- The next speaker we have nis Adam Hady.
He is the Extension Ag Agent nfor Richland County.
And he's going to be talking about composting livestock,
mortalities, so with that I'll put Adam on.
Thank you.
- Thanks, Otto. As Otto said, my name's Adam Hady.
I'm the Ag Agent down in Richland County,
so I'm Otto's counterpart in the southwest part
of the state of Wisconsin,
and I'm here to talk to you today
about the successful methods for efficient and safe composting
of mortalities.
So basically we're all in the livestock business, right?
So unfortunately at some point in livestock,
you end up with dead stock,
so what do we do with dead stock?
So starting off here,
first thing we have to know when we do have a mortality,
we do have to have-- we have some obligation
and responsibilities for livestock disposal.
And I think we skipped over a slide here.
Yep. nSo in the state of Wisconsin,
we actually have a timeframe nwhen livestock--
or our mortalities nhave to be take care of,
so it's 24 hours from-- nin April through November.
So in the summertime, nit makes sense.
We should get rid nof these animals
nin a more efficient manner.
We all know--we've all droven ndown the side of the road
and we've seen deer nthat have been hit there,
and they've been sitting there nfor a while.
We don't need that non our farms.
We need to take care of them nin an appropriate manner.
However, we get into nour winter months,
we get a little bit nof a break.
We have 48 hours nby state law
to take care nof those animals.
nWe have a few options.
We have rendering, so the dead ntruck that comes through.
nWe have burial.
We have burning, nlandfilling, and composting.
So there's advantages and ndisadvantages to all of these.
And today we're gonna focus on composting.
The one method that does get used sometimes,
and I'm not saying that anybody nin here would ever do that,
but there is what I call nthe "Back Forty Method."
Years ago, we used to drag 'em nto the back corner of the woods
or the back forty, nthrow some lime on 'em
nand let 'em sit out there
and let the scavengers ntake care of 'em
nor the whatnot.
nThat is illegal.
We don't want to encourage nscavenging on our property.
I mean, the next part of this conference today,
we'll be talking about predators.
And if there's a better way to start attracting predators,
it's by leaving our animal carcasses there.
Also, we want to make sure that we're not contaminating
any well or waterways.
And we want to make sure
that we're taking care of the mortalities
in a efficient manner because generally there's a reason
that they died, and it usually is connected
with some kind of diseased pathogen transfer,
and we want to make sure that we take care of that as well.
So we're going to talk about composting,
and composting isn't just throwing 'em in a pile,
we'll let 'em sit there, and nit'll be taken care of, okay?
So composting is an aerobic nrecycling process,
so that means nwe're gonna use oxygen.
These are bacteria that, nlike oxygen,
they're gonna break down nthe organic material
so that the animal itself nwill be broke down
nin a controlled environment,
so this controlled environment nis really key
nto the composting process.
How are we managing nthis pile?
There is work and effort ninto it.
It's not just throw it nin a pile;
nwe'll come back at some point,
and we'll have the animal ncompletely broke down.
But we want to end up at the nend with a stable product
nthat we call humus
Nand that we can actually nback to our fields
Nin a safe manner.
So composting really is nbacteria farming, okay?
So we don't think, you know, nwe always think
of our traditional farming. nWe got our livestock.
nWe got our crops.
Well, when we're dealing nwith composting,
we're really looking nat providing bacteria
with the environment nto grow properly.
So we have these kind nof three different levels
that we have nour general bacteria,
and they account nfor about 80% to 90%
of the decomposition nactivity,
nand they generate heat, okay?
So these are bacteria that love nto live in warm environments.
They break down sugars, nstarches, proteins, and fats,
and start on the cellulose nproduction--or breakdown,
nso that really tough material.
We have the akino-- nactinomycetes--
I am really bad at saying nthat word,
but we got through it, nand so you'll see it
from now on I'll just say nthe A-bacterias.
They're another level order nof bacteria
that help in the second step, nso they start helping
break down some nof that tougher tissue.
And then finally we get to nour fungi state,
nand it's very similar.
They start breaking down nthat cellulitic material,
so break down the bones nand tendons,
all that really tough stuff in the animal.
So some of our advantages to composting is bio-security.
It's a quick, efficient manner.
We don't have the dead truck ncoming onto our place.
We don't have anybody else ncoming onto our place,
so we're not bringing somebody nelse's diseases there.
And we're taking care nof our own issues in-house.
nIt's environmentally friendly.
You're not leaving--nutrients nnot leaving your place.
You're able to put it back out ninto your own farms.
When done right-- nand I will stress this--
when done right, nit's low odor.
So it doesn't have nsome of the associated smells
nthat we might think of
when we talk about ndecomposing mortalities.
Again, while properly managed, nwe can destroy the pathogens,
weeds, seeds, nand other insect eggs,
so we can be using nsome of our older feed stocks
that we want to get rid of nin this process,
and we can, you know, kinda nkill two birds with one stone
and actually have a stable and a clean product
to put back out on our fields.
And again, provide stable nutrient
that can be returned to the farm.
There are disadvantages to it, though.
If everything in farming had pure advantages,
we'd be a lot better off, right?
So we gotta look what are some of the disadvantages.
There's definitely a cost to it.
The cost can be prohibitive, nand it could be an advantage
depending on nyour management system.
Labor, nas we look at things,
decide it's a controlled nsystem, right?
nIt's a managed system,
so anytime nyou're managing something,
there's also labor nthat goes into that,
so we have some labor nthat we have to look at.
There's monitoring nand maintenance.
Yeah, but don't just-- nlike I said at the beginning,
it's not just putting 'em nin a pile,
and you don't look at it till nyou're ready to incorporate it.
And then finally, do we have nspace to incorporate it?
How do we incorporate nthe compost itself?
NSo that's kind of the quick nand dirty of why we should,
Nbut now let's start looking nat the different elements
'cause we said it's na management system, right?
So in a managed system we have the separate elements.
So the first element that we have to deal with is moisture.
And, you know, we talk about the amount of water
that's in live tissue.
You know it's over 70% of the body's water,
so we have to manage nthis moisture.
But inside this total pile, nwe want the moisture to be
at about a 40-60% nmoisture range.
So if we have a pile nthat's too dry within there,
we don't get enough moisture nfor adequate bacterial growth,
so the bacteria ndon't have enough--
doesn't have enough moisture nto grow and expand.
nAnd if they're not growing,
we slow down nthat decomposition rate.
The flip side, nwe get it too wet, right?
nWe start to close the pores.
We said that we want oxygen nin the system.
We start putting this into na--an aerobic digestion system,
so it's a whole different nset of bacteria
that come into play.
We have slower decomposition time,
and then we can also start to get some odors
associated with the pile.
So how do you know--
are you going to take the moisture out there every time,
look at your compost pile,
see if you're at the right level?
There's kind of a rule of thumb, test feel.
Have you guys ever done-- taken a soils class,
and you used to make ribbons with the soil?
You could kind of do the same thing with compost.
You take a handful and you squeeze it, right?
If it doesn't come together-- clump together,
it's too dry.
If you squeeze it and there's water dripping out,
you're too wet.
But if you can make that nice-- just clump--
it's almost like the kids playing in the mud
a little bit, you know?
If they got something that they can make something out of,
that's about where you need it to be.
So we want to look at it just by that hand feel.
So we want just a little bit of water to come out,
but we don't want too much.
But this one is the real key to our whole process.
This is carbon/nitrogen balance.
It's said we're farming nbacteria, right?
So these are the two elements nof bacteria need to grow.
So our carbon/nitrogen nare the two main ingredients,
and our optimal ratio nis 25 to 1.
So the composting occurs nas low as 10 to 1,
nand as high as 50 to 1.
If we have high ammonia odors ncaused by not enough,
or too low nof carbon/nitrogen ratio
within the-- nwithin the mix.
So when we're looking at nhow do we manage this ratio,
what are some of the things nthat we need to look at?
So this is where we start nlooking at what we call
our co-compost nor bulking materials.
So what are we making nthis pile of, right?
We know we have nthe dead mortality.
That's giving us nwhat element?
It's giving us the nitrogen nelement out of our ratio,
so now we need to find what ncarbon sources to add to this--
to the pile to help nwith the composition.
So we need to A, nprovide carbon.
The other things that come ninto play with
nwhat are you gonna pick,
is how does it give structure nto the pile, right?
We need the oxygen to be able nto get in the pile,
nso we need some structure.
We need to provide a cover, na casting over this pile
so that we're not allowing npredators to come in.
We also have a lot nof liquid, right,
that's coming from the center nof the pile,
and we don't want any leachate ncoming out,
so what are the absorptive nproperties
of the composting material as well?
So when we're considering what we're gonna put into the pile
for our carbon source, what is the availability?
What do we have available nto us?
nWhat are the costs to it?
nCarbon to nitrogen levels,
moisture properties, nand particle size?
So a structure becomes nalso important,
so the structure size, nthat quarter of an inch
to an inch nis kind of where we want
Nsome of the particle size nto be.
NAnd here we can see nthis is just a chart
that came from the n"On-Farm Composting Handbook,"
but it just lists some nmaterials down through there,
and their carbon nto nitrogen ratios.
We look at typical things nthat we might find on-farm
that we might use nfor co-compost.
Anybody have a old pile nof corn silage or something
that kind of got na little bit spoiled
that we don't want to feed nanymore.
It's a pretty common one. nThat's 38 to 40 to 1.
We look at some nof the literature.
A lot of people talk nabout using sawdust.
nIt's very absorbent.
We look at a 200 nto 750 to 1.
Very variable depending on nif you're getting it
dry sawdust nversus wet sawdust.
So there's a lot of different nthings to consider here.
nBut as you're going through,
look at what the different ncarbon sources are,
and we have a lot of things nlike straw
and corn silage-- ncorn stocks, especially--
nthat are on-farm already that
might be cheap alternatives for nus as well.
So as we look at those, nwe talk about the structure
because oxygen nis very important.
The compost uses, again, nan aerobic decay,
and so those bacteria nand fungi need that oxygen
nto reproduce.
They can get pretty low levels nof oxygen.
nWe can down to about 5%
needed to keep nthe decomposition going.
And so when we start figuring nout how are we managing this?
What are some indicators nthat our pH might be--
or our oxygen might be na little off?
As we start to get odors nassociated and low pH
nwith too little oxygen.
So if your pile nreally starts to stink,
we might look at--we might nhave to start aerating it.
The other thing is nif we aerate it too much,
we can cool the pile nsignificantly,
so it becomes a management system.
So we talked about pH being a little bit of an indicator
for our pile management,
so I want to be as close to 7 as possible,
nwith a range of 5 to 10.
But temperature is really gonna nbe our management measurement
as we go through nthe system, okay?
We want the heat ranges in the npile to be 110 to 150 degrees.
These are where these bacteria nreally like to work,
nand this is where they--
the faster the pile nreaches those temperatures,
the more efficient nthe composting becomes.
So as we measure nthese temperatures,
the pile needs to heat up nto 131 degrees
for three consecutive days nto kill pathogens.
And in a little bit later here, we'll talk about
managing the temperature and what that can tell us
as far as pile management.
So those are the key elements.
I just want to show you
some work that was done in Arlington.
This was done in 2001, 2002,
so it's a little bit older, nbut you can definitely see
how simple these structures nreally can be.
It doesn't have to be nan elaborate
ncovered roof or anything,
but there's a lot nof options here.
But what they did is they set nup these different cells,
nso they had four cells.
Cell one was just ntheir feed stock,
so they were using sawdust. nThis was just a sawdust pile.
There wasn't really nanything in there.
In cell two, nthey had a cow,
and they had it in nthe straw treatment.
In cell three, they had a cow nin sawdust treatment.
And then cell four, nthere was a calf bin,
nso then some mixing area.
So we're gonna look at some of nthe different data points
nfrom that demonstration.
So this is just to talk nabout how fast
those piles can heat up, nokay?
So as we look in here, nthis was a 1,350-pound cow.
It was placed in the pile nat 8/7,
so at the beginning nof August.
Well, ten days later nat 8/17,
the temperature in the pile had nalready reached 133 degrees.
So it stayed above 130 degrees nalmost till the first part
of September, nso 9/6 was went it
kinda started to drop down nin temperature,
nbetween 9/6 and 9/16,
so, really, we had nthis really nice, good month
of really warm, nfast digestion, right?
And then the temperature nkinda slopes down.
You can kinda see there nby the middle of October.
You're sitting at about na temperature of 108.
nSo as you start to--
as that temperature starts nto level off in the hundreds,
is when we're going to start nthinking about
npossibly turning the pile.
We'll talk a little bit more nabout that.
So this one was the calf bin, nand there's two charts.
The top chart is actually nthe temperature chart
for the calf bin, just nlike we did with the cows.
And you can kinda see nthere's some up and down,
but it definitely has nthis nice shaped curve to it.
If you were to draw nkind of a line through there,
you could see where nit's nice curved.
And so the real comparison here nthat I want to highlight
is the bottom is the nprecipitation that they had
nduring that same timeframe.
So one of the concerns becomes, n"Okay, yes,
"we get this nice heating. nIt's August.
But what happens nduring rain events?"
Is that cool--how much does nthat cool the pile?
You know, there was this big nvariations in swings,
depending on the external nhappenings of the pile.
So we can see nin the beginning,
8/10, right away, kinda close nto the beginning here,
there was an inch of rain, nso--
if I can just kinda nget my cursor over here.
nIf you guys can see this.
Going across here, nyou know,
here's about that 1/2 inch nof rain.
So there's some significant nrainfalls that are happening
on top of these piles nduring this timeframe,
and really had no real effect non the temperature
inside the core of that pile, nso by building these pretty--
by using the right compost material
and having that structure, we can really maintain
those temperatures within the pile itself.
So they also logged what kind of bacterial growth
was happening in there.
So we can see--this was just kind of the time
going across there.
If we look, nthe dotted green line
nis the temperature,
so we can see that nwe definitely had
some increase nin temperature there.
So as we had that increase nin temperature,
we also had that blue line nkinda follow that green line.
nSo these are the populations
of that first level bacteria nthat we talked about, okay?
So they were doing kinda ntheir thing right away
at the beginning, nso you can see, you know,
we kinda get ntwo little waves there.
And then it kinda matches up nto fungi and the A-bacteria
nthat I talked about earlier.
They start to match up, nand actually the fungi
grow a little bit better nthan our regular bacteria
to finish off nthat composting process.
So you can kinda see how those nthree tiers of bacteria
that we talked about nat the beginning
work into the system nin their growth patterns.
So this was that August cow nin that sawdust pile.
So this was nine months later nin May,
so it composted nthrough the winter.
It was turned na couple of times.
But what you can start to see nhere is, you know--
nget my cursor over here.
So we have a big bone here; nwe have a big bone here,
but there's no tissue to speak nof, you know what I mean?
We're really now just looking nat the bigger, harder bones.
So this was a 1,350-pound cow.
So it's not like there was a lot of soft bone tissue there.
We're talking about some harder tissue.
So we start to get some serious--
pretty much everything is gone except for the bones
are starting to get brittle at this point.
We can further put them into the composting process,
and some of the data that I've seen
shows that if you took this out to a full two years,
you wouldn't have even the femur bones left
with mixing 'em in the proper piles,
so we can get rid of them,
depending on when you want to complete that process.
So what are some of the equipment that we're gonna need?
We said it's managed system, right?
So we first have--the first nthing we need to have
is some kind of equipment for nloading and turning the pile,
so typically these are nskid steers, front-end loaders,
some way that we can nmove carcasses,
move bulking material, nmix the compost,
and turn it into na finished product.
The second one here nis a 3-foot temperature probe.
Now, we want a 3-foot ntemperature probe
because we're making a fairly nsubstantial sized mound, right?
So if we want to monitor ntemperature,
temperature's gonna be nour key indicator
nfor how the activity--
microbial activity nin the pile's working.
We want to get into-- nas close to the center
nof that pile as we can.
So having that 3-foot probe nallows us to take temperatures
within the middle nof the pile.
The second one-- nor the third one up here
nis a lancing tool.
So a lancing tool, well, why would you need this?
Well, as we're building the pile,
it's suggested that you lance the rumen
prior to completely filling in the pile.
Again, we've all seen that deer
on the side of the road in August.
You know how that expands
with the gases within the cavity.
If we lance that animal prior to that,
it allows for the release of the expansion,
and we don't degradate the structure of the pile itself
when gas built up, and it also encourages
faster decomposition because now we're also allowing
some of the rumen bacteria to move out into the pile as well.
A log book. Again, we said that this is a managed system,
so just about every Extension recommendation
will tell you guys that record keeping
is coming into play some point, right?
And we all know how much everybody loves paperwork,
but it really does give you an opportunity to monitor,
"When is my pile really starting to drop in temperature?
Is it time to aerate it?"
And if you have this log book, you start looking at the pile
and looking at different things for structure
and that type of thing.
And then there's just some miscellaneous tools suggested.
You know, if you do have kind of a composting area,
that maybe you have a set of pitchfork and shovels
and some of those things that are just designated
for that area,
so you're not dragging 'em to other parts of the farm as well
for bio-security.
So we saw some demonstrations,
but what do these structures really look like?
So the first one here is--
you have basically nthree different options here.
nWe have compost bins,
nand these can be anything,
so you can see nin the picture here
they've taken nsome old round bales,
made a little square, and this nis what they're gonna use
nfor a bin.
Prior to my work nwith Extension,
I worked nin the poultry industry.
We had some people there nthat were building
nconcrete-walled bins.
nThere's tub tumblers as bins.
There's a lot of different ncomposting bins
that can be built, nso you can put a lot of money--
you can put roofs nand everything over them.
nSo--but basically a bin.
We're just taking na certain amount of area
that allows us to nminimize the space
and actually build up within nand contain the material.
nWe have static piles,
and so these would be nessentially like this bin
except for we wouldn't have nwalls around them, per se.
And so these will just be na mound, basically.
And then windrow composting, nthis is typically what's done
if you had say more of na health--
na major health outbreak
where you had lots nof mortalities at once.
You end up making, like, that static pile,
but it gets extended out in long windrow.
It allows you to manage multiple mortalities
as you move forward.
So when you're going-- if you're going to put in
some compost bins or piles or windrows,
there's really kind of this
long site checklist for facilities.
We want to avoid wet areas, right?
We want it to be kind of nthat high and dry.
We don't want anything nspilling over
into our water streams, nwaterways.
nWe want to divert--
we don't want to be in nthe clean water areas.
Want to make sure that nwe're at least 3 feet above
high water tables, nand I'm not real familiar
with the water tables nup here,
but I did see a lot of water nas I was coming in,
so my guess is there's certain nareas in the county
that the water level's npretty high,
so you want to make sure nthat your hitting that
above 3 feet nabove the water table.
You want to put it 300 feet nfrom streams, ponds,
nlakes, or drainage areas.
Again, we're really trying nto protect the environment
because one of the reasons nwe're doing this
nis it does have a benefit,
but we don't want to make it na detriment as well.
nWeather access.
So we talked about nthose big bones, right?
That was nine months nto a year
that we're gonna have nthese piles on there.
And we have nsome management system
nthat we have to take care of.
So can we access where nwe're gonna put the piles
with our end loaders nto turn the pile
if it needs to be turned nin the winter?
Is it really hard to get to that place
'cause we have mud in the spring?
So we need to take in consideration
what is our access?
Do we have suitable storage?
So if we're using sawdust,
do we have some old feedstuffs that we're gonna separate out?
'Cause we don't really want to mix our feedstuffs
with our compost stuff by our feedstuffs
'cause we don't want to be co-mingling our--
and then running through areas to try to transmit disease.
Farm traffic in general.
You know, we kinda want to put these in an area
that they're kind of-- once we set 'em,
we can kinda let 'em be.
We can monitor 'em, but we don't have to run it 'em
on a daily basis.
Consider prevailing winds.
I don't know if any of you guys got neighbors,
but sometimes if the pile isn't quite working right,
there are some odors nthat are produced.
And we want nto make sure that
we keep nour neighborly relations.
And just the aesthetics nand landscaping.
My guess is up with a lot nof tourists driving through
to get to the lakes nand waterways,
probably right next nto Highway 53
is probably not the best place nto have you composting piles
and your mortality issues nout for everybody to see.
We just want to make sure nthat we keep it
aesthetically pleasing nfor everyone.
nSo we picked a site.
We've got all these elements nthat we're gonna look at.
nSo how do we construct it
to make sure that it's doing nits job effectively?
So the first thing we do nis we start with a base.
And we may be using ndifferent materials
nfor different parts of this,
so the base we want something nthat's gonna be
nsound and absorbent, right?
'Cause the water's gonna nleach down.
So this is what we're gonna put nthe livestock on,
nthe mortality on top of.
So we want about 24 inches, n18 to 24 inches of material
in a bed big enough nthat we can place
the mortality nin the center,
and you have about 2 feet naround that mortality.
So this is a considerable namount of material
nthat we're using,
so when you look at the total nvolume of those piles,
nabout 12 cubic yards.
So it's a pretty good size pile nwhen it's all said and done.
The mortality, we want to place nit in the center of that base,
24 inches from the edges, nagain,
and then we want to build nthis blanket or cover.
So there can be 12 to 24 inches nover the top of the mortality,
and we want to make sure nthat we shape it, right?
So just before we're putting on nthis blanket or cover again,
we want to lance nthat mortality,
and then we want to start nshaping this blanket or cover
and we want to use nthe co-compost.
Here we want something with a nlittle more structure maybe
than we had on the base layer, so ones that come up here,
a lot of people use, say, some corn silage, for example,
becomes pretty popular, some sawdust,
some mixed manure a little bit in here.
'Cause we already have some added nitrogen.
We have some moisture.
We also have some start of the bacterial growth.
Also if you have continuing compost piles,
using a little bit of that compost
from one pile that's almost finished
is almost like a starter culture in the pile.
It really can help accelerate the pile itself.
So once we get the pile all managed, built,
we want to start checking the pile regularly.
I don't know about you guys, nbut every time--
I've never built the perfect nmound of material
that stayed the same ntwo months later.
So when we're checking nthis pile,
I want to make sure we're not nhaving flat spots in it.
We want to make sure that the nmound stays fairly uniform.
So we start monitoring ntemperature.
And you saw in that earlier ngraph, you know,
temperature kind of has nthis nice, little bell shape.
And then the one nwith the bacterial growth,
we saw kind of a bump nin temperature again.
When you go-- nwhen the temperature gets down
nto about that 110 degrees,
it's a good indication that nthat might be the time
that we want to turn the pile nor add some air into that pile.
So that temperature kind of ntells us that we're gonna--
the temperature's getting na little bit low,
so the bacteria aren't growing as well for us.
We need to add a little oxygen into the system.
So we might turn and reshape that pile,
and then we should get another spike in temperature.
So that first--first one is gonna probably take us
about four to nine months, somewhere in there,
depending on temperature outside and some of those other things.
But then we're gonna turn the pile
by monitoring the temperature.
When we turn that pile,
then we should see another spike in temperature,
and we're gonna do this every couple of months
till we really don't see much of a spike
in our temperature anymore, and then we know
that we have a completed composted product.
So when we're monitoring,
NI thought nwe're gonna have some problems,
Nso these are our kind of nour troubleshooting guides.
NAnd this came right off nthe Department of Ag's website,
so if you guys want nthis troubleshooting site
or list, nit's right there.
nBut improper temperature,
so we're just not getting nthe temperatures
nwe think we should.
So what are some nof the causes?
Do we have-- nis it too wet, too dry?
You know, is our carbon nto nitrogen ratios--
nare they matching up?
Especially when we get into nthat second and third heating.
Sometimes we might not get nthe heating
that we're expecting nto get.
If we had a really successful nfirst round,
we might have eaten up na lot of our nitrogen source.
So we may have to add nsome nitrogen source
nback into the system.
And one of the simplest ways nto do that
is if any of you have na bedded pack system,
you just add some manure nback in there
because you're gonna get nthe nitrogen
out of the cattle manure nto help boost bacteria again.
Odors, again, we talked nabout that.
Too wet and moving from aerobic nto anaerobic digestion,
and that will increase nthe odors.
Flies. It's one of the things nwe really don't think of,
but if we construct these piles nadequately,
we're gonna have some flies naround the pile,
but there shouldn't be nlarge volumes of flies
nand also are scavenging,
so when we talk nabout those two,
pile management becomes na real concern
because there might not nbe enough cover,
and we want to make sure nthat we have those piles
to the point where we're not nattracting unwanted critters.
So this is great. nWe're doing a lot of stuff.
We find the environmental npart of it
now is really cost-effective, okay?
We just talked--there's lots of materials that you can use.
Lots of different things, so what happened here
is a university in Canada,
they set out to determine the efficiency and stability
of using sawdust, corn silage, or solid manure
in composting mortalities on feedyards.
So what they did nis they took two sites,
so they have two sites nin southwestern Ontario,
and they just wanted to go nover the normal mortalities.
So they actually set up six nbins on each of these sites,
and their bins were very nsimilar to
the ones you saw nat Arlington.
They were just made nfrom bales,
so it wasn't a lot of concrete nand mortar type bins,
nbut they used bale systems.
Both of these feedlots nfinished out about
1,000 to 1,500 cattle na year,
so, I mean, nthey weren't extremely large,
nbut they're a good size.
So they have fairly regular nmortalities.
And they wanted to use-- nlook at how
nthese composting substrates
were affecting nthe composting rate.
So you can see here nthis is site one and site two.
And they each had ntheir six bins,
nand as you look at the dates,
they weren't filled nall at the same time,
so these are truly, truly nutilizing on-farm mortalities.
They weren't trying nto load it.
So the first--but you look non average the second column
or the--this column here-- noops.
nThis column right here,
this was ntheir first mixing time,
so you can see it was nabout six months
before they mixed their piles nfor the first time.
And then, when they did ntheir final mixing,
so they were running anywhere nfrom about 10 to 12 months
So they were going through nalmost a full year
nwith the piles.
nSome a little longer,
nsome a little less.
So this table here, nthis shows site one.
nSite one had 21 carcasses
that they said nwent through their system.
nSo we look at the table.
nSo this was their base,
so they put in a base nof 25 to 30 centimeters.
So if we look about that, nit's about a foot
is what they were putting down nfor a base.
And then, nthe next row here
is the approximate weight nof first animals.
So they were loading na couple of animals in
neach bin at a time.
And so when we look at this, nthese are all in kilograms,
so we look at the 500, nthe 522,
that's about 1,100 pounds, nso it kind of gives you an idea
about how big some nof these animals were
that they were loading ninto the bin.
Then they put na second layer in,
nthe depth of substrate,
so they actually layered nmortalities
non top of each other.
And then they had a bunch nof these 295s.
And so the 295s in this one, nthey're actually also
utilizing nsome slaughter waste.
So the 295s were awful and nthings from a slaughter plant
that they were also utilizing nin their compost bins.
So it was just a different-- nso they basically had
ntheir mortality in them.
They would put a layer of co-compost,
and then they would put some slaughter waste,
and then they would top it off with the 60 centimeters,
or about 2 feet of substrate,
over to cap their piles and the bins.
Farm two, obvious, didn't put nearly as many animals
into theirs, and they were na lot more consistent and even
nthroughout their loading.
So, you know, nthere was only 12 carcasses
nput into the six bins here.
So just to kind of show you nhow use and management
affect the bottom line nof the bins.
So costs associated. nSo when they did
the economic analysis, nthey had to set some guidelines
for what each farm suggested nthat they had for costs.
nSo they built bales, right?
So they used straw bales nfor their bins.
So they figured $15 per bale nfor their bin construction,
$6 per square meter nfor sawdust.
The one farmer said, "I'm not ngoing to charge anything
"for my corn silage. nIt was spoiled.
"I wasn't going to be able nto use it anyways,
"I'd either have to put it nback out on the field,
"or do something with it, nso I can use it in this system,
"but I'm not gonna put na dollar value
'cause it would have been nwaste for us anyways."
And then they also valued nmanure at $2.50 a square meter.
Site two again used nbales construction.
They had a little bit higher ncost per bale.
nThey charged themselves $20.
Their sawdust was $25 na ton.
Corn silage, nthey charged $25 a ton too.
And then about the same nfor manure costs.
And then labor costs nwere $12 an hour.
And then they figured n$50 an hour
for machinery and operator ncosts throughout the system.
nSo what does that mean?
So they took the costs there nfor site one and site two.
nSo to build their bins,
nit costs about $60 per bin.
nLabor was about $10.
So if we look ndown through this,
nwe get to the point...
here, where we get total costs nfor the bin
nis $161.80 for site one,
and 200--roughly $250 nfor site two.
Okay, so what-- nsome of the major differences
that come here is obviously one charged for the corn silage,
one didn't, so depending on how you look at your cost
for these bins, there can be some
drastically different costs per bin.
What they did then was compare it, "Okay, so if the rendering
"truck charged me $55 an animal to pick up,
"or $100 per animal nto pick up,
nwhat does that tell me?"
In the case of site one, nif pickup was $55 per animal,
it was more efficient for them nto use the compost bins.
It was cheaper nfor their operation.
If site two, it was definitely nmuch cheaper for them
nto use the rendering truck
than it would be to use ntheir costs for composting
during this particular year, nand this was 2006, I believe.
So what that really tells me, nthough,
is management becomes nkey factor,
nand is this really
a economically viable option for me,
and is it something you want to do?
I will say, though, at the end part of the study
when they talked about some of the acknowledgments
and some of the other things that come out of here,
one of the things that the farms indicated
that they liked the composting better,
and even the one that was losing money
compared to the rendering truck was gonna continue to do that
because they felt that they were able to manage
their dead animals a lot faster
and more efficiently
and that they were able to return the nutrients
back to the soil, so there was some real positives
beyond just the costs that they felt was worth
continuing with the composting.
So in conclusion,
these are some environmentally sound practices.
When I talk about quick ndisposal time
nof the mortalities,
it's not necessarily the quick ntime to get it broke down,
but how fast you can, from the npoint when you find the animal,
the mortality to the time nwhen you actually
can contain the mortality, nis extremely quick.
nCan it be cost effective?
It may or may not be nas we saw in the last one.
There's some positives there nas well.
So there's opportunities here.
We can utilize the nutrients and some of the things
we have right on farm as an alternative way
to manage our mortalities on livestock farms.
And we all know that the regulations and laws
are getting stricter and stricter
about what rendering trucks are able to take.
So we may have to be looking at
new options for us in the future,
so here's a list of references and resources.
And all of you should have got a sheet of paper at the front
that has these resources at the end of it as well.
And with that, do you guys have any questions?
[applause]