It started with pigs. Or, more accurately, the “manure lagoon” they created on an Alberta hog farm. In search of help for this football field–sized problem, the local farmer reached out to Karen Schuett, who was running a water treatment business focused on groundwater that had been contaminated with hydrocarbons—organic chemicals found in oil, natural gas and coal.
Since then, LWR has started building a revenue model that is poised to transform the livestock sector. There are even predictions that manure could become more valuable to farmers than milk. “This new profit dynamic has the potential to make the industry more economically and environmentally robust,” says Schuett. It’s an unexpected twist, but Schuett is finding a way to spin manure into gold.
Check out the article here!
Karen Schuett sees money in muck. Lots of it. She is co-founder of Livestock Water Recycling, a fast-growing manufacturer of machines that turn farm animal waste into clean water, fertilizer and renewable natural gas feedstock. And she has an ambition: “We want to be the first manure unicorn.”
That could once have been dismissed as an entrepreneur’s overenthusiasm. Unicorn status — a valuation of $1 billion (U.S.) — is a marker usually connected with slick software companies like Shopify, not someone in wellies talking about manure. But LWR has been on a muddy march in recent years, expanding across North America and into Europe and the Middle East. Schuett says the company is growing so fast that its new office in Calgary is already too small. “It’s going to be a tight squeeze.”
Check out the article here!
The opportunity is huge for Canadian farmers and agribusinesses to produce a sustainable food supply to feed the world’s growing population. Canadian agri-food suppliers are employing digital technologies like big data, AI, smart sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT) to increase yields, quality and sustainability. The implementation of these technologies and innovations is quickly transforming a traditional sector into a high-tech one, and in many areas Alberta is leading the way.
In this live panel, TheFutureEconomy.ca and our partner Alberta Innovates are hosting three agriculture and agtech experts to discuss the opportunities and challenges for the Canadian agtech industry, and what it will take to make Canada a leader within it.
Moderated by Tim Penketh, Founder & CEO, TheFutureEconomy.ca
The LWR System at Robinway Dairy was recently featured in the Journal of Nutrient Management magazine, brought to you by the publisher of Hoard’s Dairyman and Hay & Forage Grower magazines.
Published with the highest commitment to editorial quality, integrity, and service, Journal of Nutrient Management is a full-service media resource providing continuous overview, study, and coverage of manure handling, storage, and application
Check out the article here!
Karen Schuett, co-founder and CEO of Livestock Water Recycling (LWR), is a highly regarded manure expert. Her Calgary-based agtech company has developed one of the global livestock industry’s most sought-after manure treatment innovations. In pursuing her work towards lagoon-free food, this visionary has received numerous awards.
Canadian Poultry editor Brett Ruffell chats with Schuett in this episode of AgAnnex Talks, the fifth in our series of podcasts with six Influential Women in Canadian Agriculture. IWCA is a program created by the agriculture brand teams at Annex Business Media, designed to honour women making a difference in Canada’s ag industry.
A Canadian start-up company is working to replace lagoons and other liquid manure holding facilities with technology that reduces the overall volume of manure on the farm. Lisa Fast is the marketing coordinator for the company called Livestock Water Recycling. She says their goal is to make manure management smarter, and food production more sustainable and productive. It no time at all, their patented nutrient recovery system transforms the liquid manure into fertilizers for crops, and the rest into clean water.
Check out the article here!
Manure Manager recently interviewed Karen Schuett, co-founder and CEO of Livestock Water Recycling (LWR). The company focuses on livestock manure management and recently made headlines as the winner of the Nutrien-Radicle Challenge, an agricultural pitch competition held in Saskatoon, SK. In this interview, Schuett shares where the idea for LWR came from, how it can help the manure industry, and her own hopes for where the manure industry can go.
Check it our here!
In March, the teams behind the agricultural magazines at Annex Business Media launched Influential Women in Canadian Agriculture (IWCA), a recognition program designed to honour, highlight and celebrate the work women are doing across Canada’s agriculture industry. They asked their readers to nominate Canadian women working in all areas of agriculture, from farming and research to animal health, sales and marketing. The inaugural six women chosen as Influential Women in Canadian Agriculture include LWR co-founder and CEO Karen Schuett.
Check it out here!
Livestock Water Recycling (LWR), a manure start-up, joined this year’s presenters at the 2019 Forbes Under 30 Summit in Detroit, MI. This summit convenes 10,000 of the world’s brightest young leaders in business, entertainment, and sports.
Karen Schuett, cofounder and CEO of LWR discussed how businesses and AgTech investment are making an impact on the ag industry. “Farm productivity has never been more important, and we have proven that sound environmental practices don’t have to come at the expense of profit,” Schuett said.
Read the article here.
Venture capital fund company Radicle Growth selects innovative ag and food tech start-ups for investment.
“We have about 1,000 companies a year that apply for funding from us and it’s not just about the funding, it’s really the company- building aspects that we bring to bear,” said Kirk Haney, managing partner of Radicle Growth in San Diego, California. He said innovation and technology is the best way to feed a growing world population and accelerate bringing it to market.
“We created this concept called the Radicle Challenge where in a very short time frame we can leverage our capital, our ecosystem and partnership and specifically our partnership with Nutrien to attract the best entrepreneurs in a specific geography or a specific vertical where we think that it needs more attention,” said Haney.
Read the full article here.
Empire State Development and Cornell University’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement have announced the inaugural 18 finalists for Grow-NY, a food innovation and agriculture technology business challenge focused on enhancing the emerging food, beverage and agriculture innovation cluster in Central New York, the Finger Lakes, and the Southern Tier.
“The Grow-NY competition has attracted a group of diverse, innovative entrepreneurs who are ready to focus on finding new ways to further transform New York State’s world-renowned food and agricultural industry,” Governor Cuomo said. “Through efforts like Grow-NY we are continuing to bolster these regional economies and foster statewide growth in this critical industry.”
Read the article here.
LWR CEO Karen Schuett was invited on BNN Bloomberg's Commodities with Andrew Bell to discuss modern manure management, and the important message that with the right tools, increased sustainability means increased profitability for farmers - something that is more important than ever before!
Watch it here
Terramera and Livestock Water Recycling claimed a combined $1.25 million USD after the final pitch competition of the Nutrien-Radicle Challenge in Saskatoon.
The challenge was established to encourage and accelerate ag- and food-tech innovation in Canada. Vancouver-based Terramera took home the $1 million prize in the growth-stage category, while Calgary-based Livestock Water Recycling won $250,000 in the early-stage category. The inaugural event attracted more than 100 Canadian agriculture and food technology innovators.
Read the full article here.
Successful Farming Magazine has named Livestock Water Recycling as one of six agtech startups to watch this year.
Improving water use efficiency on farms is one of the most critical challenges of the 21st century and the LWR team continues to find new ways to leverage its knowledge of wastewater treatment to make manure management smarter and food production more sustainable and productive.
Read the full article here.
SVG Ventures and Forbes have announced that Livestock Water Recycling, a Canadian based startup, is the recipient of the 2019 THRIVE-Forbes Innovation Icon Award at the fifth annual Forbes AgTech Summit in Salinas. This is the first of two annual awards that Forbes and SVG Ventures will present to the best emerging technology companies focused on advancing the future of food and agriculture. The second award will be presented at the THRIVE Midwest Program during the Forbes AgTech Summit Indianapolis event September 18-19, 2019.The Livestock Water Recycling system is the only proven commercialized technology that reduces the overall volume of manure and delivers a renewable, high-quality water source. Livestock Water Recycling will receive an investment from SVG Ventures, plus an advertisement in an upcoming issue of Forbes magazine and the opportunity to present at Forbes’ Under 30 Summit in October.
Read the full article here.
The Forbes Ag Tech Summit got underway in Salinas Wednesday and women took center stage much of the afternoon. The main events on Wednesday were Steve Forbes short speech and the nine Thrive Innovation pitches, four of which came from women. "It was very conscious for us to weave and thread through the Forbes communities and make sure that Ag Tech was brought into those communities," said Sherry Phillips Forbes Live senior vice president.
See the clip here.
Ross Thruston, Co-Founder of Livestock Water Recycling, and Jay Binversie, a third generation dairy farmer and the owner of Robinway Dairy and Bucky Organics, sit down with Tim Hammerich to discuss nutrient cycling and the manure economy. Jay shares the agricultural and economic advantages he has experienced since installing the system on his dairy farm as well as how implementing the system has opened new opportunities for growth and revenue. They also discuss how dairy farmers can utilize the LWR recycling system to extract valuable nutrients and materials from their farms to improve their soil health, increase product yields, and make a positive impact on the economy and environment.
Listen here.
Virginia Farm Finds New Solution to Separate Water from Manure
TIMBERVILLE, Va. — For several years, the Yutzy family sought an efficient way to provide clean flush water for their dairy barns. They found their answer about 1,900 miles and a nation away from their Shenandoah Valley home. Windcrest Holsteins is the first dairy in America to install the First Wave system created by Livestock Water Recycling Inc. The system, invented by the Calgary, Alberta, company, separates manure into solids and liquids.
View the Official Press Release here.
The LWR System at Robinway Dairy LLC is featured in a brand new video clip put together by Rabobank and we are thrilled to finally share it with you!
We are excited to help showcase the amazing work that Jay and Pam Binversie are doing to conserve water and recycle nutrients on their dairy. After you watch the video, be sure to check out Bucky Organics LLC to learn more about the organic plant nutrients made daily by cows in Wisconsin!
See the clip here
An astounding 70% of all the freshwater humans use is for agriculture. Improving water use efficiency on farms is one of the most critical challenges of the 21st century if we hope to feed the 9 billion people living on this planet by 2050. The Brothers travel across North America to meet with farmers using innovative technologies and methods to produce more food, using less water.
See the clip here
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va (WHSV) -- Windcrest Holsteins, located in Timberville, will be the first dairy in Virginia to install the First Wave Phosphorus and Nitrogen Capture System by Livestock Water Recycling, Inc.
See the clip here
On Friday, March 31, the Livestock Water Recycling (LWR) System will be featured on an episode of The Water Brothers – TVO’s award-winning eco-adventure documentary series.
Currently in its fourth season, the series – hosted, written and produced by brothers Tyler and Alex Mifflin – explores how we can better protect our planet’s most precious resource. In the episode entitled “More Food, Less Water,” the Water Brothers go on an exciting journey through the world of soil, manure and water to explore how farmers are using innovative technologies to combat water waste in agriculture.
Read the article here.
Each quarter Bauer produces a magazine that shares different projects and new technologies around the world and in January, 2017, the magazine featured LWR's nutrient recovery technology. Published in 5 different languages, the publication is distributed to the Bauer dealer network worldwide.
Please pay particular attention to page 12!
See the magazine here.
Robinway Dairy, located near Kiel, has expanded their business while simultaneously taking strides in reducing their environmental footprint. Jay and Pam Binversie, farm owners, shared how they are doing so when they hosted the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin Nutrient Innovation and Dairy Technology tour earlier this month.
Read the article here.
As residential and commercial properties increasingly encroach on Wisconsin land once used exclusively for farming, we’ve (not surprisingly) seen more public flare-ups as competing interests struggle to become coexisting neighbors.
Manure is — and has always been — a mainstay of farming (whether in Wisconsin specifically, or America in general). It’s 100 percent organic, 100 percent natural and 100 percent fantastic fertilizer for growing critical crops.
Read the article here.
Making manure-laden sand bedding and segregating it back into clean sand, useable crop nutrients and water clean enough to drink doesn’t come easy or cheap.
But once the separation system is refined and working, it definitely makes life a whole lot easier for Nate Hartway, finance and environmental compliance manager for McCormick Farms, Bliss, N.Y. The farm milks 2,000 cows and farms some 8,500 acres of corn, alfalfa and potatoes. The operation spans five counties with some fields up to 40 miles from the dairy operation.
Read the article here.
In the May edition of Dairy Herd Management magazine, Nate Hartway of McCormick Farms gives us an inside look at how their LWR System has made life a whole lot easier for them - including taking 500 tucks off local roads!
Read the article here.
Lewis County’s largest dairy farm plans to install a new manure treatment system this spring that would remove most of its water, reducing the need for liquid manure trucking and spreading.
“Our success is attributed to a mix of sound business practices, applied science and technology and proactive planning, but we are still a closely held family business,” David M. Peck, managing partner of Marks Farms, said in a release from Livestock Water Recycling Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada. “We firmly believe that our successes will continue as long as we strive to always act responsibly. Our goal is to maintain our family atmosphere while staying focused on animal health and well-being.”
Read the article here.
The LWR System was featured by the Kewaunee County Star-News as an emerging manure treatment technology that can help solve groundwater and surface water contamination problems in Kewaunee County.
Read the article here.
Maybe his grandfather's dairy resembled Ma and Pa Kettle's farm on the countryside, but third-generation farmer Gordon Speirs' Shiloh Dairy is an industrial operation. Nestled in Wisconsin, "America's Dairyland," the family company milks 2, 100 cows three times daily. "Our industry needs to be moving in directions like this, doing a better job of conservation," says Speirs, "and this is the direction we chose." The LWR System on Shiloh Dairy will reduce their water withdrawals by 40%.
Read the article 
here.
McCormick Farms installs a new LWR System that recycles manure into clean water that they are using in their barns and on their fields.
Read the article here.
Manure, like death and taxes, is a certainty of life. But how we manage it has become a hotly debated topic among scientists, environmentalists and, yes, even billionaires. “Manure has tremendous inherent value,” explains Ross Thurston, founder and President of Calgary’s Livestock Water Recycling, Inc. “Extracting its nutrients and cleaning the water turns it into something reusable, sustainable and profitable.”
Read the article here.
Using their patented waste treatment system, Ross Thurston and the rest of his Calgary-based team reduce manure into its valuable components — reusable nutrients (phosphorus), solid and liquid fertilizers, and water so clean you can drink it. What doesn’t come out of the process is a single ounce of waste. This year, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society is awarding Thurston the 3M Environmental Innovation Award for his system.
Read the article here.
Livestock Water Recycling, Inc., a company that turns manure into drinking water, has been awarded a New Zealand patent for its manure treatment technology. The innovative system recycles water and concentrates fertilizer nutrients from livestock waste at intensive dairy, hog, and anaerobic digester operations.
Double Eagle Dairy, a 3,200-cow dairy operation located near Middleton, Mich., will be one of the first dairy operations in the state to install an innovative manure treatment system designed and installed by Livestock Water Recycling, Inc. to recycle clean water and concentrate valuable nutrients from the manure for reuse at the farm.
Read the article here.
Livestock Water Recycling (LWR), a company in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has developed a technology with the potential to change how manure is treated around the world, helping to solve an environmental problem that affect humans, fish and entire eco-systems.
Read the article here.
LWR, a Canadian company, aims to solve the global water crisis through wastewater management. In the early years of the twenty-first century, the environmental activism of former Vice President Al Gore inspired many people to action. Among them was president and co-founder of Calgary-based Livestock Water Recycling, Ross Thurston.
Read the article here.
Here’s one Canadian startup that has been rewarded for a rather smelly solution.
Calgary-based small business Livestock Water Recycling has won $100,000 for winning the TELUS and The Globe and Mail’s small business contest, “The Challenge”.
Read the article here.
General audiences might cringe watching a video that shows Ross Thurston, president of Calgary-based Livestock Water Recycling Inc., drinking water produced from treated hog manure.
But livestock farmers will probably say, “Genius.”
Read the article here.
The LWR team is full of spirited individuals with diverse backgrounds from engineering, marketing, psychology, finance, accounting, human resources, and trade school.
The LWR Innovation Center located in Calgary, Alberta, brings together global experts and advanced analytical tools to explore, analyze and solve challenges related to manure treatment.
From being the first to being the continued market leader, our vision has always been to help livestock farmers increase farm efficiencies, while becoming even more environmentally sustainable.
