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Composter Update

On September 17, 2013 in General by spope

Now that we’ve had our new composter for nearly a year it would be good to give you an update on how it’s working. We switched from incinerator to composter for financial and productivity reasons and have been pleased with the results.

The composter remained at a steady 140º throughout the fall weather, but once the colder temperatures rolled in we had a hard time keeping getting the operating temperature in the correct range. Temperature is very important in this process, needing to be kept between 126º and150º in order to kill pathogens from the mortality such as salmonella and e coli so the resulting compost material can be used as a fertilizer source. In order to retain the most favorable temperature, the moisture levels need to be maintained using a 3:1 ratio of bulking agent to mortality. The bulking agent needs to be added whenever the composter is tended, at least 6 days a week.
Composter with group - Copy
When the colder weather set in, it caused the temperature within the composter to crash and we had a really hard time getting back into the ideal range. We tried lots of different recipe ratios and talked a lot with Ecodrum, the manufacturer, and eventually found that by increasing the bin rotation and using mostly horse manure as the bulking agent we were able to raise the temperature by March. At this point, a few different people were in charge of working the composter and after more crashes in the spring we decided to give sole control to Brian Davis who has trained his staff of Krystal, Carlos, and Kenny in all the correct ways to work the composter and keep consistent with the recipe. We have been consistently running at about 130º.

Over the summer we had an engineer from Ecodrum (Tim Epp) visit and evaluate our composter. He gave us a few tips on how to keep the temperature higher, like more bin rotations, and pressed upon us how important keeping a consistent recipe is for keeping the temperature from crashing. In order to prevent the cold months from interfering with the temperature consistence we have been constructing a building over and around the composter to help with insulation, which should be done by fall.

The composter has been able to accommodate the total mortality and bulking – about 300 lbs of organic matter – from the whole farm on a day-to-day basis. Comparatively, the incinerators we used before were unable to keep up with the demand/amount of mortality even with steady operation. Our mortality disposal has been more efficient and cost effective since the switch. So, though we are still learning how to maintain the best temperature consistently, we are extremely pleased with the results and consider it worth the effort.
(Source information from Brian Davis)



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