Crops: Urban compost shows promising results for crop yields

Monday, April 5, 2010

The material from the Orgaworld plant in London has twice the organic material of mushroom compost, but the downside is that the salt content is high

by MIKE MULHERN

Some London area farmers are turning to composted kitchen and yard waste to replace organic matter in their fields.

Dorchester area farmer John Killins and his partner Travis Woolings distribute composted material produced at the London-based Orgaworld plant and they also use it on their fields.

Killins, who farms 1,200 acres, tried the material – a "soil amendment" with the brand name Orgapower – on his 2009 corn crop, which led to a 15 per cent increase in yield and a better grade of corn.

"We've been looking at this for some time," Killins says. "We do soil tests on a regular basis and we were after something to improve our soils and dry fertilizer wasn't doing it."

He says they tried mushroom compost at first, but found it had too much moisture in it.

They spread 10 tons of Orgapower per acre before planting corn, and the signs that it was working were so obvious that other farmers driving past would stop in and ask what they had done to their corn crop. He says they waited until after harvest before making any claims.

"Guys around here were getting Grade 5 corn," Killins says. "We had better corn and we had a better yield and it was a lousy season for growing." Even weed control was easier, something visitors from Orgaworld's parent company in the Netherlands confirmed. They have been spreading the composted material on fields in Europe since 1993.

Killins says the material is dry and easy to spread. "Our program is 10 tons to the acre and we are putting it on before corn on any field that's getting corn. We go in with no-till beans after that with no fertilizer, because we've added so much to the soil, and then we'll put a crop of wheat in. We'll throw a little bit of fertilizer on in the spring. Once the wheat's harvested, we'll go in with 10 tons of the compost." The cost of the material is $12 a ton FOB London.

Travis Woolings says they got into distribution because they also do trucking and started carrying the compost material to farms for Orgaworld. The London plant produces about 25,000 tons of the material from more than 100,000 tons of waste. Once the waste is trucked to the plant, it is shredded and mixed with previously composted material to accelerate the composting process.

Next, it is moved into a tunnel where it stays for 10 to 12 days, during which time it heats to 55 C. It is then cooled and separated from metals, glass and plastics. Woolings says they expect to move all the material the plant produces this year as farmers get more interested in adding organic material to their soils.

They have engaged Keith Mckell, owner of Soil Smith Ltd. in London, to test both the soils and the material. Mckell says Orgapower delivers a lot for the money, but there is one negative.

"Orgaworld seems to take in leftover products from many different suppliers," Mckell says, including spices from a culinary spice manufacturer. While he says Orgapower has twice the organic matter of mushroom compost – 759 pounds compared to 400 – it also has a much higher level of sodium chloride (table salt) coming in at close to 12 pounds a ton. By comparison, he said, hog manure pellets come in at three quarters of a pound per ton.

"I am focused on trying to get that (salt) out of there," Mckell says. He is trying to convince Orgaworld not to allow it in the first place. However, Orgaworld projects manager Ryan Lauzon says there is no way to separate salt out from everything else.

On the upside, Mckell says there are no pathogens and harmful heavy metals are not a problem. The material does contain copper and zinc, which are beneficial to crops. There are also small bits of plastic and occasionally glass, but only in tiny fragments.

Mckell says the sodium load does not present much difficulty when you spread at the rate of one or two tons an acre, but at 40 tons an acre on heavy clay it could become a problem. He says he is doing tests on tobacco ground in the Strathroy area, which has been converted to ginseng. There, they are spreading 40 to 50 tons per acre and getting good results, partly because it is sandy ground.

"Sodium in our part of the world, with rains and snows, leaches out of the soil. In sands it goes out fast, but in heavier soils it will stay longer," he said.

Killins says they are optimistic the material will give their bean crop a boost this year, but he is reserving judgment until harvest.

Christine Brown, the Ontario agriculture ministry's nutrient management field crops program lead in Woodstock, says there are plans for some side-by-side field trials this summer comparing manure, starter fertilizer and compost products produced in plants in London, Hamilton and Ottawa.

"We are hoping to have some of the compost applied at two different rates and compared to some starter fertilizer, or hopefully some manure, and then replicate it two or three times," she says. Brown says tests will take place in the Middlesex, Oxford and Elgin area and in Haldimand, as well as on farms in the Ottawa area.

"We have done some sample analysis," Brown says, but adds that it is hard to give an opinion before the side-by-side tests are completed. BF