Farm & Agriculture Composting
Challenges of Farm and Agriculture Composting
Farm and agriculture composting facilities face the same challenges as commercial composting facilities: they need to operate efficiently and produce valuable products while managing environmental factors such as stormwater, leachate, and odors. The good news is that most farmers qualify for agricultural exemptions and can construct without many of the limitations imposed on other sectors.
Greenacres uses a state-of-the-art composting facility designed by GMT
Construction Cost
We love working with farmers, who are self-sufficient-minded and easily come up with creative solutions. For farms on a budget, we offer more hands-off support, allowing you to get your facility up and running at a great price.
Pathogen Destruction
GMT’s deep understanding of aeration requirements, compost recipes, and temperature monitoring ensures outstanding pathogen destruction, with automated temperature tracking in exportable CSV files.
Permitting
Like any facility, having the proper permits in hand is critical to the longevity of your operation. Our team leverages decades of experience permitting composting facilities to help you qualify for agricultural exemptions.
Labor Costs
Fortunately, composting doesn't need to be complicated. Most of our solutions require minimal effort beyond what you likely are already doing for disposal.
Our Solutions
We provide facility design and consulting services to farm and agriculture composting facilities of all sizes. For large on-farm composting facilities needing space efficiency, we offer a variety of Aerated Static Pile (ASP) systems with outstanding process control with minimal material handling costs. We also offer tractor-pulled windrow turners for on-farm composting when time and space constraints do not justify an ASP system. For smaller farms and agricultural facilities, a Site Built in-vessel composting system is often an ideal solution.
1. Aerated Static Pile (ASP)
ASP composting eliminates the need for mechanical turning of the material, while speeding up the composting process to just 30 days, plus 4-8 weeks curing time (compared to 6+ months with turned windrow composting). Our ASP systems can reduce footprint and material handling costs by as much as 75% when compared to windrow composting.
Low
Opex
WebMACs
Controls
Low Handling Costs
4+ Week
Active Process
2. Turned Windrow Composting
Using a tow behind a windrow turner is one of the least capital intensive ways to compost. It allows you to leverage existing tractors to turn your compost effectively and efficiently, turning once per week for 3 months, and once or twice a month for the subsequent 3+ months. While fuel and labor intensive, this approach can make sense if you are not concerned about odors, footprint or processing speed.
Low
Capex
High
Opex
Large
Footprint
12+ Week Active Process
3. Earth Flow Composting
The Earth Flow system makes composting fast and easy, with just a 14 day process time to produce ready-to-cure compost with minimal labor. The system is completely enclosed giving you excellent control over odor and stormwater, making it a great solution for those in urban areas or looking for ease of permitting.
Low
Opex
Fully
Enclosed
Minimal
Odor
2+ Week
Active Process
Learn More About Farm & Agriculture Composting Solutions
“With our previous turned windrow systems we had a hard time keeping up. That stress has been alleviated with our site built Earth Flow. The long-term investment in the system has a return on both labor and operating costs. I am no longer spending 16 hours a week in a skid steer and have the opportunity to spend more time in the field and greenhouse. We are also producing more compost than our old turned- windrow process, which helped us quickly transition into a no till farm.”
- Nate Bundy, Compost Manager at Green Acres Farm
