Anyone composting big style?

[April Manier]

So I have composted small style for years. Now I need to do it on a grand style for the farm. Anyone out there have pics and/or advise on my endeavor?

 

[catjac1975]

I think the best way would be to spread manure and leaves and plow them in. Unless you have a bobcat or some such machinery, then you could turn a pile. Do you have a supply of materials for compost? We got truckloads of leaves from a landscaper. We also got a load of grassclippings which I used on flower beds as mulch. The landscaper was aware and sympathetic to my requirements that they not come from Chemlawn lawns or the like. Still I only used them on flowers not food crops.
The dump in my town started changing landscapers to dump leaves and such. Good for me.

 

[April Manier]

Great Idea. I know tons of Organic landscapers I could contact for their leaves!

I am looking for practical advise about setting up an area for this. Using hay bales, the ins and outs, what didn't work. I have a tractor with a front end lifter so I can use it. Any thoughts on location?

Any thoughts on multiple piles?

Any thoughts on pitfalls?

 

[NwMtGardener]

I've never done it on a large scale, but what i've seen where they do is this: long narrow columns of compost, with one end being where you would add your newest stuff , and the other end being the most advanced into the composting. Since you have a front end loader, to turn the column you could just essentially drive in perpendicular to the length of the column, and scoop up a bucket and dump it right behind where it was, and work your way down, turning and moving the whole column back a few feet. I'm not sure if i'm explaining that very well?! Then the next time you turn it, just take the whole column back the other way, to where it was originally.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Forgot to add, our dump now has its own composting area, and a deal with our local electric co-op to turn captured methane into energy

 

[HunkieDorie23]

I started doing some serious composting last year. When I did I was reading a lot of stuff in the internet and I found a blogger that was a major scale composter. He has a hot pile year round and covers his garden completely with several inches of compost every year. I am looking but can find it right now. When I do I will post it for you. It is a good resource.

Found it. This is a very good blog. Check it out.
http://backyardorganicvegetables.blogsp

 

[Greenthumb18]

Here's some pictures of my compost pile. I'm starting to run out of the fall leaves that I collected this fall, I may use newspaper or cardboard for the carbon part of the compost pile. I frequently take a shovel and chop up the leaves and everything to speed up the composting process. I just want to get as much compost made as possible for spring. You can never have too much compost, its goodness for the garden.

 

[catjac1975]

I use hale bales for mulch along areas that are difficult to keep weeded, neighbors fence, stone wall etc. Hay takes longer to break down. As for collecting donations, we have 2 horse owners that deliver their manure as opposed to paying the dump for excepting it. My husband also picks up a load a week from a horse farmer. (Delivered of way better of course.) I think you could get all the manure you want from locals with small farms and no where to dump manure. I would just keep track so no one dumps unwanted debris. The landscaper we have delivering stuff is very good about not bringing leaves that contain a lot of trash. There may also be processing plants that can bring you green waste-lettuce processing etc.
Pitfalls may be neighbors. Everyone wants to live near a farm as long as they don't hear, see or smell anything.

 

[digitS']

I started doing some serious composting last year. When I did I was reading a lot of stuff in the internet and I found a blogger that was a major scale composter. He has a hot pile year round and covers his garden completely with several inches of compost every year. I am looking but can find it right now. When I do I will post it for you. It is a good resource.

Found it. This is a very good blog. Check it out.
http://backyardorganicvegetables.blogsp

That's Veggie PAK's blog . . . But, for some reason, your link is too short, 'Dorie.

Here is PAK's thread from this summer. Once again, for some reason, he was able to put his entire URL in the 1st post and - it works!

You can find him talking about his composting here on TEG by clicking right here (click).

digitS'

 

[panner123]

My pile has started, it is 50 feet across and 4 feet high. That is just the chopped leaves, I will add an equal amount of green grass and 40 yards of horse manure. When I have all the leaves I can get, I cut them up with my riding mower. Once this is done, I add the greens and use the riding mower again, now I add the manure and mix it all up. As I am mixing it I add the water to it. I mix it about once a week unless it gets to cold or to hot. About two weeks before I plant, I plow it in. this has worked for me for 40 + years. I can probably reach down into the soil a couple of feet at any given time. I know i don't have to contine this every year, I am just in a rut after doing it all this time. Plus, when the grand kids and I want to go fishing, we only need to spade up a couple of spots for all the worms we can use for a week end of fishing.