Manure Marketing
(Continued from Pago 4)
By-Products
To Profit
Some poultry producers
have found a way to turn the by
products of their operation into
profit.
At the Elizabethtown, Pa.
layer farm of Paul M. Wolge
muth, Jr., a turnkey layer com
posting system allows the man
ure generated by a200,000-bird
flock to dry and compost
gradually.
The system, built by Salmet,
in Germany, was installed in
1991 to move manure from the
cages, dry it with special whisk
ing fans above a conveyor, and
move to a section of the build
ing. There, three 17-foot by
300-foot lanes support win
drows of manure that is gradu
ally turned and dried through a
system that runs the length of
the house and back.
The system is installed in a
370-foot by 105-foot layer
house holding about 142,000
layers. The manure is trans
fercd from the laying area by
conveyor every seven days.
The conveyor machine
moves at a speed of 5'A inches
per minute, or about eight hours
through the lane. After dried
and composed, a frontloader is
used to move the machine to a
conveyor, which loads it to a
truck, or to a grinder, to be
further refined.
• LAYERS more eggs, improved shell quality
• PULLETS achieve body weight goals on less feed
• BROILERS improved feed conversion
• BREEDERS improve hatachability
• TURKEYS better feed conversion
Wolgemuth said that he
decided to use the system to
provide a better environment
for the birds.
“We’re in Mount Joy Town
ship,” he said, “and our town
ship says that before they
would give any kind of a build
ing permit for livestock facili
ties, they want to make sure we
are in compliance with a man
ure management plan.”
According to the poultry far
mer, the plan indicated the farm
had slightly too much manure
for the 165 tillable acres cover
ing two separate farms. To add
more chickens, said Wolge
muth, “we had to have apian to
get rid of the manure and not
put any of it on our existing
farm ground.”
In 1991, they decided to
market the manure. First they
installed the Salmet system.
The key to the system is drying
the manure (fresh layer manure
is about 70 percent moisture)
right out of the layer house to
under 60 percent in order to get
the composting to start.
The Salmet system dries the
manure without having to add
any additional drying ingre
dients, said the poultry farmer.
“I didn’t want a system
where we would have to be
trucking in other material to
add to the' manure, such as
wood shavings or paper or
leaves or whatever,” he said.
' He said at that point he had
several markets for the com-
Poultry Notes Supplement to Lsncsster Farming, Saturday, Sept 25, 1993-Pege 5
posted material, but the buyers
wanted pure manure, not pro
duct that included wood shav
ings, sawdust, or some other
drying material.
The composting machine
can be moved in a few minutes
to each lane. Six weeks after
fresh manure goes in one end, it
comes out the other end as dry
manure.
The dry manure is then
ground up, depending on .-cus
tomer requirements.
Wolgemuth sells about 1.400
tons per year of fertilizer, the
majority of which goes to a
company called Harmony Pro
ducts in Norfolk, Va. Harmony
markets a retail line of organic
based lawn and garden
fertilizers.
He is considering marketing
the compst as a bagged product
under the Green Tree Organic
label. The label indicates the
fertilizer is “100% Natural
Organic” with a 3-2-2 analysis.
(Tests on the manure at any
time can differ by a percentage
point or so, indicated Wolge
muth, so the label is a guaran
teed minimum of the availabili
. ty based on recent and ongoing
analyses. The labeling requires
the analysis indicate the break
down of water soluble and
insoluble nitrogen, listing actu
al availability of nutrients,
including phosphorous.)
He is attempting to develop
markets for 5-pound,
15-pound, and 40-pound bags
of the composted manure. He
(Turn to Page 6)
LB lON ®
CM Aiilßl®
tSii SJMivßln
(QUID
\ Lancaster Farming I —r~L
rteoDosiav LKj®iS
Paul Wolgemuth Is attempting to develop markets
for 5-pound, 15-pound, and 40-pound bags of the com
posted layer manure. He Indicated he wants to move
gradually Into local retail markets and do some adver
tizing locally to see what the demand for the product
will be.
ENT DISTRIBUTORS, INC.
P.O. BOX 15
PEACH BOTTOM, PA 17563
PHONE 717-548-3811
Use REPLAMIN® L
and POULTRY PA
if you want Xh
feathers edge o
profitability.
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