Suståne is like no other
Organic Fertilizer

     Carbon + Nitrogen + Water + Oxygen

      These are the basic components of Suståne compost.

      Turkeys are raised on softwood pine shavings to provide a warm, dry and soft flooring for nesting; protect the birds and provide an absorbent material to collect the droppings, spilled feed and water. This bedding is critical to the making of fine compost for three very important reasons...

     Carbon is the building block of all life forms

1. The bedding (carbon) serves as a nitrogen sink to capture and hold the soluble nitrogen as well as the other plant nutrients present in the manure.

2. The bedding (wood shavings) provides structure and porosity so that the composting windrow “breathes” and allows oxygen to move throughout the stack. Without structure in the pile, the windrow would lose the capacity to entrain and move oxygen. Without oxygen present, the decomposing organic matter will quickly go anaerobic. Anaerobic decomposition creates completely different organic acids than does aerobic composting; organic acids like fumeric, putriscene, and valeric. These types of organic acids are known to be toxic to plants at concentrations as low as 1 ppm in the soil. Imagine applying anaerobically decomposed organic material (e.g. chicken manure from battery cage layer factory farms) to your turf or high value crops. You are applying a low grade “fertilizer” that performs as an organic pesticide and soil oxygen robber.

3. The bedding (carbon) provides the carbohydrates necessary to sustain microbial life in the composting process. Decomposing bacteria are life forms that also need protein and carbohydrates to thrive and multiply. The manure component provides the microbes with the protein (nitrogen) and the bedding provides the microbes with the carbohydrates to sustain their metabolic processes. Nitrogen is the most critical element in plant photosynthesis after carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. We do all that we can to preserve it for later use.

• Nitrogen in the turkey manure is derived from soybean meal in the feed and other enzymatic reactions in the gut.

   

• Initially however the nitrogen is quite soluble in the form of urea, which when exposed to air is acted upon by naturally occurring urease enzymes that convert the urea to the ammonia form of nitrogen (NH3) and N2 gas. Ammonia is a volatile gas. Without a mechanism for capturing the urea and ammonia, much of the fertilizer value of the naturally occurring nitrogen is lost or wasted.

   

• The Suståne aerobic composting process prevents the loss of valuable nitrogen fertilizer by converting soluble and volatile forms to “organic” nitrogen, or nitrogen that is bound and held by carbon. When the composting process is complete the organic nitrogen is actually held within the cellular structure of the decomposing microorganisms. The ammonia nitrogen is no longer present – odor has been diminished. The soluble nitrogen has now been converted to slow release nitrogen (SRN). Slow Release Nitrogen is less likely to leach or escape and serves to feed growing plants, as they require it over a longer period of time. Organically bound, slow release nitrogen is nature’s most efficient form of plant food.

      Eventually the windrow will dry out and microbial decomposition (life forms in the windrow) will begin to slow down and eventually stop. This slow down however is not to be mistaken for stabilized compost. Water has to be repeatedly added throughout the process so the microbial community can complete their job of thorough stabilization.

      To satisfy the microorganisms basic need for water and to replenish water that has been lost through aeration, rainfall and snowmelt collected from contained runoff at the Suståne composting site is recycled back into the windrows on a periodic basis. Optimal composting continues when the rows are maintained at moisture levels between 45 and 55% water content. Windrows that fall below 45% retard the active composting process. Conversely, windrows containing excessive water impede airflow and can cause pockets of anaerobic conditions.

     The very word “compost” has been maligned, misused, misappropriated and spoken as a pleasant sounding euphemism for rotten or rotting organic matter, no matter the state of decomposition or stability. Some fertilizer manufacturers or marketers have even referred to fossilized plant carbon sources (mined humates) as “compost”. Fertilizer regulators, plant scientists and purveyors of bagged or bulk cow manure, pelletized chicken manure and even anaerobic sewage sludge mistakenly oftentimes intentionally refer to any organic substance as “compost”. It simply sounds nicer than dehydrated manure, biosolids or yard waste or coal.

      The term compost implies something intentional has been done to treat the organic substrate before it is ready for use. With such widespread misuse of the term, it is no wonder that most customers are confused by what is meant by the word “compost.”

     Suståne makes it perfectly clear that when we use the term compost, we mean organic materials that have been subjected to complete and thorough biological stabilization; a process through active, intentional and repeated aeration of organic matter over a length of time sufficient to produce finished compost that is resistant to re-heating or further decomposition. This is a process that monitors and records internal windrow temperatures to assure that 100% of the organic material has been subjected to thermophilic temperatures in excess of 135°F for a minimum of five consecutive days. At the end of the active composting and curing phase, the organic material is homogenous (uniform) and dark brown in appearance and has no odor including septic or ammonia gases. The parent materials are indistinguishable as the compost has an earthy, rich texture of humus.