A Dutch farmer is making liquid fertilizer from cow manure so he can use the nutrients locally instead of moving them around the country.

Ton Groot Roessink milks about 200 cows near Baak, using robots, automated feeding and automated manure cleaning. Manure from the farm is put through a biogas digester. The methane is burned to produce electricity and heat for the farm.

Those steps are standard for farms that use biogas digesters.

Groot Roessink is taking the process several steps further to make sure methane emissions are controlled and nutrients are added to crops in the most available form. He hopes his system can eventually be used across the Netherlands to manage manure.

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