MANURE MANAGEMENT

Hiroki Sumiya, Kohshin’s CEO

Kohshin is one of the leading Japanese companies developing machines especially for poultry sectors. The company is exporting their machines to around 38 countries. In an interview with M. Matt, Managing Editor of Livestock and Poultry Middle East magazine, Kohshin’s CEO Mr Hiroki Sumiya explains how their machines can be useful in manure management, why it is so important to process manure correctly and how their machines are different from their competitors.

KOHSHIN COMPOSTERS: PROCESS YOUR Poultry MANURE CORRECTLY

Q. If we may ask out of curiosity, as a company based in Japan, a country well known for its beef, why does Kohshin appear to develop machines specially for poultry owners? Where are of your main export markets/ countries? A. Our Composters are being used and has a good reputation in 38 countries around the world (excluding Japan) not only on Poultry farms but also on cow farms. We develop machines to address the manure of the livestock farms and to help the farm owners to dispose and process the farm waste in a correct manner.

Our machines are currently being used in Southeast Asia, South America, Europe etc..

Q. What are the different perspectives of poultry owners (small, medium and large) regarding manure management, in Kohshin’s different export markets/countries? A. In terms of machines, it should be affordable and durable. And the final product must be fully composted, odourless and with stable quality. Poultry owners started to realize the importance of not just processing the material but also the importance of producing a product that they can sell.

Q. Under the current COVID-19 environment, farms are very concerned about their immediate production costs and bottom line. What additional value can poultry owners gain from composting their birds’ manure, in an efficient way? A. The components of organic fertilizer are not always the same, even if it is applied on farmlands, adding chemical fertilizer is still necessary. However, mixing the fully composted manure with chemical fertilizer will complement the advantages of both organic and chemical fertilizer and it could turn into a valuable fertilizer with good quality soil improvement composition. Q. We understand that Kohshin has composters for different farm sizes – KNLL, KSLF and KN series. Please share with our readers some of their key features. How are these features unique compared to other machines? A. We have different types of Composter that are adaptable to different farm scale. All of them could produce a uniformly size (below 10mm) and pelletized final product. Also, we keep on researching about composting and we think that our know-how on how to supply air could be a factor to satisfy our customers.

Q. Does Kohshin help to connect poultry owners with fertiliser buyers? What is Kohshin’s view on a circular approach towards manure management, particularly for large, poultry integrators, i.e. the same farm uses feed crops which have been fertilised using composted manure? Are some of your customers already using a circular approach? A. Many of our customers are engaged in recycling-oriented agriculture (circular agriculture), and we support the production of high-quality organic fertilizer through composting. We have customer that use the composted livestock manure to produce orange, broccoli, coffee, rice, grapes, corn, cassava, carrot etc..

Q. In the broader context of addressing global sustainability and climate change, what can poultry owners look forward to from Kohshin, for example biogas equipment? A. I think the most important factor in making agricultural products is soil preparation. For that it is necessary to add chemical fertilizer, but the most important thing is to add a high-quality organic fertilizer on soil. I think this will lead to the creation of a pollution-free environment.

In my opinion owners of both poultry and agriculture farms understand that the importance of good fertilizer. And they tend not to use a manure that was only dried for 1 to 2 weeks but instead they take time to produce a high-quality organic fertilizer.

Our goal is to make a system not only to process livestock manure but could also produce a product that could be mixed with chemical fertilizer.

For more information, visit www.kohshin-s.jp