Making money with manure is an innovative way of utilizing a resource that is often considered to be useless. It can potentially provide revenue for farmers and even hobby gardeners if done correctly. With the right tools and techniques, anyone who has access to animal or kitchen waste has the potential to turn it into cash from different means, such as vermicomposting, producing biogas energy, and selling fertilizer-rich compost.
Here are five ways how you can make money off your excess manure supply!
Sell Manure to Local Farms
Selling manure to local farms is a great way to make money from your waste. Doing so can enable you to reap the rewards of your hard work and keep valuable nutrients circulating within the community. To sell manure successfully, you must source good-quality feces. Farmers want their land fertilized with fertile soil-enriching materials like manure!
Before making any sales, consider how much time and effort will be involved in collecting and packing up fresh dung for customers. If done right, this could become an ongoing long-term business venture. Additionally, don’t forget about buyers’ needs when pricing; ensuring competitive prices helps attract more potential purchasers.
Turn Manure into Fertilizer
Turning manure into fertilizer can be a great way to add value to your farm while benefiting the community and local environment. The compost created from mixing the bedding with animal waste provides health benefits in addition to providing nutrients found in chemical fertilizers back into our soils over time. Manure that is naturally converted through composting replenishes soil bacteria, which creates an ideal habitat for crop or livestock growth as opposed to just adding nitrogen-rich chemicals like synthetic fertilizers do.
Moreover, it prevents contaminants such as heavy metals and toxic compounds from being absorbed by plants, thus protecting humans, animals, and aquatic environments from these materials entering food chains. By creating different grades of compost, you’re then able to sell high-quality products either locally or further abroad, depending upon demand levels.
The process starts slow. This is because a large amount of raw material needs to be processed. However, if the process is set up correctly, there is the potential for cost savings. This occurs when chemicals are used instead of being purchased. In turn, this reduces costs associated with production and consequently lowers overall operating expenses.
Create Compost with Manure
Hot composting is a great choice if you don’t want to invest in biogas units. Piling up manure and letting nature do its work can be an effective way of creating fertilizer with animal dung. This biological process lets microorganisms break down raw organic waste, gradually transforming it into nutrient-rich matter that will help your plants grow strong and healthy.
You need certain conditions for hot composting to be successful. The temperature needs to remain relatively stable and should be around 750°F or 240°C. Oxygen needs to be supplied throughout the decomposition process for it to fully take place. The moisture level should stay between 50% and 60%. As for materials, nitrogen from animals or green materials like grass clippings and leaves gives the compost structure, while carbonaceous substrates such as straw or sawdust should make up 25–50% of the total material.
If these conditions are met, then naturally generated bacteria start breaking down the material over time, so you get next-level fertilization for free! Taking due care and following proper disposal processes makes all the sense both commercially and ecologically alike, resulting in improved sustainability in more ways than just one!
Recycle Wet Material from Horse Stalls
You can also recycle wet material from horse stalls. This is done by separating dirt and other ingredients, drying the resulting mixture, and selling it as compost for use in gardens or landscaping projects. Cleaning your barn regularly will ensure that stall waste has been properly separated so you can get a lot of value from this product.
To do this, manure must be stored for an extended period. Ideally, the organic matter should break down into usable components within three months, regardless of climate type. This process then leads to marketable products such as soil amendments, fertilizer blends with varying nitrate ratios, or screened chunks ready to be used on farms and ranches around town.
If there is not enough land available at stables, then these mixtures could be sold directly from one’s barns. This depends on local regulations about collection facilities nearby. This process would reduce smell due to its multi-stage process, which includes aeration treatments before the sale.
The potential cost savings when choosing proper recycling methods are substantial. This is because they do not require additional physical labor apart from regular cleanup. Eliminating manual turning over piles with shovels, as well as fuel costs associated with removing them offsite, would go right back into the owner’s pockets.
Consign Manure for Landscaping Projects
It’s easy to see why consigning manure for landscaping projects might sound like a great idea at first. Manure is full of essential nutrients that can improve the soil structure and promote healthier plant growth, but it also has many potential dangers if not used properly.
Before you take on any project involving manure, it is important to reach out for advice. Contact your local extension office or an agricultural professional for instructions about how to handle animal waste in the area where you live. This is true for any type of garden project you are planning.
The risks from using improperly-handled horse and cow manure vary based on location, depending upon herbicide laws regulating certain areas as well as which animals are involved in producing said manures.
Herbicides may be applied directly onto hay fields or other lands. If this is done, toxins can remain in the resulting products when they are composted into fertilizer. This poses a potential health risk to those who use the fertilizer. Additionally, there are also risks of pathogens being present in the fertilizer, such as E. coli, which are found naturally in the stool.
Selling manure for profit can be a great money-making venture. With some business acumen and creativity, you could easily build a thriving manure sales operation.
United Farm Mortgage is here to help farmers. We provide loan options to enable farmers to access capital for the growth of their agricultural operations. This can lead to increased profits by selling animal waste products such as cow dung or pig slurry.
We offer services tailored to small farms and ranches, such as financing programs with competitive interest rates and flexible repayment terms. Our goal is to make it easier for these owners to take advantage of these innovative ways to generate new sources of income without compromising their long-term sustainability goals.