Dairy Nutrient Management Program
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| Matias Sjogren, with BioFiltro® shares his passion for worm- based filtering systems with Chery Sullivan, center, and Kerri Love, inspector with DNMP. |
The highlight of our time together was on Tuesday. We hosted a field day of tours and cross-program training with staff from Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) team, Oregon State University, and Washington Department of Ecology’s CAFO program.
We all found it valuable to coordinate with and learn from our colleagues doing similar work toward similar missions.
During our working lunch, we had time to talk about cross-program issues, including inspection efficiencies, post-harvest, fall soil nitrate levels, database development, E. coli and fecal coliform, and many other manure-related topics. How many business lunches have you attended where all you talk about is poop?
Helpful worms
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| Wiggly worms remove nutrients from dairy manure liquids. Transferring phosphorus and nitrogen from the liquids to the worms and their castings give diary producers more application flexibility. |
As part of our field tours, we stopped at a dairy that has installed a demonstration worm-bed system. Russ Davis, with the “organics residual management” company Organix, Inc. which installed the system, filled us in. Organix received a grant through our program’s penalty grants process to show how converting a dairy lagoon to the BioFiltro BIDA® system (basically a giant worm bin) will remove nutrients from dairy manure liquid.
The phosphorus and nitrogen found in liquid manure are important nutrients for plant growth. Using tools to remove some of them from the liquid (for instance, to be held in worm castings or in solids), allows the dairy producer more flexibility to move and apply those nutrients where they are most needed.
Organix also set up a big worm bed at Royal Dairy. Ultimately, they plan to have almost six acres of worm beds.
The system we toured, specifically designed for small farms, processes 300 gallons of dairy manure effluent per day. The resulting “worm tea,” or the liquid left after running the manure through the worm bed, contains less nitrogen, pathogens, and phosphorus. Those nutrients are retained in the worms and their castings.
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| Standing in front of the BioFiltro® worm bed system, the DNMP team is joined by colleagues from Oregon and Washington Ecology department on their field day tours June 11. |
We also toured a newly installed centrifuge system at a large dairy. The centrifuge is part of the dairy’s treatment system designed to remove manure solids and nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen.
We are grateful to the dairies that opened their doors to our diverse group. The tours offered a first-hand look, which helped us better understand the investments and innovation being made to manage manure nutrients.
In summary: WSDA’s Dairy Nutrient Management Program learned first-hand how worms and centrifuges can help sustainably manage dairy-farm manure.
