Environment

The importance of recycled water in livestock farming

Photographer Peter Power visits the Livestock Water Recycling system to see how they're turning manure into usable water
  • Mar 31, 2015
By Peter Power
Ross Thurston holds a glass of farm waste water, left, and a glass of clean water that his company's Manure Treatment System can produce from the waste.  (Photo: Peter Power/Canadian Geographic)
Ross Thurston holds a glass of farm waste water, left, and a glass of clean water that his company's Manure Treatment System can produce from the waste. (Photo: Peter Power/Canadian Geographic)
Ross Thurston holds a glass of farm waste water, left, and a glass of clean water that his company's Manure Treatment System can produce from the waste.  (Photo: Peter Power/Canadian Geographic)
Expand Image
The roof of the main milking parlour at Hudson Dairy
The roof of the main milking parlour at Hudson Dairy in Hudson, Michigan. The dairy producer is using the Manure Treatment System developed by Canadian company LWR (Livestock Wastewater Recycling) that extracts clean water from farm waste water and has been recognized for the 3M Environmental Innovation Award for 2014. (Photo: Peter Power/Canadian Geographic)
Expand Image
Cows at the facility are marked with dye to help handlers keep track of their calving status. One hundred of the cows are milked every eight minutes, producing over 100,000 litres of milk daily. (Photo: Peter Power/Canadian Geographic)
Cows at the facility are marked with dye to help handlers keep track of their calving status. One hundred of the cows are milked every eight minutes, producing over 100,000 litres of milk daily. (Photo: Peter Power/Canadian Geographic)
Expand Image
Milk needs to be cleaned up following milking
Milk needs to be cleaned up following milking (seen here on the floor at Hudson Dairy in Hudson, Michigan). Every effort is made to keep the milking apparatus sterile. A significant part of this is ensuring that the floors are cleaned on a regular basis, and that takes lots and lots of water. (Photo: Peter Power/Canadian Geographic)
Expand Image
Lights on one of the control panels at Hudson Dairy.
Lights on one of the control panels at Hudson Dairy. (Photo: Peter Power/ Canadian Geographic)
Expand Image
A dairy farm employee hoses down the floors at Hudson Dairy
A dairy farm employee hoses down the floors at Hudson Dairy. The dairy producer is using the Manure Treatment System developed by Thurston's Canadian company LWR (Livestock Wastewater Recycling) which has been recognized with the 3M Environmental Innovation Award Medal for 2014. (Photo: Peter Power/Canadian Geographic)
Expand Image
LWR technician, Vernon Green, keeps on eye on the company's proprietary screen filtration system at Hudson Dairy in Hudson, Michigan.
LWR technician, Vernon Green, keeps on eye on the company's proprietary screen filtration system at Hudson Dairy in Hudson, Michigan. The screen filtration is the first step in the Manure Treatment System developed by Ross Thurston's Canadian company LWR (Livestock Wastewater Recycling). (Photo: Peter Power/ Canadian Geographic)
Expand Image
The screen filtration is the first step in the Manure Treatment System developed by Ross Thurston's Canadian company LWR (Livestock Wastewater Recycling).
The screen filtration is the first step in the Manure Treatment System developed by Ross Thurston's Canadian company LWR (Livestock Wastewater Recycling). Here, water and solids are separated on the company's proprietary screen filtration system at Hudson Dairy in Hudson, Michigan. (Photo: Peter Power/Canadian Geographic)
Expand Image
LWR engineer Charles Zhang climbs a ladder to look inside a hopper where fine organic solids are removed in the second stage of the company's Manure Treatment System at Hudson Dairy in Hudson, Michigan.
LWR engineer Charles Zhang climbs a ladder to look inside a hopper where fine organic solids are removed in the second stage of the company's Manure Treatment System at Hudson Dairy in Hudson, Michigan. The Manure Treatment System was developed by Ross Thurston's Canadian company LWR (Livestock Wastewater Recycling) and has been recognized with the 3M Environmental Innovation Award Medal for 2014. (Photo: Peter Power/Canadian Geographic)
Expand Image
LWR engineer Sudong Yin, keeps an eye on a gauge as pressure builds in a reverse osmosis system at Hudson Dairy in Hudson, Michigan. Expand Image
Grizzly

This story is from the April 2015 Issue

Look Inside Subscribe

Related Content

Environment

Healthy rivers: Communities use DNA tool to keep tabs on freshwater quality

Many of Canada’s 25 watersheds are under threat from pollution, habitat degradation, water overuse and invasive species

  • 996 words
  • 4 minutes
Nettilling Lake, Baffin Island, Nunavut

Environment

Eight facts about water in Canada

How much do you know about Canada’s water — where it comes from and how it’s used?

  • 727 words
  • 3 minutes
Climate strike Victoria BC

Environment

Why Canada should recognize its citizens’ environmental rights

David Boyd, a Canadian environmental lawyer and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, reveals how recognizing the human right to a healthy environment can spur positive action for the planet

  • 1444 words
  • 6 minutes

Environment

Half of Canadians consider water most important resource: study

  • 855 words
  • 4 minutes