Thanksgiving Turkeys Have Green, Sustainable Value

Thanksgiving Turkeys - Have Green Options

The holiday season is approaching and the demand for turkey on the festive tables is reaching it's yearly high.  The turkey, a fowl that is native to North America, is a traditional favorite for the holidays. And the desire for recipes for using the left-overs will saturate the searches in the coming weeks.The Minnesota Turkey industry provides 47 million turkeys for Thanksgiving, 22 M for the Christmas holiday, and Easter requires another 19 M turkeys. But to get all of those turkeys to market, the industry creates tons of waste. 

The staggering numbers of turkeys consumed has created a massive amount of turkey litter (poo) that could be piling up in mountains of waste with a smell that penetrates whole neighborhoods.  Tons of turkey littler, 750,000 tons (!) is just one number I found for Minnesota, which is the top turkey producing state in the U.S.  

Bulk turkey litter on farms

Turkey poo is trucked from farms to electric producing power plants.  There the turkey litter, which is a mix of manure and bedding, is burned to create steam that will produce enough electricity to serve 60,000 homes in the region.

  

Fibrominn Plant, Benson, Minn.

Staggering numbers of turkey litter is transported from local farms producing 4500 - 5000 semi-truck loads.  After the litter is burned, that massive, bulky, smelly product is reduced to 18 dump trailers of ash.  Ash that is sold back to the farms as a nutrient rich organic fertilizer without the bulk - without the odor.   

Bulk to Ash

This product is a mere 2% of the original mass of manure, but the nutrient values and ease of applying this form of turkey litter is unsurpassed. Applying manures from any source to farm fields has created environmental problems.  The Phosphorous and nitrates build up in soils, then these substances in the soil leach from the manures into runoff, affecting groundwater and surface waterways. 

This lab report of broiler litter ash indicates the intense concentrations of nutrients are 10 - 17 times more concentrated than the bulk poultry litter.  This added benefit of using turkey litter ash is powerful  and the ash is lighter in weight and transportation costs are much less than moving the tons of raw material. The nitrates are burned up in the combustion process. In addition to the added macro-nutrients of N-P-K of the ash, the micro-nutrients that plants also need is concentrated at higher levels than the raw manure.

Turkey Farm

Even though the turkey litter is not literally a 'left over', this by-product of the turkey industry is being used to it's maximum benefits for a very sustainable source for power.  

Feathers

Another by-product of the turkey industry is feathers. Turkey feathers offer another source for organic fertilizer.  Feather meal is processed from all poultry sources, duck, chickens, and turkeys.  By a pressurized steam process , feather meal is a great, slow-releasing organic fertilizer that is high in Nitrogen.  As with all organic fertilizers, micro-organisms in the soil will release the nutrients to plants. 

The sustainable energy source for our times -  truly a green option. Turkeys - litter, to generate electricity, litter to generate organic fertilizers, and feathers to generate organic fertilizers. The turkey litter and feathers are indeed sustainable with no seasonality for the product. The birds are always going to 'go' and litter is unlimited.  Oh, and let's not forget, turkey is the star of the holiday feasts.  

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Thanksgiving turkey has many high grade advantages for our time. Taste, Tradition and Sustainability. 

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Organic Fertilizers – Part 4 - Animal Sources

Animals Provide Organic Nutrients

Getting this article on Animal Sources organized today, I found that the animal sources for organic fertilizers are limited.  The products that come from animals are few, but I did find some really good quality fertilizers, and some – not so much.
 
Let’s look at the –not so much- products first.
 
Blood Meal   As the name implies, blood from animals is the ingredient of this product.  Slaughterhouse floors are scraped and the products is pulverized into powder.  Processing of cattle is the usual source, but pigs, and chicken blood can be used.  High in Nitrogen, Blood meal has an N-P-K of 12-0-0.  This type of nitrogen is readily available, and may burn plants if over applied.

In strict organic production, blood meal is not allowed to be fed to organic livestock.  The risk of mad-cow disease is the reason for this ban.  Applying blood meal to crops as a soil amendment is allowed however.  As a precaution, it is recommended that during application of blood meal, a mask is worn to limit exposure of this disease.

Blood Meal is also used as an animal repellant and as a compost accelerator.

As a readily renewable product, resources (blood) come from processing 26.4 Billion pounds of beef annually.  22.5 Billion pounds of pig products are produced annually.


Bone Meal  The same industry as above, provides bone for organic bone meal. Bones are steamed, stripped, dried, and ground during processing.   Bone meal is high in phosphorus, and helps promote root growth in plants. Common use of bone meal is in the fall while planting spring flowering bulbs.


I recommend that indiscriminate application of any fertilizer be discouraged.  In the case of phosphorous, this element is not readily used,  (especially in soils of pH above 7)  and stays abundant in soil for a long time.  Over use can cause phosphorus to leach into the watershed, and cause algae bloom in area lakes.(Here again, I suggest a soil analysis, before applying amendments.)

There are alternatives to using bone meal and I will look into them in Step 5 – Ocean and Sea Products Used for Organic Fertilizers. 


Feather Meal 
Feather meal is also a by-product of the food industry, slaughtering poultry. It supplies a fairly good supply of Nitrogen. As  a slow release fertilizer, feather meal can provide nutrients for up to four months. Work powder into soil for decomposition to start.



Making feather meal is called rendering. The feathers are steamed to sterilize them and ground into a powder.

 
Poultry Litter   Poultry litter is a blend of poultry manure, feed, and bedding.  The nutrient values are 3-3-2.  It works best when worked into the soil.  Long-term benefits of this nutrition is evident even into the second year after application.  75% of N-P is available the first year.  The remaining 25% remains viable into the second year. The main cost of poultry litter is transportation to the marketplace, and the cost of applying it.  With so much litter available, this resource is being useful in another area – biofuel.

 

Example:  In the State of Minnesota, several farms that produce turkeys have found a way to dispose of tons of litter – 1.7 million tons, to be exact!  The litter is removed to a local power plant where it is burned in turbines, and generates thousands of KW hours of electricity.  This is enough electricity to power 60,000 homes!  The remaining ash of the turkey litter is returned to the farmers who use it as an organic fertilizer.  Win-Win – no mountains of litter piling up, no odor, and the resource is –indeed- renewable.

 
Manures   Animal sources of this organic product are several.  Horse manure – sometimes called mushroom compost – is used to top dress farms and gardens.  Cow manure – to me – is a better choice than horse manure. I’ve have found that cow manure is less likely to contain seeds that will gladly sprout all over the garden.  Since cows have a two stomach digestive system. the weed seeds are digested better.


 
Composted manures are starting that decomposition process, and nutrition is more readily available.


Bat Guano  Guano is another term for manure – of bats.  The three types of bats are sanguivorous – vampire bats that seek blood; the insectivorous bat who eats insects; and the fruit eater, the frugivorous bat.

Fruit eating bat
Insect eating bat
Blood eating bat


The blood eating and the insect eating bat guano is high in nitrogen and phosphorus.  The fruit eating bat guano has less nitrogen.  Therefore, when purchased, the label for Guano will indicate a Nitrogen Source, or a Phosphorous Source.
Arbico products

Guano extraction is bat friendly.


Tarps are collected after a week or so, and the guano is processed into fresh, fossilized, or semi-fossilized formats.  Macro- and micro-nutrients are available in huge amounts. These nutrients activate microorganisms in the soil.   Mix granular guano in holes when planting trees and shrubs, or apply to soil when planting grass seed.  A ‘tea’ can be made with guano, and used as a foliar spray as well.

   
Animal sources for organic fertilizers are readily available, but some concerns are noted.  What organic fertilizers do you use?  What do you  avoid?