Elegant Composting

As I'm sure you can tell from my previous post, composting is a topic close to my heart. So, when I stumbled across the method Joel Salatin and his team use on Polyface Farm in Virginia, USA, I got quite excited.

Joel farms grass-fed beef cattle. In winter, he houses his animals inside due to Virginia's harsh weather. Inside the barn is where the magic happens.

I've, honestly, never heard of a more elegant composting solution. Essentially, by simply behaving naturally, Joel's livestock breeze through all the heavy lifting. 

The process starts with the cattle themselves. They do what cows do best and poo day in and day out inside the barn. Rather than carting the manure away to slurry pits, Joel and his team simply cover it over with woodchips and straw right there on the barn floor. Over the winter months, this pile of poo and carbon grows higher and higher to well over a metre. 

By spring, isn't everything buried literally in sh** you might ask? The short answer is, no, due to the first piece of genius. 

The barn's hay feeding troughs are on pulleys. As the floor rises, the feeding troughs simply hoist up too. I told you the system was elegant, but it doesn't stop there.

Joel and his team spread corn across the rising floor as well. These kernels ferment in the compacted anaerobic conditions under the cow's hooves. Ah hah, I know you now have another burning question. What is the point of this? 

Here is the second piece of genius. When the cows go out to pasture in the spring, Joel moves his pigs into the barn. They squeal with glee doing what pigs do best, rooting through the muck foraging for delicious tidbits of fermented corn. Their activity turns and aerates the mixture kick-starting aerobic composting. 

The end product of this process is sweet smelling, rich, luscious compost. Joel simply spreads this black gold across his land as free, organic fertiliser. 

I told you it was elegant.

You can listen to Joel explaining this technique firsthand via the video link below. The whole documentary is well worth a watch, but if you wish to cut to the chase simply fast forward to the 9 minute mark. Enjoy!