Salads for Cows and Landfill-Free Agriculture

Salads for Cows and Landfill-Free Agriculture

By Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

Three Iowa farmers redefine eco-friendly production

If you’ve ever bought pre-sliced, ready-to-eat, fresh fruits or vegetables at the grocery store, do you wonder what happens to all those rinds, stems and peels? A unique partnership between Hy-Vee and livestock producers is transforming those scraps into “salad” for cattle.

“The cows love it,” says Duane Steenhoek, a sixth-generation farmer from Chariton. “Feeding these produce scraps helps keep the cattle in good condition, and it keeps thousands of pounds of material out of the landfill.”

This is one of many innovative, eco-friendly solutions taking root across Iowa, as crop and livestock farmers transform waste products into feed, fuel and fertilizer.

Duane Steenhoek checks on the cattle several times a day to analyze the health of his herd

Steenhoek’s partnership with Hy-Vee developed about five years ago when the grocery chain moved one of its food processing facilities from central Iowa to Chariton. “Hy-Vee was looking for a place other than the landfill to take their sweet corn husks, cantaloupe rinds, strawberry hulls and other produce scraps,” says Steenhoek, whose family raises cattle, hogs, corn and soybeans.

Steenhoek teamed up with fellow cattle producer Nick Hunter to take the scraps.

“Cattle can upcycle a variety of feed sources, so this works well,” Steenhoek says.

Steenhoek built a receiving area to hold the scraps, which are delivered every other day via a stainless steel, end-dump trailer. He uses a skid loader to add the scraps to his feed mixer wagon, along with ground cornstalks, hay or silage, and distillers grains. (A co-product of ethanol production, distillers grains offer a nutritious, cost-effective feed ingredient.) The total mixed ration contains nutrients cattle need to grow and stay healthy, plus it helps Steenhoek lower his feed bill.

“This has allowed me to add a new herd of cows,” adds Steenhoek, who is feeding an additional 150 cows.

Steenhoek feeds approximately 12,000 pounds of produce scraps a day. Hunter also feeds a similar amount to his cattle. “That’s more than 20,000 pounds of produce scraps a day that aren’t going into the landfill,” Steenhoek says. “There’s no reason for a product like this ever to go to waste. Plus, our cattle turn those scraps into thousands of pounds of highquality Iowa beef.”

Turkey Industry Takes Recycling to the Next Level

Iowa turkey producers are also finding new ways to support a healthier planet while producing healthy food. West Liberty Foods (WLF), the largest supplier of meat products to Subway restaurants, marked a major milestone nearly a decade ago with “landfill-free” verification.

“Our CEO visited Coca-Cola a number of years ago and saw their landfill-free strategies,” says Paul Hill, who has served as WLF’s chairman since 1996. “We started looking into this idea for WLF, especially if it could be revenue neutral.”

By December 2012, WLF became verified “landfill-free,” meaning that less than 1% of the company’s waste ends up in a landfill. “Each year, we find ways to recycle and re-use millions of pounds of waste,” says Hill, a third-generation turkey producer from Ellsworth who operates Circle Hill Farms with his family. “We’re the only meat company in America that’s third-party audited, landfill-free.”

Paul Hill, a farmer near Ellsworth, takes great pride in being a turkey producer.

By 2016, all of WLF’s facilities became landfill-free, including its operations in West Liberty and Mt. Pleasant, Iowa; Tremonton, Utah; and Bolingbrook, Illinois. WLF has annually eliminated nearly 120 million pounds of waste that were previously sent to local landfills. The company supports recycling programs and partnerships with various waste vendors. “The key is getting paid for various waste streams,” Hill says.

Hill is well-versed in this topic. He implemented a similar system on his family’s turkey farm when he began selling fermented, composted turkey manure about 30 years ago. While he started researching these opportunities in the 1970s, the Farm Crisis accelerated his efforts. “We needed to bring in more revenue, so I asked, ‘How do we make something out of nothing?’”

Hill had plenty of turkey manure, which naturally has a good carbon-nitrogen ratio. He finetuned a system to compost the manure and make it even more useful. When the manure pile reaches a specific temperature for a certain length of time, it kills harmful pathogens, destroys weed seeds and creates a safe, effective fertilizer.

This product, which the Hills market through Circle Hill Organics, has become especially popular with organic corn and soybean farmers within a 150- mile radius of the family’s farm. “We sell nearly 20,000 tons of this product a year,” Hill says. “We’ve sold out of this fertilizer every year since 1998.”

Practical innovation continues to drive the Hill family’s farm and WLF. The West Liberty company is evaluating options for carbon sequestration, a process where carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and held in solid or liquid form. “Sustainability is a balancing act, and there’s a learning curve with all this,” Hill says.

Cousers Key in on Carbon, Modern Ag Experience Farm

Bill Couser knows what Hill means. The Nevada-area farmer and ethanol proponent supports Summit Carbon Solutions, an underground pipeline designed to keep excess carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere.

“If you’re concerned about climate change, this is a carbon solution,” says Couser, referring to this new business platform from Summit Agricultural Group in Alden, Iowa. The proposed pipeline would pump liquefied CO2 collected from Midwestern ethanol plants and store it underground in North Dakota. Project leaders say this would take 10 million tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere each year, which is equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road annually.

Bill stands next to a barn on the property where his great-grandfather and father also farmed

“Each bushel of corn that is used to produce ethanol is one-third alcohol, one-third distillers grains and one-third CO2, after the fermentation process,” adds Couser, one of the founders of Lincolnway Energy, a Nevada-area plant that produces 86 million gallons of ethanol per year. “That equates to 16 pounds of CO2 per bushel. The pipeline creates a way to prevent this CO2 from escaping into the atmosphere.”

The link between agriculture and sustainability intrigues Couser, a fifth-generation farmer who raises corn, soybeans and operates a 5,200-head cattle feedlot with his wife Nancy and sons Casey and Tim. The Cousers, who have received the National Cattlemen’s Foundation Environmental Stewardship Award, have partnered with environmental agencies and universities on many research studies and pilot projects.

They’ve focused on their Modern Ag Experience Farm in the last several years, which they created from a former landfill. “This is a diamond in the rough,” says Couser, who hauled 57 truckloads of junk and 17 old cars out of the farm’s ravine.

The Cousers have tiled some of this land in 40-acre quadrants. They also use bioreactors and saturated buffers to help remove nitrates from ag drainage water. They’re working with Iowa State University researchers to study water quality and soil health.

The Modern Ag Experience Farm, which includes untilled acres filled with wildflowers and other native plants, is open to the public for tours. (Visit modernagfarm.com for details.) “I love to share accurate information about farming and bring rural and urban communities together,” says Couser, whose guests have ranged from foreign dignitaries to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

No matter who he’s speaking with, Couser shares his practical approach to sustainability. “Farming practices need to be environmentally friendly and profitable. Most of the time, when you can find a solution for the first factor, the second one takes care of itself.”