A festive season of manure spreading for Vermont farmers
US - This time of year in Vermont, it's obvious that each of us falls into one of three distinct categories. Happens the first half of December, every year since 1995.
6 December 2006
1 minute read
Out beyond the last traffic light, where the sky doesn't glow all night from strip-mall parking-lot illumination, there are still dairy farms in Vermont, maybe 1,200 of them or so.
The farmers provide food and shelter for cows in exchange for milk. But the grateful cows give more than just milk. They give manure, literally, by the ton.
A single mature Holstein cow, weighing 1,400 pounds, lets fly with 120 waterlogged pounds of manure each day. In the course of a year, that's 43,800 pounds. Round that off to 22 tons, about the weight of a healthy truck.
Source: Burlington Free Press
