Farm Scale Composting
Several organic farmers in Virginia have developed farm-scale composting operations. There is constant market de-mand for good quality compost by commercial growers and by home gardeners. William Hale has managed a composting operation called All-Farm Organics on his farm in Louisa County since 2001. He uses okara, leftover soy pulp, from a local tofu processing company for the nitrogen source. His carbon materials are primarily wood shavings, waste hay bales and organically-produced grain straw. William will describe the equipment and processes needed to produce volume amounts of compost using a highly aerated compost system. He will talk about the values of compost in crop production and several different systems of production.