Worm Farming usa
Compost Site Sells Vermicompost before Producing It
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- Airline Pilot Raises Earthworms in Wine Country
- The Largest Vermicomposting Operation in the US
Compost Site Sells Vermicompost before Producing ItJoe Lundstrom, site manager for Cascade Forest Products in Novato, California, took the experience he gained as site manager at Canyon Recycling in San Diego and added a vermicomposting emphasis to the conventional composting performed at the Novato site. But in this case, sales of vermicompost actually preceded the production of vermicompost. Initially, since there was no on-site vermicomposting, Lundstrom searched his own Marin County as well as adjoining counties in Northern California for earthworm castings that could be included in his product blends. Knowing that the addition of vermicompost created a “value-added product,” Lundstrom contacted vermiculture operations to purchase their earthworm castings. Once obtained, castings became part of the several blends Cascade has created under its own name and used in the custom blends it makes for others (Bogdanov, 1997c). Offering an extensive line of soils, amendments and mulches, at least six products, appended with the words “with worm castings,” are sold in bulk by Cascade: Super-Premium Planting & Container Mix, Planter Mix, Amended Loam, Premium TopSoil, Super Compost, and Garden Compost. Within these blends, and in addition to vermicompost, are found fir bark fines, perlite, peat moss, lava rock, poultry manure, redwood fines, sand, bio-solids, composted yard trimmings, and forest humus. In addition to their own bulk sales and the custom blends they prepare for local distributors such as Shamrock Earth Blends, Cascade provides ingredients for the Gardner and Bloome line of retail bagged products. 
Figure Joe Lundstrom examines composted bio-solids blended with earthworm castings Soon after his arrival at the Novato site, Lundstrom inoculated five windrows, one hundred feet (30.5 m) long and ten feet (3 m) wide, with approximately 5 tons (4.53 metric tons) of earthworms. Cow manure and co-composted bio-solids were used as feedstocks. Situated next to a lagoon that continues to accept bio-solids under a grandfathered arrangement made many years ago, Cascade Forest Products finds that the compost made with bio-solids adds a darkness of color to the finished products that their customers find appealing. Earthworms (Eisenia fetida) thrive on the combination of co-compost and manure in the outdoor windrows. Lundstrom finds he still cannot make enough vermicompost to satisfy the demand for his blends. Cascade Forests Products continues to purchase earthworm castings from vermiculture operations many miles away, but freight costs have made some transactions prohibitive.
Figure Cascade's "Super Compost" and "Planting Mix" both prominently feature worm castings in labeling Airline Pilot Raises Earthworms in Wine CountryIn 1992, Jack Chambers, a commercial airline pilot purchased a five-acre farm in Sonoma, California from a chicken rancher who also raised earthworms on poultry manure. Chambers expanded his Sonoma Valley Worm Farm by adding outdoor windrows to the existing covered row system, by obtaining dairy manure, by installing an irrigation system, and by purchasing equipment (tractor, trommel screen). Today, earthworms and vermicompost are sold at wholesale and retail prices. Earthworms (Eisenia fetida) are most commonly sold in 1,2,5, and 10-pound units, but larger amounts have been sold to bait dealers. Vermicompost is sold at $40 per cubic yard (.76 m3) (retail) and $30 per cubic yard wholesale. 
Figure Jack Chambers stands near straw-covered outdoor, irrigated windrows Chambers has experimented with feedstocks such as alfalfa and has discovered variations in earthworm activity according to the amount of moisture applied to earthworm beds (Riggle, 1996 b). Seasonal predators, robins, have caused problems by removing earthworms from windrows over a period of a few weeks before migrating. To facilitate harvesting vermicompost, Chambers covers a three-foot (.9m) section on one end of a windrow, (thereby withholding food and water), which encourages earthworms to move laterally in search of food. The cover is removed several days later to harvest vermicompost.
Figure Sonoma Valley Worm Farm's covered windrows provide shade and protection from excessive rain Chambers sold about 2,000 pounds (907 kg) of earthworms, most in one and two-pound (.45-.9kg) orders, through a voucher program offered in the City of San Jose in 1996. This was in connection with earthworm bin sales by another vendor in the municipally-sponsored program and accounted for nearly one-half the entire amount of earthworms Sonoma Valley Worm Farm sold for the year. The seasonal nature of earthworm sales is clear to Chambers who speaks of a “bell-curve” in the annual cycle. “The phone starts ringing in late March and [continues] fairly steadily in April. Things really go until the Fourth of July, when there’s a little dip, then they start soaring up again to the top of the bell-curve until about October, and that’s when it starts to cool down,” he says. Sonoma Valley Worm Farm’s advertising is limited to a few listings in Bay Area Yellow Pages. Having a toll-free number stimulates sales, Chambers says, and association with Master Gardeners and Master Composters has also been advantageous. (Bogdanov, 1997d) The Largest Vermicomposting Operation in the USAmerican Resource Recovery (ARR) is located in Vernalis, California, ideally situated along Interstate 5 in California’s agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley, about 90 miles south of Sacramento. Part of its 320 acres consists of two paved airplane landing strips covering 75 acres, a remnant of the military air base once located there, providing an added benefit for its waste management operations. Another 70 acres in used for vermicomposting. Non-hazarardous commercial wastes (organic residues) totaling more than 75,000 tons are processed by earthworms annually. Principal feedstocks consist of short fibers (paper pulp) generated from recycling cardboard. Additional wastes are added, including tomato waste, green waste and manure. 
Figure Water usage at ARR is measured by the acre foot where its 450 rows can stretch over a quarter mile in length The earthworm inventory was steadily built beginning in 1993 with 50 pounds of earthworms purchased from Al Cardoza’s Rainbow Worm Farm in Davis, CA. By 1999, ARR management estimated it had half a million pounds of earthworms on its site that continue to multiply within 3-foot wide outdoor windrows, some of which stretch as far as one-quarter mile in length. ARR obtains up to 300 tons per day of short fiber sludge from a cardboard recycling plant. It is a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week account. The material is ready to apply to windrows when it arrives. It is loaded on a spreader truck and laid on the rows about 8 inches in thickness. It arrives fluffy and wet. The worms begin eating the material immediately. ARR applies this feed four or five times a year, perhaps more often in the summer. Just before winter begins, ARR feeds the rows heavily because of the difficulty of getting trucks to the rows in the winter. On the average, ARR’s six “cells” contain about 75 rows, each row about 1,000 feet long. 
Figure Site Manager Mario Travalini demonstrates double trommel screens used to separate earthworms from castings In 1997, ARR began processing and selling earthworm castings. During its busiest season, the facility has shipped up to 100 tons of vermicompost per week. In the spring of 1998, ARR began offering earthworms for sale, harvesting, packaging and shipping them throughout the US Later, then began shipping earthworms outside the US (Bogdanov, 1999) ARR is the largest vermicomposting site on the West Coast and may very likely be the largest vermicomposting facility in North America.
Figure Darkly pigmented earthworms after being separated from their bedding by trommel screen. Directory: wp-content -> uploads uploads -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 uploads -> The Case Against the nypd’s Quota-Driven ‘Broken Windows’ Policing What Is It? uploads -> For want of a nail uploads -> Police Militarization uploads -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 uploads -> 2017 afoCo Landmark Scholarship Program uploads -> Instructions for the Preparation of Camera-Ready Contributions to the Conference Proceedings uploads -> Medical Radiography Program uploads -> Ihbb asian Championships 2014 middle school bowl Round 4 First Quarter uploads -> Ihbb european Championships 2014 Bowl Round 4 First Quarter Download 114.5 Kb. Share with your friends:
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