Since 1985, John and Cathy Burgett have been practicing conservation farming on their 200 cow dairy farm because their farm sits over an aquifer that serves over 30,000 people. Terry Ettinger filed the following report.

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John and Cathy Burgett have operated a 200 cow dairy farm in southern Onondaga County since 1985.

In 1996, they began practicing conservation farming because their farm sits over the Cortland-Homer-Preble Aquifer.

John Burgett says, “It serves over 30,000 people so we’re doing our best to keep that water as pure as possible.”

One recent improvement is this covered barnyard, where the cows return to the barn after milking.

Roof runoff from the barns was taking animal waste into the ground.

John Burgett says, “So we re-cemented the whole thing and put a cover over it. Also out there is a section of grass, which absorbs all the water from the roof.”

The manure is confined to the cement area where it can be removed for proper disposal.

In 2006, they installed a waste treatment system for the milking operation that starts with four settling tanks to remove sediment and then, John Burgett says, “It goes into a pipe and using gravity it’s moved out by the paddocks. Here there is a series of baffles where the water is purified as it goes through each baffle. We end up with all the soap and detergent and the like filtered out and by the time the water goes through the baffles it’s almost pure water.”

Since 1996, they’ve also used a rotational grazing system to feed their dairy herd for about seven months of the year however changing paddocks four times a day created muddy pathways for the cows so they rebuilt each laneway.

John Burgett says, “There is a cover underneath to help with runoff with a fine mesh and above that we put fine sandstone that the cows walk on plus the laneway is shaped like this (sloped) so the water would run off.”