LESLIEVILLE, Alta. — A family’s interest in improving their grey-wooded soil has turned into a business of making compost from manure.
The Liivam brothers of Eckville, Alta., travel to dairy farms and feedlots from Strathmore to Stony Plain with their self-propelled windrower that turns manure to compost in five weeks.
“We have grey-wooded soil, that’s what interested us in the first place to grow better crops,” said Ken Liivam, who said they have already seen an improvement in their soil’s health since adding compost for five years.
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“It does show up in time,” he said.
Wood chips and gypsum are also added to the manure.
Drywall material is collected at landfills, ground up and added to the manure. The gypsum reduces odour and helps capture nitrogen that would be lost through the composting process.
The wood chips are waste wood from landfill sites around Calgary.
“It’s a feel good story. We’re helping the environment, we’re making compost and doing things environmentally and keeping the landfills empty,” said Ken.
With the addition of wood chips and gypsum, no longer is the manure considered a waste product. The compost is considered a valuable soil amendment, he said.
The manure from feedlots and dairy farms is placed in windrows roughly five metres wide and one and a half metres high. The crushed gypsum is added to the top of the windrow. Once the internal temperature of the pile reaches 70 C, which takes about one week, it is turned by the windrower.
The pile is left another week for the temperature to once again reach 70 C and it’s turned again. The process continues until it becomes nutrient-rich soil.
Wood chips or straw are added to the compost as a carbon source if the manure is too wet.
August Liivam said there has been increased interest in the composting machine from feedlots that need to haul manure long distances from their feedlot base. Composting reduces the volume by half, cutting the trucking bill in half as well.
“It allows feedlot operators to haul (50 kilometres) without excessive trucking costs,” August told a recent agricultural tour at a feedlot near Leslieville.
“At this location, it used to cost $60,000 a year to haul manure from here. Now it’s cut in half.”
Some feedlots have up to 35,000 tonnes of manure that must be hauled to surrounding fields or sold to grain farmers.
“By reducing the volume and with a product that is higher quality, it enhances the grain growers’ opportunity to make better grain crops,” said Ken.
Added August: “The earthworms love this stuff.”
The machine cost $425,000 and has taken five years to pay for itself at roughly $500 an hour for windrowing the manure.
