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Farmer composes compost formula

How and when to stir it is a key aspect in the process of turning cow patties into usable fertilizer, says an Eckville farmer who has turned to compost to earn his living.
compostmixer
The operator of the Liivam brothers' compost mixer checks hoses before proceeding along a windrow of cattle manure mixed with straw and topped with crushed gypsum. Steam is from microbial action within the windrow.

How and when to stir it is a key aspect in the process of turning cow patties into usable fertilizer, says an Eckville farmer who has turned to compost to earn his living.

August Liivam, a former councillor and reeve for Lacombe County, has partnered with his brothers Ken and Harold to purchase what is essentially a giant stand mixer. Liivam hires out his machine and crew for $500 an hour — roughly the price to purchase a high-end kitchen mixer. But most people wouldn’t want it or the stuff it makes in their kitchen, even if they could make them fit.

Steam billows from a windrow of composting cattle manure as an operator pilots the Liivam brothers’ Frontier compost mixer along a windrow in a field near the corral at Hillbrook Feeders, owned by Stan Taylor and located on a hillside northeast of Leslieville.

Five weeks from the time the manure was pulled out of the feedlot and piled into windrows, the finished compost will be ready for spreading, Liivam explains to a group of local producers gathered to watch the machine at work.

The steam comes from microbial action within the windrows, which kills weed seeds and other pathogens to create a fertilizer and soil conditioner that is safe, reliable and much cheaper to haul than raw manure, he says.

Normally, the mix of manure, straw and gypsum from recycled drywall will be stirred three or four times during the compost process.

The compost will drop to about half of its original volume as moisture evaporates.

It’s the reduction in moisture and volume that makes the compost so much easier to handle and cheaper to haul than raw manure, says Liivam. It also smells a lot nicer.

Liivam and his brothers branched into the composting business about five years ago to provide an environmentally-sustainable and lower-cost option for handling livestock waste.

“The process is to tie up as many of the nutrients in the manure package as you can.”

Gypsum recycled from building demolitions is added when available to help improve the nutrient mix, says Liivam. Straw cuts the moisture content while stirring introduces oxygen.

The machine is slowly paying for itself while mixing manure on farms like Taylor’s Hillbrook Feeders feedlot, which drains down to Blueberry Creek.

The Liivams are flexible in the deals they work out with the farmers they serve, negotiating prices based on who does the corral cleaning, who makes the windrows and who gets the end product.

For example, as in the case with Taylor’s operation, the Liivams charge the farm for treating the manure and then get the compost for their own use. They spread some on their own fields and can also sell the compost in bulk to other farmers. At this point, they are not bagging compost for sale to consumers.

The project dovetails with efforts to reduce the impact the feedlot has on its surrounding environment.

Clearwater County’s Agriculture Service Board first approached Taylor in 1995 to develop a project that would minimize the pathogens and nutrients leaching to the creek from his corrals.

From their initial discussions, Taylor, Clearwater County, Alberta Agriculture and the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration built a catchment basin and constructed wetlands to capture nutrients before they reach the creek.

While the original plan proved too costly, new opportunities arose in 1997, when POCO Petroleum built a lease road into a low spot on the property.

The oilfield company assisted with installing a drain pipe into the riparian area beside the creek, with the three-acre site then bermed off and a filter strip created.

Water quality in the creek has improved markedly since the start of the program, says Kim Nielsen, manager of the county’s Agriculture Service Board.

In the years since the berm was built and the filter strip established, vegetation including cattails has become well established, pulling nutrients from feedlot runoff, says Nielsen. Samples taken in 2000 show that the filter strip system has been a cost effective method for removing pollutants from manure runoff.

In keeping with the theme, the pasture in which the compost is now being treated will no longer be used once the current lot is finished because it’s too steep and slopes toward the creek, says Liivam.

bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com