Cornell Farm Services
Compost Site
2006
Objectives
- Compost livestock manure from Cornell farms
- Provide a value-added product that can be applied to the 1000+ acres owned by farm services as an agricultural amendment to soil for crops that will be fed to livestock
- Improve quality and marketability of compost
- Compost Cornell University Dining Services food scraps
- To divert material from landfill
- Educate the public about the values of composting
- To provide a good business model for other farms to emulate
- Provide a site for research in compost production and produce compost for use in research projects
Overview/History
Cornell Farm Services started composting at the Cornell/Dryden site September in 1990. This location only operated for a couple years until 1992. The current site started out as a 1.4 acre pad with a retention pond for leachate/runoff. A protective berm surrounds the site to keep water from the slope above off the pad and out of the leachate collection system. The pad was prepared by removing the top soil (which the berm was constructed with), geo-textile was rolled out and covered with 12-18” of crushed gravel. The surface was compacted and rolled making it ready to receive organic residuals from the various Cornell farms. The site was initially set up to manage manure from the vet school, horse barns, and cows housed close to the site, over the years it expanded to include 3250 tons of animal manure, 700 tons of food scraps (approximately 17% of Cornell’s waste stream that was going to the landfill), 139 tons of greenhouse waste, and 62 tons of miscellaneous waste. In 1999, the pad was increase to 1.7 acres and created an additional 224,000 gallon retention pond above the site so that when leachate could not be land applied it could be stored in that pond.
As different waste streams were added over the years, the Cornell pad was not big enough to accommodate all the organic waste and produce mature compost. Currently Cornell compost is used to supplement nutrients on field crops (field crops are tolerant of composts that are 3/4 finished) and to generally improve the soil. A decision was made to use more compost on campus and to sell some locally. In order to produce stable, mature compost the pad was enlarged to the current size of 4.0 acres. Roughly 6000 tons of waste is composted annually. The compost windrows are nearly the size of a football field in length (270 feet), 6 to 8 feet tall, and 14 to 18 feet wide. The entire process occurs in approximately 6-9 months, the combination of feedstock accepted is generally on the dry side and high in carbon, water from the ponds can also be added to keep the proper balance. The piles are turned based on the internal temperature, and when they reach somewhere between 55 and 60 degrees Celsius (131 to 141 degrees Fahrenheit). The SCAT 482B turner resides at the site and can turn a pile in 15 minutes. Windrow are currently turned using a 400 hp Frontier turner, it is larger than the previous turner so it saves staff time.
Outcome/Benefits
The Cornell compost site is a model for other farm composting facilities. It is not regulated by NYSDEC, due to Cornell’s exempt status as an institution, yet decided to comply with DEC360 regulations to provide a prototype for other composting locations. Often times odors, noise, dust, and groundwater contamination can be associated with compost sites, yet there have been no complaints from neighbors. Especially since the site is 600 feet from a major trailer park. It is also in close proximity to a class 1 stream, which has shown no contamination with regular testing. The site is high profile with many visitors and a clean, well-kept, high production site creates a positive impact on the public and on visiting compost professionals. Perhaps the greatest benefit of this project is that it shows the potential for other facilities to replicate and create a compost site to meet their individual needs. There is also a great deal of research going on, including weed seed viability studies, pathogen studies, compost trials, animal mortalities demonstrations, and avian vector studies.
Prepared by Jean Bonhotal, Extension Associate and Matthew Hysell, BEE Student, Cornell Waste Management Institute, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences