Markets Large For Poultry Manure Fertilizer
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
MAN HEIM (Lancaster Co.)
In Neal Anglin’s words, putting
organic fertilizer into a lawn and
garden center may be as difficult as
try ing to get shelf space for eggs in
a dairy counter.
“You have to do all kinds of
gymnastics to get these people to
listen to you,” he said.
But if you do. the payoff in
terms of removing (as some see it)
a liability from a poultry broiler or
layer operation and making money
on top of it can be huge.
Anglin, representing Nutrigan
ics. a company which helps to
further process dried poultry house
manure, spoke to about 30 produc
ers and agri-industry representa
tives on Monday afternoon at the
Penn State-sponsored Poultry
Management and Health Seminar
at Kreider’s Restaurant
While it may be tough to get gar
den center stories to carry poultry
manure fertilizer, in Anglin’s
experience, stores in Ohio realize a
100-400 percent profit margin on
the material. One store in Toledo,
Ohio, moved 22 tons through a
store in a season. The Toledo store
purchased the product at $3.80 per
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bag and sold it at $l2 a bag. “And
the people really, really like the
material.” he said.
The challenge involves getting
the manure out of the house in a
reduced moisture form so it can be
further processed by biofermena
tion, which increases its microbial
content, or by pelletizing and
blending with blood- and feather
meal.
In Anglin’s experience with
processors that sell dried manure
in bulk, the process of removing
the manure from the operation is
key.
For producers to realize ease of
handling and fast dry down, the
battery-belt systems are a distinct
improvement over the high rise,
pit-type houses. Not only can the
moisture be removed more readily
for processing and marketing of
the manure, but the bird environ
ment temperature is easily man
aged (less variation in house temp
erature), more eggs ate produced,
and ammonia levels are reduced,
thus preventing degradation of„
steel and wire. The equipment life
is extended.
If you can get the manure out'of
the house and get it down to that
25-30 percent moisture range, the
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manure can be handled more readi
ly and composted.
Many producers take the man
ure and pile it in windrows. Using
special equipment, the material in
the windrow is composted. The
finished product, at 18 percent
moisture, completely odorless, can
be then further blended, either with
bloodmeal or feathermeal, and
pelletized.
One Lancaster County farmer
sold the composted manure to an
operation on Long Island for
organic gardeners at $llO per ton.
For large-scale, high production
agriculture, the N-P-K value
reaches about SSO/ton. Bagged, in
some areas, the value approaches
$350 per ton, according to Anglin.
University analysis of the
material provides N-P-K values.
One estimate of the material, at IS
pounds, was equal to a one-pound
application of 18-4-10 commercial
fertilizer.
The material is useful mostly for
new lawns. Not only does it lime
the grass, but it also includes the
necessary microbial activity to
break down nitrogen for plant use.
In the pelletized form, there are
about two million microbes per
gram. The biofermented material
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Neal Anglin, representing Nutrlganics, a company which
helps to further process dried poultry house manure, spoke
to about 30 producers and agri-industry representatives on
Monday afternoon at the Penn State-sponsored Poultry
Management and Health Seminar at Krelder’s Restaurant.
contains about 80 million micro
bes per gram.
Anglin said that he worked a test
plot that included a two-inch layer
of the material beneath sod.
Because of the excellent root sys
tem feeding, the sod had to be cut
every three days.
The material is in use by many
athletic turf companies. Anglin
said there is two inches of the
material underneath Joe Robey
Stadium in Miami, Fla., RFK Sta
dium in Washington, D.C., 3Com
(formerly Candlestick) Park in San
Francisco, Calif., at the soon-to-be
named Dodger’s Stadium, Ana
heim, Calif., and the Olympic Sta
dium in Atlanta, Ga.
For those who want to direct
market the manure, it is important
to document the N-P-K value by
university analysis. Those figures
got mi
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should be clearly labeled on the
package.
“It gets down to promoting the
product,” he said. “A lot of things
I’ve suggested to many people is
they get in touch with a good agro
nomist, someone that is aquainted
with organics, (and have) someone
that is willing to promote organics
become part of your operation.”
Anglin emphasized educating
the store manager and owner. ‘ ‘Go
out and talk with these lawn and
garden retailers with some degree
of understanding about the process
and how the material works in the
soil,” he said. The material is best
with newly seeded lawns and
restoring damaged lawns.
Also, many golf course mana
gers are using the product because
of it’s all-natural, organic label.
k
A strong, prudent board of
directors challenges management
and staff to seek the greatest return
on our investment in ADC,
creating the highest net return to
its members back on the farm.
—Richard £sf Janet Kriebel
Benton, PA