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Any Composters out there?

rossaroni

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Messages
106
Location
SE PA
I guess this kind of counts as recycling...
Just curious if anyone out there is working in any areas of composting, and what your results have been like.
We've got about 40 head of horses, and are composting the waste.We've been selling bulk on a small scale, about 1000 yards last year.
Looking to go to forced aeration on the piles, decrease our production time, increase our output, and reclaim some of that hot air for heating the barn in the winter.
Anyone else able to make horse crap smell like cash?
 

Steve Frazier

Founder
Staff member
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Messages
6,599
Location
LaGrangeville, N.Y.
There's a company near me that collects it from the various equestrian centers in the area and processes it. They sell it under the name of "Sweet Peet", it's a pretty big operation. They leave rolloffs at the centers where the barn cleanings can be pushed into and swap them out.
 

rossaroni

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2013
Messages
106
Location
SE PA
Steve,
I just checked out their website, and wow!
I dont see too many people who do this, and they seem to be doing it quite well. Gives me things to dream about.
Thanks
 

Wastepro

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
82
Location
Winston Salem, NC
Occupation
Recycling
Hey Steve,
We do some composting of food and paper waste. Use a loader to mix and a windrow turner to process. Main thing is to have enough carbon around to mix in and cap windrows. Might be worthwhile but you need a lot of manure to keep you busy and pay for equipment.
 

ABruso

Active Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Messages
40
Location
Massachusetts
Occupation
Compost Owner/Operator
Yes forced aeration can work. You can make and sell compost with just a wheel loader or even a compact track loader. The John Deere CT 332 with a 2 yd bucket was quite effective at making about 500yd of good compost/year. After that you will want a wheel loader with at least a 3 yd bucket. A coupler on the machine can be very useful.
Forced aeration works. You don't need much air, just enough to get the pile's natural convection going.

If your dealing with food scraps or anything that animals are attracted to then yes, like wastepro said, make sure you have enough carbon for initial mixing and capping.
 

treemover

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
100
Location
ks
I am interested in this. Have roll offs and ground , just need to wrap my head around details.... So can someone explain capping and what is carbon(manure).

What are the mixture rates?
 

Delmer

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
8,863
Location
WI
Look up carbon to nitrogen ratio. ( don't be distracted by all the info on how it relates to global warming, wait, there IS NONE) sorry couldn't help it.

Carbon is just referring to any waste material that's low in nitrogen, straw, wood chips, dried dead brown grass. Nitrogen is higher in higher protein wastes, chicken manure, green grass clippings etc. High nitrogen waste will get nasty, so it has to be mixed with brown stuff to balance the carbon to nitrogen.

Capping is just putting a cap of less attractive waste over waste that will attract pests.
 
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