership to include Bar 20 Dairy in 2021.
What makes the digester at Bar 20 Dairy different is how the fuel cell technology creates ultra-clean renewable electricity on site. The system is efficient, producing twice as much electricity as conventional generators using the same amount of biogas.
In addition to the varied environmental benefits, the partnership also brings new revenue to family farms and agricultural communities through this production of clean transportation fuel. Under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program, BMW generates environmental credits with dairy farms for these partnerships, both sharing the value of these credits. This type of innovative cross-sector
alignment not only helps farm communities with new revenue, but also serves as a model to accelerate the adoption of biodigesters at more farms in California and beyond.
As a partner on Bar 20’s digester, California Bioenergy found a broker that was able to contact BMW about the LCFS Program.
“[BMW] will purchase all the LCFS credits from the project, which will help us pay for our investment,” Steve says.
The Shehadey family says innovation has always been one way to describe dairy farmers. Steve says his family is proud to represent the U.S. dairy industry and showcase some of the innovative technologies and environmental stewardships that exist.
“There are several deserving dairies that are doing amazing projects,” he says. “We are extremely honored to receive The U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award. It is a team effort, and we could not have done the project without the help of our partners: California Bioenergy, Bloom Energy, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), BMW and Bank of the West. It has been a long journey to get the project completed, but we believed that it was the right thing to do, and so we did not give up.”
Future Plans
Bar 20’s commitment to the industry goal of becoming net zero by 2050 is spurred by their goal of passing the family dairy on to the next generation.The Shehadey family continues to look at future opportunities to propel the family dairy forward.
“We are working with a hydrogen transportation fuel production company to potentially provide additional biogas from the dairy to produce renewable hydrogen transportation fuel,” Steve says.
John Talbot, CEO of the California Milk Advisory Board, says the Shehadey family’s leadership in sustainability, especially in the next-generation energy production space, made them a very deserving recipient of a U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award.
“We are excited to elevate awareness of these initiatives that serve as inspiration to other dairy farmers and an example to consumers of the real climate-smart actions California dairy families are taking on the farm,” Talbot says.
U.S. Dairy Sustainability winners will be honored during a formal celebration in November.
Bar 20’s History
In 1949, Larry Shehadey purchased a partial interest in Producers Dairy, a Fresno-based fluid processing operation. Six years later, he became the sole owner. With a keen focus on milk quality, Larry, who was progressive minded, decided to start milking, and by 1959, the first Bar 20 dairy began milking a couple hundred cows.
As Producers Dairy grew, the need for more milk increased. In 1970, a second dairy farm was built, milking around 2,000 cows. By 2000, Bar 20 was up to milking 3,000 cows. In 2005, Larry’s son John built the current dairy that houses more than
7,000 cows. The first two dairies closed in 2005
and 2016, respectively.
Bar 20 is truly a family-run business. John’s son, Steve, runs the daily operation at the dairy and farm. John’s brother, Richard, along with his family, operates Producers Dairy, which distributes milk and other products throughout northern and central California. The fourth generation is in the making with John’s granddaughter, Bonney, who is currently studying dairy science at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.
