Aeromaster Education Blog

Spring brings to mind things that are new and fresh, like the spring 2014 fresh, new standard and optional features now available on the Aeromaster line of tractor pulled compost turners.

In 2008 the Laurens County Landfill in Georgia created an innovative composting program that allows it to compost everything from biosolids, to animal mortalities for the benefit of both the landfill and the local community. Last year the landfill began composting food waste. When its food waste composting program is fully implemented later this year Michael Snipes, the director of Laurens County, predicts that they will have composted at least 650 tons of food waste from local schools and a state prison. Across the nation, food waste composting for profit, cost-savings, and reducing pollution are growing trends, yet odor control still remains a challenge. Snipes's program has had no odor issues whatsoever. In 2012 he was recognized by the Georgia chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) when he won their 2012 “Composting Systems Excellence Award.” In this post he shares some tips for an odorless food waste composting process with an Aeromaster Compost Turner.

Biocycle's “The State of Garbage in America,” reports that in 2008 more than 380 million tons of garbage was generated in the United States. The EPA's estimate for 2007 is slightly more conservative, but still an impressive 254 million tons. The EPA estimates that 89 percent of this waste could have been composted or recycled, but only 33 percent was! The rest was buried in a landfill or burned in an incinerator. Burying organic waste creates methane as it rots. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more polluting than CO2. And burning releases pollutants into the air. But this problem can be solved if the waste is composted instead.

Edwin Blosser shares his vision for Midwest Bio Systems and how his search for “renewable soils” led him to manufacturing compost turners and humus compost.

When Edwin Blosser founded Midwest Bio Systems on February 20^th, 1993, he could not have imagined that in 20 years time his company would grow to become a world leader in soil fertility, in manufacturing Compost Turners, ancillary composting equipment as well as in composting technology. In fact, when Blosser, a native of Tampico, Illinois, began exploring sustainable agriculture he never imagined that his quest to “make people healthier,” and help farmers to farm more profitably, would lead him to composting. After a journey of discovery, he founded Midwest with a vision to serve individuals in his local community. Today Midwest has become an international company delivering compost turners to 47 states, 3 US Territories and 25 countries around the world.

When dairy farmer Mark Webb, owner of an 1,800 cow dairy in Idaho, switched from a confined facility to open corrals, he found himself faced with a manure problem, namely far too much of it.

Webb's strategy to deal with his dairy waste, which consists of both manure and spent bedding, was to haul it onto portions of his 4,000 acres of cropland. After several years of these heavy manure applications, Mark noticed this practice was having a negative impact on the health of his crops, and soil. And the manure was still “piling up,” literally. Webb needed another solution to deal with his manure problem. He thought composting with a mechanical tractor-pulled compost turner might be the answer.

If the bristles on your toothbrush are worn and bent, how successfully will they create clean, white teeth? If the tines on your compost turner are worn and bent, how successfully will they remove the bad stuff in a compost windrow, namely CO₂. Since we all know a good toothbrush promotes good oral health, similarly, good turner tines, promote good, high quality compost.

Tines get the bad stuff out!

It’s critical for the health of the windrow that you practice good CO₂ management, replacing the carbon dioxide that builds up there with oxygen. This is accomplished by the design, placement, and durability of the tines mounted on the turner drum. CO₂ is a waste product of those billions of little microbial critters in the pile breaking down organic matter. The gaseous exchange which takes place during a pass of the compost turner should result in 4% or less of CO₂ in the windrow right after it is turned. This can be measured with a CO₂ kit. 

$1,500,000 is a lot of money. It is a sum that really catches your attention. You can dream a little (well, a lot) when you think of having an extra 1.5 million dollars in your pocket.

Let me tell you about a farmer in Walnut, Illinois who improved his bottom line by over $100 per acre by using an Aeromaster Compost Turner. We started working with Alan Dale in 2002. He began to test the effect of using Humus compost on 1000 acres of his 2200 acre farm. Each year, he planted a number of different crops.

Having the right tool for the job makes all the difference.

If you’ve ever undertaken a task or tried to fix something without the proper equipment, you know how frustrating it can be. Well, add costly to list if you’re a farmer looking to buy an industrial compost turner for the first time and you’re not sure what to look for.

Make the right choice and your composting runs with the precision of a Swiss watch. Miss the mark and you can likely count on a ton of problems that will cost you time, money and energy.