Three Rivers Calf Farm in Parma, ID raises 10,000 heifer calves for the dairy industry. The calves start out being bottle fed with pasteurized hospital milk from dairies and topped off with dry milk mixed with hot water. The calves are fed twice daily with each calf consuming 2 gallons of 100 degree milk each day. The operations center is also heated with radiant floor heating. The calf farm maintains the cleanliness of the operations by washing equipment with 170 degree water.
The solar thermal farm consists of 80 – 30 tube panels generating 4,000 gallons of 170 degree water each day. This equates to 4 million BTU’s of energy created from the suns radiation.
This project was fortunate to receive a USDA REAP grant for 25% of the cost of the project. The project included 2- 1500 gallon insulated tanks for hot water storage, 2 1.5 million BTU/hr boilers, radiant floor heating and the solar thermal farm.
The project is operating as designed and the farm has seen significant reduction in the consumption of propane.
