The Graft family

As a young kid, Adam Graft looked forward to the summers and vacations he got to spend on his grandfather’s small dairy farm in northwestern Ohio.

“Like most kids, my grandpa is my role model,” Adam says. “My favorite part about growing up was to go help grandpa on his farm.”

Spending time with his grandpa’s 60 Holsteins sparked a dream and a career path for Adam. After completing his doctor of veterinary medicine degree at the University of Georgia, he worked as a veterinarian on dairy farms in California. As he spent his days working with dairy farmers and the cows he loves, he always had a dream in the back of his mind. In 2004, he moved to Georgia to finally build it: his own dairy farm, Leatherbrook Holsteins.

Adam began with a single worker and has incrementally made investments and changes, all while being mindful of his cows and the land.

“All farm decisions are made with the environment and cow comfort as our top priorities,” Adam says. “Every investment directly supports our cows. We want to minimize the effects of our hot Georgia summers and take care of the land for generations of cows and owners to come.”

In addition to providing clean, comfortable spaces for his cows, Adam also prioritizes taking care of his land and the environment. Recycling sand, water and manure makes an incredible impact on the farm’s bottom line and its resources.

Starting in the barn, water from the dairy’s lagoon flushes the sand and manure out of the barns and into a sand lane. Here, the sand naturally separates itself from the manure and water and is scooped into piles to be dried and reused for the cows’ sand beds.

After the sand leaves the water, the water and manure continue down the lane and are separated as the manure is pumped into a methane digester. For years, having a methane digester at Leatherbrook Holsteins was a dream for Adam. In 2020, he partnered with Dominion Energy and Vanguard Renewables to bring the dream to life. Dominion Energy and Vanguard Renewables partner to develop natural gas facilities that utilize dairy waste.

A methane digester, also referred to as an anaerobic digester, captures methane, a potent greenhouse gas created in manure, and turns it into renewable natural gas — a favorable alternative to nonrenewable natural gas typically pumped from the ground.

“This allows us to turn a large volume of manure into a resource that benefits the environment,” Adam says. “That is obviously a huge win for us and for the Earth, but the digester also helps with odor control, which makes for a smaller footprint and better-smelling air.”

And lastly, water is recycled throughout the farm for various needs. Fresh water is first used in the milking parlor to cool the milk after it is pumped from the cows. That water is then pumped to the