Composting, recycling

SIve
I've been working on the compost yard over the weekend.  The intention is to produce an amount of compost sufficient to spread it across our 57 acres - rather than just make garden size amounts as we have for the last 37 years.

The compost yard is not far from the house - maybe 40 m.  But that is not a worry - compost, to the extent it smells, smells beautiful and earthy rather than anything bad.  

The core of the system is a round compost heap like this:

 The mesh is easy enough to get and it does a great job confining the heap.  Here you can see it gently steaming away as it composts.  This photo was taken on a crisp Autumn morning.

The system has broken down a bit recently with the amazing amount of rain we have had.  I plunged my hand into the pile ... confidently expecting the normal warmth ... and instead feeling clammy, wet cold.  Too much rain has soaked the pile and killed the composting process - in that one at least. 

 This next photo shows how the majority of the material gets there.  I, or someone else, recover soiled hay from the Feed Yard.

At this point real farmers tend to think we're nuts - cleaning up a confinement feeding area every day (or at least every 2 days) seems like too much work for most.

At this stage it's not for me.  Cleaning up regularly helps get good utilisation of the hay, involves checking on the stock closely, captures as much of the fertility from the dung as is possible - and, on top of all that, the Feed Yard looks good when it's done - as the next photo shows.

 
 The surface of the feed yard is just B grade crushed rock, but provided we keep on top of it it cleans up almost like the surface is concrete - except it's not - and the cattle don't slide around like they would if it was concrete.

An exciting development is that I've come across someone who collects green waste from houses in neighboring communities.  He has offered to give us reasonably clean green waste for nothing.  It works for him - because he currently has to dump it at a municipal tip - and pay for the privilege.  So pretty soon we'll have a whole lot more compostable material.

I'll post again on the other work we've been doing to get the compost yard set up for handling bigger quantities - and the purchase of a compost spreader to get it on to the paddocks.
F