Category: Producer Success Story

The Fernandes family has been dairying in California’s San Joaquin Valley since the 1920s, when Frank Fernandes came over from the Azores and started milking cows during the Great Depression. A century later, his grandsons continue to dairy and have expanded on multiple facilities— and now, they’re also producing renewable fuel from manure while capturing methane that would be emitted as a powerful greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. 

Joe Fernandes passed the operation to his six sons: Joey, Greg, Gary, Frank, Jared, and Josh. Together, they manage four Tulare County dairies with anaerobic digesters funded by CDFA Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP) —Fern Oaks (2019), Legacy Ranch (2017), LegenDairy Farms (2022), and Sousa & Sousa (2018, also known as Legacy Holsteins). All four dairies are based in Tulare County as a part of the Calgren Dairy Fuels Cluster, California’s first full-scale dairy pipeline network. In total, the four projects received $5.3 million through DDRDP. Greg runs Fern Oaks; Gary runs LegenDairy; Jared and Josh manage daily operations at Legacy Ranche, while Frank handles farming. Most digesters were built with Maas Energy Works. Joey also developed a separate project through a DDRDP grant with California Bioenergy. 

The DDRDP grants helped Maas Energy Works, Calgren, and their partners deploy covered lagoon digester technology across multiple dairies, expanding California’s largest dairy biogas pipeline cluster, supporting the state’s investment in renewable energy infrastructure and meeting the state’s ambitious climate goals by significantly decreasing methane emissions from manure. 

By offsetting upfront infrastructure costs and reducing risk for dairy owners, the funding made the project financially feasible. It also accelerated the adoption of low-emission technology and increased the supply of low-carbon, renewable transportation fuels. 

How the Calgren Digesters Work 

Each digester captures methane from manure, which is then sent to the Calgren facility where it is processed and upgraded into renewable natural gas (RNG). The RNG is either compressed onsite or piped into the utility grid. That RNG powers trucks and helps replace diesel with low-carbon fuel. Every upgrade serves a clear purpose: to run a cleaner, smarter, and more resilient farm.  

Calgren employs an experienced team of operators and mechanics who visit the digester sites multiple times per week to conduct routine inspections and maintenance. This includes checking equipment functionality, inspecting the digester covers, and ensuring steady manure flow into and out of the system. Around the clock, Calgren’s operations team also monitors the entire digester network from a centralized control room, ensuring that biogas is continuously processed and reliably injected into the SoCalGas pipeline. Together, the family’s digesters are estimated to be reduced by over 550,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the next 10 years. 

Farm Practices That Make a Difference 

The Fernandes dairies focus on practical upgrades that improve animal welfare, cut GHG emissions, and keep the farm running efficiently. Depending on the site, those upgrades include: 

• Sand bedding for cow comfort and reuse 
  • Sand bedding improves cow comfort and hoof health. It’s also recycled, reducing costs and waste. (Used at all dairies except Sousa & Sousa) 
• Bagged silage to reduce feed losses 
  • All dairies use bagged silage instead of stacking it in piles. This reduces spoilage and shrinkage from ~15% to ~2%, preserving more of the harvested feed and improving overall efficiency. 
• On-farm solar 
  • Legacy Ranch 2, Fern Oaks, and LegenDairy have solar panel installations that provide renewable power, lowering utility bills and GHG emissions. 
• LED lighting upgrades 
  • Legacy Ranch and LegenDairy use LED lighting throughout their dairies—an energy-efficient alternative to traditional lighting that reduces electricity use. 
• Cow Manager health monitoring system 
  • LegenDairy uses Cow Manager®, a system of ear tags that tracks cow activity, eating behavior, rumination, and temperature to detect illness early and ensure timely treatment and management. 
• Healthy Soils Program participation 
  • Legacy Ranch 2 received funding from CDFA’s Healthy Soils Program to adopt conservation tillage, a practice that reduces soil disturbance, helping retain carbon and lower emissions. 

As Gary Fernandes puts it, their approach comes down to lessons passed down from their dad, Joe: 

“You take care of the cows, they take care of you.” 
“Control the things you can control.” — Joe Fernandes 

These values continue to shape how the family runs their dairies—one decision at a time. 

What Other Dairies Can Learn 

The Fernandes family didn’t do this alone. They partnered with Calgren Dairy Fuels, Maas Energy Works – and California’s incentive program, DDRDP – to share infrastructure and get technical support with digester operations. That teamwork helped lower costs and keep the projects sustainable long-term. 

Their success shows that family dairies can: 

• Cut costs by sharing pipeline infrastructure 
• Protect the land and keep the business strong 
• Use California’s climate programs to fund real projects 

California Climate Investments and GHG Reductions 

The Fernandes family’s digesters represent a major step forward in climate-smart agriculture. Each was supported in part by grant funding from California’s Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP), administered by CDFA and funded through California Climate Investments (CCI). 

In total, the projects received over $5.3 million in state grants—reducing greenhouse gases, improving local air quality, and supporting Tulare County’s agricultural economy. 

“AMMP and DDRDP are part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that invests billions from Cap-and-Trade dollars into reducing greenhouse gas emissions, boosting the economy, and enhancing public health and the environment—especially in disadvantaged communities.” 

This grantee Q&A was conducted by Dr. Alyssa Louie with the help of Mr. Robert Camozzi and Ms. Stephanie Dehner (Triple C Dairy) in November 2024 to develop an AMMP project profile in partnership with the California Air Resources Board Climate Investments Policy Section. 

The Triple C Dairy Compost Barn and Solid Separation Project received California Climate Investments funding in 2019 through the Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP). 

Triple C Ranch, an organic dairy in Sonoma County, utilized these funds to: 

• Install a new compost bedded pack barn to house a portion of the herd during winter months 

• Automate scrape collection of manure from barn alleyways 

• Add a solid-liquid separator that would reduce the amount of collected manure entering anaerobic storage.  

These improvements allowed for manure composting and reuse for bedding and fertilizer. By reducing the amount of manure entering a liquid environment and removing the need for manual scraping of alleyways, the project reduced both diesel and methane emissions. The project, which was completed in spring of 2022, also improved pasture management by providing more housing for the herd. 

Can you share with us your name and your role on this project? 
Robert J Camozzi, 4th generation dairy farmer and owner/operator of Triple C Ranch. 

Tell us about the area where your dairy operates in Sonoma County. How has the community supported your dairy and other small, local farms?  
The area has a number of small farms but one of its strengths is that it also has a lot of processing capability – our milk travels just a few miles down the road for processing at Bellwether Farms. This is a great benefit, as the community needs access to local organic products. 

We’d love to hear more about the project. What did it do? What benefits did the project provide for your dairy? 
The project had multiple components: construction of a new compost bedded pack barn; automated cable scrapers that would replace use of a diesel-fueled skid steer for cleaning concrete lanes in the new and existing barns; a reception pit and screw press separator to process scraped manure and separate solids from liquids. The results help improve water quality, air quality, the efficiency of the operation, and produces a quality soil amendment. The separator keeps more manure out of storage ponds, allowing the liquid to be used for sprinkler irrigation instead of hauling slurry to fields. The composted manure can be used on our fields and hauled up to our other ranch that grows alfalfa, essentially replacing the compost we would have had to buy previously. It can also be used as a source of bedding so we can move away from buying sand. The automated chain scrapers have led to a reduction in diesel use as well as labor – personnel can be redirected to other activities. The additional housing for the herd during winter months allows us to better manage pastures and reduces the amount of potential runoff and exposure of manure to rainwater. 

What impacts do you hope to see in your community as a result of this project? 
We hope the project leads to people recognizing that we are doing our part to prevent global warming and improve environmental stewardship through reducing our fossil fuel use and composting. We are excited about the barn and its innovative management and are happy to host tours for visitors and those in the community – other dairy producers in the area have already asked about our experience with the AMMP grant, and seeing implemented practices may encourage others to pursue them as well. 

What has been challenging in carrying out the project, and what have you learned from those challenges that could be useful for others to know? 
One of the lessons learned is to keep the full costs of a project in mind – don’t go into it thinking everything will be covered. There are upfront costs, the wait time for reimbursement, and then maintenance costs after implementation. It’s important to be practical and think through who can service the equipment, and to recognize that you can get some state-of-the-art equipment but ultimately all equipment will need maintenance. 

What are some elements of the project you think others should consider incorporating into their projects? 
This is hard to say because every project is so unique to each dairy. 

What advice do you have for others applying for funds? What have you learned from the application process that would be useful for others to know? 
Factor in upfront costs; get your bids and complete your project in a timely manner so it is done within the grant time frame and costs of equipment and labor don’t increase significantly past the original bids. 

Any closing thoughts to leave us with on why you chose to pursue this grant and what it means for you and the dairy? 
I pursued this project because I want to pass the dairy on to the next generation. In order to do that, infrastructure is necessary and part of that is modernizing the dairy. Dairies are not always seen in a good light, but we want to do our part – we are environmentalists too. California is investing a lot to try and help, and we felt an AMMP project was a good opportunity to modernize the dairy and bring it to the next level of management for protecting the environment. It is putting ourselves in a better position for the future. We don’t always know how things will work out, but I was in the new barn the other day thinking we couldn’t run the dairy today without this – a lot of cows were calving, and they were dry and comfortable under cover instead of out in the rain. It has made a huge difference. 

Vander Woude Dairy, a family-owned and operated business in Merced, California, has taken significant strides in sustainable agriculture by implementing a covered lagoon digester for methane capture. Established as a partnership in 2005, the dairy is now predominantly owned by Simon and Christine Vander Woude, who oversee 3,200 Holstein milking cows and 1,750 acres of farmland. In October 2020, Vander Woude Dairy began construction on a covered lagoon digester, part of the innovative Merced-South Cluster developed by Maas Energy Works. The digester became operational in November 2021, marking a new chapter in the dairy’s commitment to environmental stewardship.  

The project, funded with over $1.8 million from the Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP) through California Climate Investments (CCI) and an equal amount of matching funds from Vander Woude Dairy, cost $3.7 million. “The State of California’s proactive support of programs like the Dairy Digester Research and Development Program was instrumental in helping our project get off the ground. Our family run dairy has made consistent environmental improvements over the years, but we were hesitant to take the leap on a large investment in a digester system when the technology was still emerging.  CDFA’s partnership with us and our neighbors helped us take the financial leap and their program has proven to be one of the most effective at enhancing the environmental sustainability of the California dairy industry in recent years,” said Simon Vander Woude.  

CDFA forecasted that the digestor to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 18,800 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent (MTCO₂e) annually. However, the most recent 12-month data reveals that the dairy exceeded expectations, achieving nearly 24,000 MTCO₂e in reductions and injecting over 73,000 MMBTU of gas into the pipeline. The R-CNG produced by the Vander Woude Dairy Digester is injected into the utility pipeline to be used in large vehicles, qualifying it for credits under the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). These credits incentivize the production and use of low-carbon fuels, providing an additional revenue stream that supports the project’s economic viability while reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. These outcomes underscore the digester’s efficiency and its critical role in advancing California’s climate goals. 

The Vander Woude Dairy Digester project is a model of sustainable economic development. Utilizing guidance from the Sacramento Regional Research Institute (SRRI), the project created 44 jobs—27 direct and 17 indirect—during its construction phase. These positions spanned various industries, including construction, operations, and related services, contributing an additional $825,858 in economic output for every $1 million spent. 

Moreover, the project team partnered with Proteus Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to empowering disadvantaged communities in the San Joaquin Valley. Proteus facilitated local hiring, ensuring that 85% of piping contracts were fulfilled by residents near the project site. Training programs specific to renewable energy provided opportunities for individuals to develop skills aligned with California’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. 

“For our family farm, ‘sustainability’ means doing more with less. Our dairy is the host of a hub-and-spoke model of methane digesters in Merced County, and all the dairies that send their gas to this hub are family farms. My wife, children, and I are laser-focused on efficient operations, producing milk with less impact to our climate,” said Simon Vander Woude. 

By aligning with state and regional initiatives, the Vander Woude Dairy Digester embodies California’s vision for a sustainable agricultural future. Its innovative approach not only satisfies the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also fosters economic growth and empowers the local community, setting a benchmark for dairy operations nationwide.