Farmer plans to milk electricity from cow’s manure

A northeast Iowa farmer will become the first in the state to commercially convert cow manure to electricity. Roger Decker, who farms near Westgate in Fayette County, will sell the power to Alliant Energy. Alliant spokesman John Ruff says it’s a significant agreement.Decker will use whatever power he needs to run his farm, and he’ll route the excess electricity to the power company to distribute to its customers. Ruff says the effort could help inform people across Iowa about renewable energy options that are available.Ruff says this process of generating electricity from livestock manure is important.Ruff says another benefit of extracting the gas from the manure, is the process gets rid of a lot of the odor.Alliant hopes to expand the pilot project across the region.