Cow fertilizer

Hey guys just looking to get some expert gardeners advice on how well a new buissness I'm trying to start up will succeed as far as what the product is and if you guys think that it would be a Hott item.

So to start my family owns a 800 herd dairy in which I live and work . We pile all out cattles waste in long piles were it sits to cook and compost . From this I was thinking of breaking the piles down into smaller piles and further composting it and sailing it as a fertilizer . I was thinking it could be a Hott item figuring its coming straight from the farm to your door . If it would be something everyone thinks people would find interest In I will continue to follow up with business permits and following up with everything else needed to package and sale .

Thanks - Jordan

 

What's it's NPK, is it slurry dryed from the cubicles or loose housing with straw,
is it organic(which i mean 100% organic) will there be any weed seeds in it

 

You could keep it simpler than that. A local stable just bags the stuff up into black bin bags and sells it from their front garden for 25p per bag, put your money in the honesty box. I find it unbelievably useful, as being in smallish bags it's easy to load and unload and of course, mega cheap. I think they just need to get rid of it.

If you were going to go to the expense of getting licenses, packaging facilities, etc, you would need to market it much more widely, I think, doorstep sales may not cover your expenses, especially if you do not live near large towns. If you were going to offer it for sale through garden centres etc, you would probably need to guarantee a reliably homogenous product. There may be independent local garden centres that you could come to an arrangement with, though. You could also investigate marketing in bulk to allotment societies, especially if you could include delivery, but not sure how much money there is to be made in that.

Do you not need to keep some for spreading on pasture?

 

It's both and yes organic there should be no reasons for seeds in cow manuare unless there grass grazers when in this case dairy cattle it's all blended and eliminating seeds .

 

Were overloaded as far as holding facilities go for our cattle manure. California state laws only allow so much on the property so I have plenty to get rid of

 

What's it's NPK ratio?

Do you need a waste transporters licence?

 

I would have to look in our files for that which I can do

 

So have you increased the herd numbers but not increasing the farm to hold the extra waste,
How much will it cost per bag and to ship it to the uk

 

This is a UK site, so the advice you get here may not be relevant for you ... but there again you might get some ideas that folk on your side of the pond have not thought of!

It would help if you put your location (California will do!!) in your Profile then folk will know that UK solutions may not be the answer.

Over here that would mean being approved by the Soil Association - animals could not be given any growth hormones, or antibiotics (except in controlled circumsnces), if the animals eat hay (over here they would usually over winter inside because the ground is too wet and temperature too cold for grass to grow) then the hay could not be treated with selective herbicides and so on.

I'm guessing that your cows are outside 365 days of the year? Hay-fed cows over here would be eating the weed seeds in the hay ...

Many years ago we had a supply of brewer's grains, decided to have some animals in sheds to fatten for beef. That was fine whilst the mushroom farm down the road took all the manure, but they went bust and the manure piled up. We bought an arable farm and put the manure on that, but after 3 years or so the ground was so Nitrogen rich that the Wheat wouldn't stand up! ...

... meantime there had always been a problem, given that the cows were "townies" and never went outside / onto pasture, with foot rot, which despite the fact that the animals fetched premium prices at auction as the meat quality was excellent meant that the animals could not be finished as Class I ... so some wag suggested that we grow Onions on the farm and mince the whole animal and sell it as Hamburger mix!