Delaware County will continue pushing its manure management work at local farms through both current and new grant funding.
Graydon Dutcher, the stream program coordinator at the county Soil and Water Conservation District, said at the county Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday, April 8 that the state department of Agriculture and Markets awarded the district $2,865,890 on as part of the more than $25 million of funding for farms throughout the state for the next three years. The funding was announced on Wednesday, April 1.
It is funded through the state Climate Resilient Farming program, which “seeks to help farms adapt to climate change while helping agriculture reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase soil carbon (sequestration),” according to an informational sheet Dutcher provided. Dutcher said after the meeting this would expand on the work being progressed through the county’s current three-year Climate Innovation Grant project.
“I love being able to share news like this because $2.85 million for our farmers to continue a program as successful as this, not only environmental benefits wise but greenhouse gas reduction wise, capturing the whole host of gamut of environmental benefits in one act through a very well organized application of manure, is amazing,” Dutcher said.
Paul Cerosaletti, the CIG enhanced manure management project coordinator at Delaware County Cornell Cooperative Extension, said the project, funded through the Climate Innovation Grant by the National Resources Conservation Service, “is about really enhancing manure management and environmental protection.” He said it was working to create economic sustainability in the county as well.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Cerosaletti said, county farms were struggling to implement certain conservation practices.
“We can help our farms improve nutrient utilization of manure that is produced on that farms,” Cerosaletti said. “That manure is a tremendous resource to those farms for growing crops.
He said the goal was to create an “efficient and sustainable mechanism for implementing the latest technology.” Cerosaletti said county farms, many of which are small with limited labor resources, were struggling to manage manure storages. New technology, like manure injection, can be used to combat these issues, he added.
The county developed a grant project to implement disc-coulter manure injection — where disc-coulter injectors insert manure three to six inches under the soil — and precision agriculture technology. Precision agriculture technology helps “farms gather information on changing field conditions to adjust production practices,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture website.
According to an informational sheet provided at the meeting, through this technology, the risk of manure fertilizer nutrient loss and harmful nutrient emission into the environment decreases. It added that the precision agriculture technology ensures accurate manure application an data collection.
Cerosaletti said a group of agencies, including CCE, worked together to apply for a $2.95 million federal grant, which was awarded to the county Soil and Water Conservation District. He said the district was “uniquely positioned to be able to work with farms across the county, not just in the New York City watershed.”
Delaware County was one of 20 awardees throughout the country to receive the Conservation Innovation Grant, Cerosaletti said. It is now entering year two of the project.
He added that the project has three legs — custom manure services, enhanced manure management and research, education and demonstration. Cerosaletti said the aim was to establish a custom manure service that did not exist two years ago, make the precision agriculture technology available and incentivize county farmers to adopt the new technology.
“By creating a custom service that didn’t exist, we could bring a labor resource to our farms that have a limited labor pool,” Cerosaletti said.
The county has worked closely with Roy Garrett of the Salem Farm Supply, its precision agriculture technology specialist, he added, to help adopt precision agriculture technology. Cerosaletti said a Request for Proposals in fall 2024 led to the selection of Albanos Precision Application, a local custom services business owned by Frank and Marc Albano, for its custom manure services. They invested more than $1 million in equipment for the project, for in-field manure application equipment and the equipment used to transport the manure to the field.
Cerosaletti said, for instance, Albanos Precision Application added equipment to the fleet, a new tractor trailer, a few weeks ago.
He said 2025 marked the project’s first active year in the fields. He said it reached 23 farms and applied more than 14 million gallons of liquid manure, most of which was injected.
Dutcher said after the meeting the district was easiest partner to work this funding through, but this work is a collaboration of several agencies.
“For our district, we are county wide, that is our focus,” Dutcher said. “This is a county-wide application. It could not be any better for us.”