Fernandes Family Farms: Four Digesters, One Legacy

The Fernandes family has been dairying in California’s San Joaquin Valley since the 1920s, when Frank Fernandes came over from the Azores and started milking cows during the Great Depression.

A century later, his grandsons continue to dairy and have expanded on multiple facilities— and now, they’re also producing renewable fuel from manure while capturing methane that would be emitted as a powerful greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. Joe Fernandes passed the operation to his six sons: Joey, Greg, Gary, Frank, Jared, and Josh. Together, they manage four Tulare County dairies with anaerobic digesters funded by CDFA Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP) —Fern Oaks (2019), Legacy Ranch (2017), LegenDairy Farms (2022), and Sousa & Sousa (2018, also known as Legacy Holsteins). All four dairies are based in Tulare County as a part of the Calgren Dairy Fuels Cluster, California’s first full-scale dairy pipeline network. In total, the four projects received $5.3 million through DDRDP. Greg runs Fern Oaks; Gary runs LegenDairy; Jared and Josh manage daily operations at Legacy Ranche, while Frank handles farming. Most digesters were built with Maas Energy Works. Joey also developed a separate project through a DDRDP grant with California Bioenergy. 

Originally Published by: California Department of Food and Agriculture

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