Composting in Ohio: A Tour of the Industry, an annual event co-sponsored by CFAES’s Ohio Composting and Manure Management program and the Organics Recycling Association of Ohio, starts at 9 a.m. Aug. 9 in Lima. General registration is $40. Student registration is $25. Both include lunch. Act fast: The deadline to register is Monday, July 30.
First stop
The first stop on the tour (9 a.m.) will be at the Allen-Oakwood Correctional Institution Compost Complex in Lima. Located in a retrofitted cattle barn, the Class II site composts food scraps collected on-site as well as food scraps, animal manure, yard trimmings and other feedstock generated up to 85 miles away. You’ll learn about the site’s aerated static pile system, training program for inmates and public-private partnership.
Second stop
The second stop (12:30 p.m.) will take you to Andre Farms Composting in Wauseon, a Class II facility that composts dairy manure, food waste and yard trimmings and creates a product that provides more plant nutrition than topsoil does. You’ll learn about best practices for composting large volumes of food waste and for producing high-fertility composts. There will be equipment demonstrations of a food waste de-packager, feedstock grinder and compost screener.
More
Lunch (11:30 a.m.) will be at Andre Farms and will feature a talk by Greg LaBarge, agronomic field specialist with CFAES’s OSU Extension outreach arm, on the benefits of compost and other organic materials to crop production.
You can drive yourself to the Lima site to start the day, or you can ride for free in a van leaving from CFAES’s Wooster campus.
Download full details and a registration form. (Photo: Getty Images.)