Case Study: The Farm Between Jeffersonville, Vermont - April 2014 (November 2014 Updates on Page 5) Written By: Jessica Wunsch Compost Operator: John Hayden Compost System Types: • Micro Scale Collection • Chicken Composting • Vermicomposting Project Overview: John and Nancy Hayden, at The Farm Between in Jeffersonville, will work with local businesses and schools to capture and recycle a portion of the local food scrap stream through composting on their farm. The food scraps are used to feed laying hens and then to produce a vermicompost product for on-‐farm use and for sale through the farm’s fruit nursery. Highfields Center for Composting provided materials for small-‐scale food scrap collection and composting. Expected Outcomes: • Diversion of two 32-‐gal. Totes/Week (~360 Lbs/Week) of food scraps for on-‐farm uses including chicken feed, to be followed by a two stage composting process.
Figure 1. Farmer John Hayden shows some of the red wiggler worms that process food scraps.
Since they started collecting in July 2013, The Farm Between has diverted 26,250 pounds of food scraps!
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An increase in the farm’s compost output, including the production of high-‐ fertility worm compost for value-‐added crop production. Documentation of the farm’s composting system to share as a replicable community scale model.
Project Background: The Farm Between, a certified organic fruit farm and fruit nursery, is located on Route 15 in Jeffersonville, a village in the town of Cambridge, Vermont. John and Nancy Hayden of The Farm Between have been farmers for over 20 years, but have recently left their off-the-farm jobs as university educators to work full time on their fruit farm. They use ecological principles and practices to grow cold-hardy organic fruits and fruit nursery plants, and to make popular value-added fruit products, including organic fruit syrups. In an effort to develop and expand composting “I am an organic farmer. I infrastructure in the Lamoille Valley, Highfields hosted a stakeholder meeting in Morrisville to try to get as much organic gauge interest and forge new partnerships with material in our soil as I can. community members. John Hayden attended this meeting and began thinking about That’s what feeds our establishing a community composting project in plants.”—John Hayden his area. The partnership between The Farm Between and Highfields began in April 2013, when a memorandum of understanding was drafted and signed by both parties. Rural Community Composting Model: John and Nancy Hayden started collecting food scraps from a restaurant and a grocery store in Cambridge, with the hopes of expanding volumes in the future. At the time of this report, The Farm Between was collecting food scraps from the following locations: Cambridge Village Market, Brown and Jenkins Coffee Roasters, The Mix (café), Cambridge Elementary School and Johnson Elementary School. When school is in session they capture ~1200 pounds of food scraps each week or .6 Tons/Week, exemplifying the potential of rural farm based community composting programing. After receiving a Highfields “Train the Trainer” teaching session, The Farm Between trained area businesses on food scrap separation, and they will continue to provide customer service to all businesses and schools. There are a few different processes at work in the Haydens’ compost system. First, John feeds
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the food scraps to his chickens, then moves the remaining material (uneaten food scraps and chicken bedding) to his multi-bin system (Figure 2). Each batch heats to at least 131 degrees Fahrenheit and is turned 5 times over 15 days. The final stage of the process is to take a portion of the composted product and feed it to his worms until a nutrient-rich vermicompost is produced. When asked what motivates him to do this work, John spoke of his interest in providing a community service that will minimize the amount of food waste headed to the landfill and educate students about closing nutrient cycles. Not only does the finished product fertilize his crops and fruit trees, but John benefits economically from the process of composting. He earns money from hauling food scraps from local community members, and he saves money on animal feed by providing these food scraps to his chickens to eat. The manure he acquires from his chickens Figure 2. The outdoor multi-bin compost system at the and horses is then incorporated into his Farm Between. compost pile and serves as an integral part of his compost recipe. Finally, most of John’s food scraps come from within 2 miles of his house, making food scrap collection an economically viable venture. When asked what the key to their farm's success is, John and Nancy say that by implementing a systems approach to their work and gradually adjusting the scale of their operation, they have developed a solid ‘mom and pop’ business. They also expressed their desire to maintain a production scale in which they can still provide thoughtful care to the work they do at all levels. Challenges and Opportunities: Oftentimes food scrap generators will contaminate food scraps with items that belong in the garbage, such as plastic straws, wrappers and cups. A few pieces here and there are acceptable, because they can be quickly removed. However, heavy contamination is unacceptable and unmanageable for a composter. Both John and HCC found that training incoming students or re-training students or employees is the best strategy for mitigating this problem. Expressing to people that chickens will be eating their food scraps is an effective way to encourage them to invest time into food source separation. It is also a good idea to
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develop an easy-to-follow guide that can be given to incoming students, employees, or residents. Johnson Elementary School didn’t begin composting until all students and staff were trained by Highfields. Cambridge Elementary, on the other hand, started composting with minimal training and some contamination problems have arisen. With the help of Green Mountain Farm-to-School, Highfields provided formal training for all Cambridge students in order to remedy this contamination problem. As winter started to approach, John realized that his outdoor piles were not reaching high enough temperatures and snow was making access difficult. To solve this problem, John moved all of his piles and established a multi-bin system inside his barn. He then placed his worm bin “We’re really happy not to system between the piles of food scraps and compost throw food away. Living in to provide heat and extra insulation for the worms so this community, we’re that they were able to continue working throughout the winter. looking forward to the
compost that John produces. Conclusion: We all keep gardens and The Farm Between and Highfields Center for Composting are both in agreement that this is a love the idea of getting a valuable and replicable model for small-scale community composters. It addresses the primary product that comes from our food scraps and our purpose of Highfields’ USDA Rural Development grant by directly building the composting capacity of town.”—Carrie Ferguson two of Vermont’s rural and economically (The Mix) disadvantaged towns, Cambridge and Johnson. It closes the loop on the local food system and utilizes assets that currently exist in the community. The Farm Between is effectively helping to manage the towns' organic waste streams through a small-scale, low-cost community composting program.
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Update: November 2014 Food Scrap Collection Since The Farm Between rolled out their composting project in July of 2013, the farm has consistently collected food scraps from the local area, and the number of local food scrap generators has remained steady. The Farm Between currently hauls approximately eight 32-gallon totes of food scraps weekly back to his farm from the local community (equivalent to ~0.6 Tons/Week), the majority of which are post-consumer food scraps from schools and commercial generators. John continues to utilize 32-gallon totes because they are the largest tote size that he is able to handle without mechanical assistance, but admits that they still require strenuous effort to load into his pickup truck when the totes are full. For this reason, he is interested in experimenting with smaller containers for food scraps, such as 12-gallon totes currently in use by other on-farm composting pilot projects in the state.
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Best Management Practices At The Farm Between Because they operate a certified organic farm, the Haydens put a premium on organic weed management. In the composting process, they have the opportunity through good composting practices to deactivate the majority of the weed seeds in the compost. By monitoring temperatures in the compost piles and turning the piles when necessary, they are able to m aintain internal temperatures above 131 F for several days, in between turning, which greatly reduces the viability of weed seeds and plant pathogens in the compost. The practice of monitored, turned, and m anaged hot composting meets the organic standards for compost suitable for use on organic farms, which allows them to apply the compost at any time during the growing process. By organic standards, use of raw manures requires a gap between application and harvest. In addition, since the farm also m akes vermicompost (worm compost), they heat-‐treat the compost before feeding it to their worms so that they can create a weed-‐seed-‐free vermicompost.
On-Farm Operations While the food scrap collection program has remained consistent, John has scaled up The Farm Between’s on-farm chicken feeding and composting processes. Following the winter of 2013, John
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decided to modify the materials handling systems for greater efficiency and improved conditions. In order to continue a diligent compost management program, John purchased a tractor with a bucket loader, making the task of turning compost piles and moving materials much easier than his previous manually turned process. The size of his piles and composting bins are now scaled to the dimensions of his tractor bucket. He is able to accomplish compost management tasks in significantly less time, allowing him more time to focus on farm tasks. Because moving materials to build compost piles has become more efficient with a tractor, John has decided to move winter composting operations back outdoors for the winter of 2014. The chickens will still be fed in the barn throughout the winter, but instead of making compost piles indoors, which can pose an indoor air quality concern for both livestock and humans, John now cleans out residuals and bedding weekly, then transports the material with the tractor to his composting bins to construct compost piles. John has found that he has been able to virtually eliminate grain from his laying hens’ diet; however, he mentions that he feeds grain once in a while if food scrap collection volume seems low in a given week. After initiating the food scrap feeding program at The Farm Between and seeing the potential for lowered feed costs, the Haydens decided to increase the size of their chicken flock from 12 to 36 layers (a 200% increase in flock size). This has allowed the farm to sell eggs locally as an additional revenue stream. Revenue from Composting The Haydens put a value on their food scrap collection service of $10 per 32-gallon tote. This income allows the farmers to spend the labor time and other expenses necessary to perform the collection and composting operations. While The Farm Between has not yet sold compost to customers, they intend to do so this upcoming spring, since they and their chickens have produced more than the farm needs to use on crops. John has determined a rough rule for calculating compost production: he estimates that the volume of finished compost is roughly equivalent to ½ of the volume of food scraps that he collects. Since the Haydens run an onfarm nursery business, they also plan to sell worm castings to nursery-plant customers as an organic fertilizer. The Haydens also sell eggs from the farm to customers and a local restaurant, providing yet another revenue source and creating a “closed loop” food cycle in their community. Future Plans When asked about scaling up The Farm Between’s food scrap collection and composting
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operations, John is interested in a modest increase in production, although at 0.6 Tons/Week of food scraps, the Haydens have found a “good equilibrium,” with composting operations fitting nicely within their small diversified farming model. John is exploring utilizing smaller containers for collecting food scraps, stating that the 32-gallon totes are at the maximum weight that he wants to handle, and a smaller vessel (such as a 12-gallon tote) would allow his wife Nancy to perform the collection tasks when John is unavailable. November 2014 Update Provided By Compost Technical Services www.CompostTechnicalServices.com
www.highfieldscomposting.org
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Acknowledgments This Composter Case Study was funded in part by a grant from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets and the Working Lands Enterprise Board with the VSWDMA as grantee, and also funded in part by grants from the Utilities Programs, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Solid Waste Program with Highfields Center for Composting as the grantee. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Grantors.
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