Source: RT SOLUTIONS LLC submitted to
LARGE-SCALE PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF VERMICOMPOSTED DAIRY MANURE
 
PROJECT DIRECTOR: Herlihy, T. E.
 
PERFORMING ORGANIZATION
(N/A)
RT SOLUTIONS LLC
Geneseo,NY 14454-1188
 
NON TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Excess manure is a cause of reduced water quality in agricultural watersheds. In order to offset the cost of transporting the manure out of these watersheds, it must be converted into a higher value product This project is designed to examine the cost of large-scale earthworm composting systems to convert dairy manure into more user-friendly, and value-added products
 
OBJECTIVES: Raw manures need to be converted into value-added products in order to offset processing and transportation costs to allow excess nutrients from animal operations to be moved out of agriculturally intensive watersheds. One method put forward has been to compost the manures, which transforms the undesirable physical characteristics of the raw manure into a value-added consumer friendly product. Operationally and economically there have been several drawbacks to traditional windrow style, thermophilic composting of animal manures in temperate climates of the United States. A special form of composting, Earthworm Composting (Vermicomposting), with flow-through digesters offers technical and operational advantages over thermophilic composting. Equally important as the technology to successful vermicomposting/composting, is a full-time, dedicated, professional, and financially sound waste management entity. As an analogy, restaurants produce food; they do not run landfills or have hauling trucks, why then are animal operations that have many full-time technical duties expected to become compost facility owner/operators. This proposal is to design, construct, and perform an economic analysis of a pilot-scale, fully integrated waste management facility that takes raw manure from slurry to finished product. The product will be linked with earthworms positive public perception and a serious market analysis will be performed.
 
APPROACH: A detailed facility design and cost analysis will be done for the construction of a 20 ton per day full-scale, integrated waste management facility for an existing dairy operation in Livingston County, New York. The Facility will be designed to process dairy manure from the slurry phase to finished earthworm castings for a 900 head milking operation (manure currently scrapped and pumped to 1,000,000 gallon lagoon). Marketing and synergy will be established between the region's significant dairy and fruit (grape & apple) industry.
 
CRIS NUMBER: 0203115 SUBFILE: CRIS
PROJECT NUMBER: NYK-2005-00520 SPONSOR AGENCY: CSREES
PROJECT TYPE: SMALL BUSINESS GRANT PROJECT STATUS: TERMINATED MULTI-STATE PROJECT NUMBER: (N/A)
START DATE: Jun 1, 2005 TERMINATION DATE: Jan 31, 2007

GRANT PROGRAM: SMALL BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY GRANTS
GRANT PROGRAM AREA: Small Business

CLASSIFICATION
Knowledge Area (KA)Subject (S)Science (F)Objective (G)Percent
403319920206.225%
403341020206.225%
511319910602.125%
511341010602.125%

CLASSIFICATION HEADINGS
KA511 - New and Improved Non-Food Products and Processes
KA403 - Waste Disposal, Recycling, and Reuse
S3199 - Invertebrates, general/other
S3410 - Dairy cattle, live animal
F2020 - Engineering
F1060 - Biology (whole systems)
G6.2 - Enhance Soil Quality for Productive Working Lands
G2.1 - Expand Domestic Market Opportunities


RESEARCH EFFORT CATEGORIES
BASIC (N/A)%
APPLIED 100%
DEVELOPMENTAL (N/A)%

KEYWORDS: composts; composting; earthworms; dairy cattle; animal waste; waste management; marketing; large scale operations; agricultural engineering; waste utilization; value added; production costs; processing; transportation costs; windrows; economic analysis; pilot studies; slurries

PROGRESS: Jun 1, 2005 TO Jan 31, 2007
The anticipated results of the Phase 1 SBIR project proposed by RTS included; the professional detailed engineering design, cost analysis and construction of a state-of-the-art agricultural waste management facility integrated into an existing mid-sized dairy operation. The facility was designed with the capacity to accept, compost, vermicompost and market 10 tons/day of dairy manure into value-added consumer friendly organic products. Ahead of schedule, RTS completed the site design, processing methodology and initial cost estimates for the vermicomposting facility in January of 2005. Subsequently, construction began and was completed in November of the same year. The facility construction included the following five structures, each key to the vermicomposting operation: Manure separator building, Raw material storage building, Conditioning/composting building, Processing/vermicomposting building and Final product storage building. During the active facility construction phase, RTS began and completed the design and installation of the vermicomposting process system. Key components of the system included: Integrating a manure separator facility into the existing Coyne Farm dairy operation; The custom fabrication of specialized vermicomposting equipment (flow-through digesters); and the integration of this equipment within newly constructed infrastructure and utilities (power, water, air). Select portions of the production process were also begun during this construction period. RTS began accepting and actively pre-composting approximately five tons of separated dairy manure solids and off-specification dairy-cow feed (hay and corn silage) per day. A small population of the vermicomposting worms (species E. fetida) was introduced to the vermicomposting systems flow-through digesters during the late summer and fall of 2005. RTS considers the facility as having begun fully operating all aspects of the vermicomposting operation from this time forward. Harvesting of vermicomposted material occurred approximately 75-days afterwards and has progressed on a regular basis. To further commison the production process, RTS finished the construction of the facilities screening plant in January 2006. The screening equipment allows RTS to produce up to four different vermicompost value-added products. Recognizing that the need to develop a marketing strategy to sell the facilitys vermicompost products is a key component to the success of the proposed project, RTS hired Ron Alexander and Associates (RAA) to assist with marketing efforts. As a result, RTS has completed a market analysis report that is representative of local and regional marketing targets. Another key component to the marketing strategy includes material analysis and certification. RTS submitted vermicompost product for microbial and chemical analysis testing through Cornell and Penn State Universities. This information is currently being used to obtain material certification through organic certifying and review agencies. Initial marketing efforts have resulting in sales of vermicompost material to three gold courses, seven local vineyards, two nurseries and one vegetable producer.

IMPACT: 2005-06-01 TO 2007-01-31 Federal nutrient management regulations have recently been enacted that will greatly alter current manure management practices for a large segment of animal agriculture. One result of these regulations is that many mid- to large-sized animal operations will be forced to undergo significant changes in the methods and costs associated with manure handling. In order to offset these additional manure processing and transportation costs (thus allowing excess nutrients from dairy operations to be moved out of agriculturally intensive watersheds) animal producers are searching for a technology that will allow them to process their excess manure/nutrients into an alternative "value-added" product. To produce this value-added product RTS proposes a hybrid of traditional composting and an innovative vermicomposting process. Vermicomposting/Composting transforms the undesirable physical characteristics of raw manure into a value-added consumer friendly product that has a value capable of offsetting nutrient transport costs. RT Solutions (RTS) proposes an innovative process-controlled technology, know as vermicomposting that employs earthworms to accelerate and improve upon the traditional composting process. The findings of the project will demonstrate that a state of the art vermicomposting facility can be a win-win-win scenario for the animal producer (dairy), small-business vermicomposting facility (owner), and the consumers of the value-added organic earthworm soil conditioner/fertilizer products.

PUBLICATION INFORMATION: 2005-06-01 TO 2007-01-31
No publications reported this period

PROJECT CONTACT INFORMATION
NAME: Herlihy, T.
PHONE: 585-243-1364
FAX: (N/A)