Waste to Resource-Generating a High Quality Soil Amendment from Animal Mortality and Butcher Waste

Commodities

• Animals: bovine, poultry, sheep, swine
• Animal Products: meat

Practices

• Animal Production: manure management, meat processing, meat processing facilities
• Crop Production: fertilizers, food processing, nutrient cycling, nutrient management, organic fertilizers
• Education and Training: demonstration, farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking, on-farm/ranch research, technical assistance, workshop
• Energy: byproduct utilization
• Production Systems: integrated crop and livestock systems, organic agriculture
• Soil Management: composting, organic matter, soil analysis, soil chemistry, soil microbiology, toxic status mitigation
• Sustainable Communities: community services, food loss and waste recovery/reduction, local and regional food systems

Issue: Many NYS North Country farmers compost their animal mortalities and butcher waste, however they are challenged with optimizing conditions including recipe development, site planning, feedstock sourcing, carbon supplies, pile monitoring and tracking, and rising cost of labor. Simultaneously, growers spend money bringing in organic and non-organic soil amendments and pesticides from outside the region when they could be saving money and resources using locally produced compost.  

Objective 1: Develop a model of appropriate, feasible, low-labor static pile animal mortality composting practices. 

Objective 2:  Produce high quality compost from locally available mortality and butcher waste, animal bedding, and wood byproducts and sell it to local farmers. 

Objective 3: Share educational information about the model with North Country farmers.

Key Components of the plan of Work: RRF will partner with animal mortality composting expert, Jean F. Bonhotal and composting experts with Compost for Good (CfG) to (1) consistently manage animal mortality compost piles at RRF, (2) track pile conditions such as inputs, moisture content, odors, temperatures, microbial activity etc. (3) conduct testing and consultations with the technical advisors and partners to adjust recipe and process, and (4) deliver finished compost to local farmers.

Outreach Strategy:  Research results will be shared annually with area farmers to build capacity in high quality, locally generated, mortality and butcher waste composting and application. Results will be shared through workshops and the creation of a best practices case study to be distributed through newsletters, websites, email distribution, conference presentations, social media, etc.

Objective 1: Develop a model of appropriate, feasible, low-labor static pile animal mortality composting practices. 

Objective 2:  Produce high quality* compost from locally available mortality and butcher waste, animal bedding, and wood byproducts and sell it to local farmers. 

Objective 3: Share educational information about the model with North Country farmers.

*To be measured through a variety of tests including NPK, PFAs (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), pH, VOC, %N, organic matter, carbon to nitrogen ratios, soluble salts, ph, VOC, etc.