Consider the cow. Here’s a creature whose very existence has nurtured countless millions of people for centuries. They have provided humans with milk and beef, and served as labor animals and leather supplies. And still they can’t get over the knock of being dumb. True, sleeping upright and allowing juveniles to sneak up and tip you over is never going to win you any IQ points, but you’d think they would at least rate somewhere above the pig, an animal that lives in its own filth.

Well, perhaps the cow’s day is finally here. Proving that where there’s a human need, there’s a cow to save the day, a farmer in Vermont has created a system that harnesses the methane gas from the manure of more than 1,500 cows to provide energy for more than 300 homes.

“The girls are now officially producing two streams of income, a milk check and a power check,” said Earl Audet the owner of the Blue Spruce Farm in Bridgeport. “This is one more way to diversify the farm, improve our bottom line, and manage our manure responsibly.”

As the collected manure breaks down over time, it emits a gas that is collected in a generator and turned into electricity that is fed into the utility power grid.

Steve Costello, spokesman for Central Vermont Public Service Corp., the state’s largest utility provider said this is the “first time anywhere in the country that a farm-based generation has been offered to customers as a renewable choice,” spokesman said Friday. Other farms have only generated electricity for their own use, he said.

As you can imagine, the process of acquiring energy though decomposing manure is not pretty or clean, but it is effective. So far about 1,000 people who don’t care if their power comes from a cow, a potato, or a coconut so long as it’s reliable have signed up to receive this unique renewable energy. And they’re willing to spend about 4 cents more per kilowatt than normal. Call Audet the man with the golden cow turds. But at this rate, he’s laughing all the way to the bank.