Page 30 Stories of the Heartland • Sunday, September 20, 2026 hometownsource. com / heartland /
Manure to energy: Biogas project helps keep Stearns County dairy in the game
BY JEFFREY HAGE STORIES OF THE HEARTLAND
Jeffrey Hage / Stories of the Heartland
Mitchell Torborg answers tour attendees’ questions June 23 at Malecha Dairy near Villard. The farm hosted a tour of the Biogas facility.
VILLARD— Every 48 hours, fuel trucks rumble down the gravel roads of Malecha Dairy toward a towering steel column and gray dome rising above the farmstead.
The trucks arrive empty, swap trailers and leave carrying renewable natural gas produced from cow manure— a steady cycle that has transformed what was once simply a waste product into a new source of revenue and clean energy for the family dairy.
The project, highlighted during a recent Agricultural Utilization Research Institute( AURI) Fields of Innovation tour near Villard, represents a partnership between Malecha Dairy and BioGasCo LLC that combines dairy farming with renewable energy production.
The biogas facility was commissioned in May 2025 and completed that November. Ownership is shared between BioGasCo and Malecha Dairy, with BioGas- Co owning and operating the facility while assuming most of the financial risk. The partnership allows the dairy to benefit from the project while maintaining minimal financial exposure.
For Todd and Louise Malecha, the digester is another milestone in a farming story that began nearly four decades ago.
“ We started out with less than nothing,” Todd Malecha said.“ We had 13 cows paid for.”
Todd and Louise married in 1989 shortly after Todd left the military. Just days before their wedding, Louise suffered a lawn mower accident that nearly cost her a foot.
“ What I want you guys to understand is Louise and I were not born with a silver spoon,” Todd said.“ We started out with less than nothing. We had 13 cows paid for, but we then had no medical insurance.”
Using his parents’ paid-off land as leverage, Todd gradually expanded the dairy.
Today, the multigenerational family operation milks more than 2,300 cows that are raised and managed on the farm throughout their lives. Malecha Enterprises has also expanded to include custom chopping, straw baling, agricultural and environmental pumping, gravel and recycling operations and other agricultural services.
Several of the Malechas’ children now work in the family business, while the rest of the family— including 24 grandchildren, with another on the way— regularly visit the farm. The renewable natural gas project began with a cold call.
BioGasCo founder and CEO Aaron Evens contacted the Malechas about developing an on-farm anaerobic digester and renewable natural gas facility. Todd said he was interested almost immediately. Soon afterward, Todd, Evens and others traveled to Mexico to visit a digester using tequila plants, milk waste and hog manure to generate methane. They also toured facilities in Finland, where many vehicles run on dual fuel and observed smaller digesters processing manure and yard waste.
“ We were able to see firsthand what Aaron was planning,” Todd said. Seeing successful projects overseas gave the Malechas confidence in the technology, but financing remained a challenge.
“ We were faced with just getting financing because it was a new project without any performance, and the bank not knowing if this actually works or not,” Todd said.
Evens said BioGasCo had no large private equity investors behind the project.
“ We don’ t have any big private equity financing backing us or anything right now,” he said.“ Not only was the project greenfield, but the entire company.”
Todd credited Evens for personally investing in the project.
“ He put his own skin in the game,” Todd said, noting Evens mortgaged his own assets to help make the project possible.
The facility ultimately cost about $ 4 million— below the typical cost for similar renewable natural gas plants, according to Evens.
To reduce financial risk, BioGasCo secured a voluntary buyer under a fixed-price, 10-year contract before construction began.