The United States Department of Agriculture has released reports stating that when you smell cow manure, you're also smelling greenhouse gas emissions.

That will be the focus of new research happening right here in the Southern Tier.

Agriculture Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, Mark Rey, was in Corning Wednesday morning at the Big Flats Plant Materials Center to annouce the award of nearly $20 million in Conservation Innovation Grants to fund 51 research projects across the country designed to refine new technologies helping dairy and other agricultural producers cut back on their greenhouse emissions and cash in on governmental incentives for the research.

One million dollars of those grants will come to New York State.

The U.S.D.A. is now taking applications from large dairy farms across the state who want to participate.

Dairy farmer Dave Boor says his small, 100-cow operation in Horseheads is hit hard every year with costly environmental regulations he has a hard time affording.

Boor says he hopes the new research will shed light on the issue, perhaps finding that small farms shouldn't have to face the same regulations larger farms do.

"In many cases with some of the smaller farms where maybe it isn't significant, perhaps some of these mandates won't be pushed on the small farmers that are already teetering on the bank of closing down," said Boor.

Source: WETM-TV