Compost turner ideas?

[Robert MoonShadow]

Thanks Jen ~ I was wondering there what you could be talking about: “aka landscape rake”… having been a professional landscaper for 17 years, not knowing such a titled tool would be embarassing! Actually, what I know as a landscape rake is those 4′ or 6′ wide aluminum “garden rake” types… this here is known in the trail business as a “trail (or road) groomer”… there’s one next door to me & my boss designed one that uses the winch on his atv to finalize those trails we build where we can actually use motorized implements. It’s along the line of my idea that I mentioned about using a hay dump rake. I don’t think this york rake/groomer would have enough “lift & turn” to it, but a dump rake might – I don’t know, since I’ve never used one.
Again, thanks for your help.

[Nick]

There is a great resource right here in Vermont which has developed equipment fabrication design packets for a tractor pulled turner and also an interesting low tech/cost turner. The aerating bucket is a retrofitted tractor bucket with metal poles attached to the bucet. The idea is you drive the bucket into the side of the compost pile and lift up – the poles move through the compost disturbing and aerating the pile without turning it. This saves on space needed for the pile. The organization is The Highfields Institute located in Hardwick, VT. Check out theire web site http://www.highfieldsinstitute.org They also have a demonstration site, workshops and offer consultation services and grant funded direct services to farmers. Let me know if you need more info.

[Carl Russell]

There is always the option of taking more time to build the piles with enough coarse material to allow for good air flow, and as long as you can accept more time, good compost can be made without turning. Often this works best if it is done in small mounds that are built in layers, dressed off, and left for about a year.

Carl

[near horse]

Hey Nick,

Never heard of Highfields Institute but looks pretty neat. I didn’t find the low tech turner you mentioned but did see the PTO driven style. Looks a lot like the hay tedder made by White Mfg (I think).

To all the compost gurus out there, what is or is there an optimal size for a compost pile? I’ve seen the huge long mounds that use massive and expensive turners. It seems that there would be a size trade-off where getting too big requires much E input to turn (so big that O2 is excluded down in the core). vs excessive heat loss from too small of a pile. Is there one that’s just right? “Goldilocks and the 3 Compost Piles”

[Simple Living]

Reading this thread has brought to mind a few things I have read in the past year. The one that comes to mind is a cross between what both Carl and Geoff had posted. The article that I am thinking about is in the Sept/Oct 2008 issue of BackHome Magazine. The lady in the article is from Delaware and has a greenhouse called Misty Morning Herbs ans More. From what I read she uses a small compost pile (5’Dia x 4’H) with water coils run thru it and then into a small 12’x16′ greenhouse. It seems that it can heat (limited I’m sure) the greenhouse enough to give her a much longer growing season for free.The following is text from an online article I found at Delaware Online.

—-Kathy Brooks, on the other hand, seems to throw absolutely nothing away at the produce business she runs from her Felton home. Wood chips, plant trimmings and a dash of manure all end up in the composter she built alongside her 12-by-16-foot greenhouse. Beneath the pile sits a reservoir of water, which in turn is connected to rubber hoses that snake through the trimmings and into the greenhouse, carrying with them the heat generated by microbial activity within the compost. “I decided I needed something eco-friendly to heat the greenhouse,” she said. “Electricity was so expensive.”
On a cool winter day, the natural heater can keep the interior of the greenhouse at a toasty temperature, letting her get a jump start on the growing season. By April, her “Misty Morning Herbs and More” products — ranging from cucumbers to herbal carpet fresheners — will be ready for the Milford Farmer’s Market.
With the help of a federal grant and Delaware State University, Brooks has been spreading word of the heater through the agricultural community, certain that something so simple and sensible should surely be embraced. “It’s a win-win situation,” she said.

---

It would be nice to know if anyone else has a setup like this? Or maybe plans to do such a thing?

Thanks,
Gordon

[Robert MoonShadow]

For a basic overview on compost-heated greenhouses:
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/compostheatedgh.pdf
or
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/compostheatedgh/html
a good place to start, with their usual references & contact listings.

[Rod]

This thread has me thinking. I have a 36′ square manure pit with a concrete floor. It’s attached to my winter feed lots and I stack the manure in it as I am able to clean the pens out. It takes all summer to breakdown the waste hay in the waste sufficient to spread with my spreader but not as much as I would like it to be broken down. I turn it periodically through the summer but it doesn’t work that great because the pit is usually too full to get everything remixed. (not enough space). Joel Salatin (Polyface farm) has a neat setup wherein he mixes corn into his cow bedding over the winter feeding period and then puts in hogs in the spring. The hogs turn the pile into compost as they root out the grain.
That’s what I think I will try this year. As I clean my cow pens and stack the manure I will put in corn in the same manner and then raise out some pigs in that area over the summer and let them facilitate the composting process.

[Simple Living]

Rod,
I believe there was an article in Rural Heritage in the last couple years that the fella used the same concept. Rather than mixing the corn in with the pile as he stacked it, he would use a spud bar and “plant” the corn down in the pile. Not sure what the spacing was that he poked/planted the corn, but the idea was that it was fresh corn and he could place it all the way to the bottom. That would encourage the hogs to root all the way down. If I happen to find the article I’ll let you know what issue it was.

Gordon

[Rod]

I am wondering about the details now. How much corn, how many pigs, or piglets do I need etc. Anybody want to order some organic manure fed pork for next fall?:)

[Robert MoonShadow]

Rod ~ Sure thing! How about you delivering it? What I’ve got to offer: I live 30′ from the world-famous Salmon River… and there’ll be the fall steelhead run = some of the best steelhead fishing you can find! All for the low, low price of some of that pig! 😀
The article I just read the other day that I believe it was Jen who linked us to was about Salatin… seems he layers barley/corn/etc. in the compost as he piles it up… kinda sprouts the grain that way or something = evidently the hogs love it. I’m actually wondering if there’s any need to “seed” the piles –> most of the stuff in my piles would seem to be ‘pig cuisine’.

[jen judkins]

@Robert MoonShadow 6371 wrote:

The article I just read the other day that I believe it was Jen who linked us to was about Salatin… seems he layers barley/corn/etc. in the compost as he piles it up… kinda sprouts the grain that way or something = evidently the hogs love it.

Nope, wasn’t me…it was Elke. And it was a great article! I’m gonna raise a couple piglets in my manure shed this year (sorry, Rod).

[OldKat]

@Nick 6346 wrote:

There is a great resource right here in Vermont which has developed equipment fabrication design packets for a tractor pulled turner and also an interesting low tech/cost turner. The aerating bucket is a retrofitted tractor bucket with metal poles attached to the bucet. The idea is you drive the bucket into the side of the compost pile and lift up – the poles move through the compost disturbing and aerating the pile without turning it. This saves on space needed for the pile. The organization is The Highfields Institute located in Hardwick, VT. Check out theire web site http://www.highfieldsinstitute.org They also have a demonstration site, workshops and offer consultation services and grant funded direct services to farmers. Let me know if you need more info.

That is one impressive piece of equipment. More than I would probably ever need, but nonetheless an impressive effort.

[Author]

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