Senator McNerney stands at the forefront of our group, wearing a blue checkered shirt and baseball cap, as our staff and tour participants gather in front of separated manure solids at Da Silva Dairy in Escalon.
Last week, CalCAN and the California Dairy Campaign (CDC) co-hosted a tour of Da Silva Dairy in Escalon, where participants saw firsthand from owner Denis Da Silva how the farm is utilizing support from California’s Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP) to reduce methane emissions, conserve water, and improve herd health. We were joined by State Senator Jerry McNerney, staff from Assemblymember Ransom’s office, researchers from UC Davis, and technical assistance providers from the California Dairy Campaign, Sustainable Conservation, and East Stanislaus Resource Conservation District for a conversation about sustainable manure management and the economic needs of family-run dairies in the San Joaquin Valley. The tour prompted valuable exchanges among participants, with Senator McNerney actively engaged throughout, asking thoughtful questions and expressing strong interest in practical, farm-based solutions to climate and water challenges.
AMMP: A Climate and Water Solution
Implemented by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), AMMP funds equipment and strategies that reduce methane emissions. Many dairies in California use “wet” manure management systems and storage lagoons that release large amounts of methane when organic matter decomposes in the absence of oxygen. AMMP supports producers to move away from “wet” systems.” Specific eligible practices include solid-liquid separation, dry scrape and vacuum manure collection, composting, and expansion of pasture management. These methods are particularly accessible to small and mid-scale dairies. AMMP practices can also provide a variety of other co-benefits, including improved water quality, replacing synthetic fertilizer use with compost on crop fields, reducing odor and flies, and improving the health of cows and workers.
AMMP in Action: A Morning at Da Silva Dairy
On a beautiful and unseasonably mild July morning in the San Joaquin Valley, participants gathered at one of the Da Silva Dairy locations to begin the tour. Over coffee and donuts, owner Denis and staff from CalCAN and CDC welcomed attendees. The group stood beside the cow stalls and compost windrows as they examined the farm’s AMMP-funded sloped screen solid separator. The separator removes manure solids from flush water before it enters the lagoons. Those solids are then composted on-site, primarily for use as cow bedding.
Next, the group piled into their cars and caravanned down a dirt road through crop fields to a nearby second Da Silva dairy site. At the second location, participants viewed another manure separator, illustrating how important AMMP has become to Da Silva’s operations.
Owner Denis Da Silva and his herdsman, Azael Arosemena, explained how separating solids from lagoon water reduces methane emissions and water use simultaneously. By keeping solids out of the lagoon, the water becomes reusable for flushing freestalls, thereby conserving freshwater.
“The program helps us a lot,” Denis shared. “Getting manure out of the water is a huge saving for us, for cow health.”
“Most dairies have lagoons, but they also need to use a lot of fresh water,” Azael said. “This solid separator lets us run the dairy with very little fresh water.”
The system has also improved efficiency. Solids separated before entering the lagoon are drier and easier to manage, speeding up composting and reducing the need to dredge out heavy, wet manure. The farm uses most of the compost as bedding, which Denis says has helped lower infection rates in the herd. When there’s excess, Denis shares it with a neighboring farm. AMMP has also funded a manure vacuum truck that Denis can drive between locations to help with manure management and reduce manure flushed into anaerobic storage lagoons. On the day of the tour, he used the truck for a creative secondary purpose by loading it up with water to spray on the dirt roads and reduce dust while participants drove between sites. These practical uses of AMMP-funded technolgoies make the program even more popular with dairymen.
A Program for Small and Mid-Sized Dairies
The California Dairy Campaign (CDC), which represents many small and mid-sized dairies, emphasized the importance of AMMP as both an environmental and economic support tool.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty in the dairy industry,” said CDC’s Lynn McBride. “Prices are volatile, and regulations are increasing. Without the AMMP funding, changes like this just don’t happen.”
In recent years, small dairies in California have been shuttering at an alarming rate due to a variety of economic pressures, including low and volatile milk prices and rising input costs. Between 2017 and 2022, half of the state’s dairies with fewer than 500 cows went out of business. AMMP can help keep these operations viable while also supporting public goals around air and water quality, climate mitigation, and soil health.
Bringing AMMP into the Capitol Conversation
Senator McNerney, who sits on both the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Budget Subcommittee on Environmental Protection, attended the tour to learn more about AMMP and its benefits.
He showed particular interest in the composting process and how the farm was reducing its freshwater demand—issues that align closely with his authorship of SB 279 this year, which would facilitate more on-farm composting, and his concerns about preserving the Bay-Delta ecosystem in his district.
Participants also discussed regulatory challenges that dairies and AMMP-funded projects face, including the complexity of the permitting process for composting projects. Senator McNerney listened attentively to these stories and the general economic challenges facing the industry, as shared by the California Dairy Campaign, and responded encouragingly, “I want to learn what I can do to help and make sure you can keep farming.”
AMMP is popular and consistently oversubscribed. Each year, the program has funding, producers request two to three times more funding than is available. In 2024, CDFA received $50.7 million in AMMP requests but could only fund $17.4 million worth of projects. The program has no funding available for grants this year.
As the legislature is currently negotiating Cap and Trade Reauthorization, CalCAN and its partners have been calling for $600 million annually, or 15% of the State’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), for agricultural climate solutions, including $50 million in funding for AMMP. At the tour, CalCAN asked Senator McNerney to work with us on securing funding for AMMP either through the Cap and Trade reauthorization process or next year’s budget negotiations. He expressed interest and committed to continuing the conversation with us.
Looking Ahead: Why Continued AMMP Funding Matters
This tour made clear that AMMP works for the climate, for water protection, and for family-run dairies. With sufficient funding, the program could go even further: helping producers meet upcoming water quality regulations, producing compost to support the state’s healthy soils and organic acreage targets, and ensuring dairies have the tools to reduce methane while staying in business.
CalCAN is grateful to Senator McNerney, Denis Da Silva, the Da Silva family, and the rest of the hardworking team at Da Silva Dairy, as well as the California Dairy Campaign and all the tour participants, for their time and leadership. We look forward to continued partnership to keep AMMP funded and effective.
We’ll continue to post updates on the AMMP program in this blog and in our monthly newsletter.
If you’re an AMMP recipient and interested in hosting a tour for your legislator to help support these efforts, please contact our Associate Policy Director, Colton Fagundes, at colton [at] calclimateag.org.
