Large-Scale Production and Marketing of Vermicomposted Dairy Manure

The historical land balance model between the acreage needed to grow the feed to support a dairy cow and the area required to safely utilize the nutrients in the manure produced by a cow is no longer valid for many American dairies. Production specializations, advances in crop/animal science and the expansion of dairy herds, has created critical situations in which excess nutrients from surplus manure has contributed to air and water quality problems. The only viable solution is to have raw manure converted into a value-added product that allows it to be transported out of agriculturally intensive watersheds. These manure management costs have to be recouped from sales of the value added product (RTS proposes vermicompost) thus allowing excess nutrients from dairy operations to be handled in an economically and environmentally sustainable manor. Vermicomposting of animal manures is an emerging waste management technology with many technical and potential economic benefits over traditional composting systems. This project will evaluate the true viability of integrating a large-scale vermicomposting facility with a working 1,000 head dairy operation to produce a consistent quality vermicompost product year round in a temperate humid climate. A state of the art vermicomposting facility will be a win-win-win scenario for the animal producer (dairy), vermicomposting facility owner, and the consumers of the earthworm soil conditioner/fertilizer products.