Year two & beyond
After grasping the basics of composting, learning and insight come through repetition, improving your system out of necessity, and integrating composting with other routines and requirements of farming. This section is devoted to the practice of iterative growth – adding in new knowledge as you feel ready.
“Compostville” at the Garden at 485 Elm, a community farm in Montpelier, VT, evolves over time (2016-2020)
Continued Learning
Seasonal Rhythms
Consider how your compost operation settles out across four full seasons of farm life. How much finished compost do you need to meet fertility demands? When in the season do you have the most time to put into monitoring, management, or system repairs? Compost management can ebb and flow as well, but there are a few important things to keep in mind.
If you’re busy with other tasks but can keep taking in food scraps - go ahead and use extra carbon materials! This may slow down decomposition, but it will keep odors and critters at bay until you can spend some time mixing and managing.
When you’re ready to speed things up again, take the time to mix the material you have accumulated and assess what it needs. This might mean adding less carbon materials as you’re adding food scraps or manure to get the C:N back to optimum, adding moisture, and very likely - giving it a good mix to reduce the density and restore porosity.
If you find yourself in a position where you need to stop accepting materials for a period of time - be sure to communicate that with community members who are bringing you their food scraps or with a hauler if you are partnering with one. Let them know an approximate timeframe and how you’ll communicate when you’re “open for business” again. If possible, it’s also helpful to provide ideas of where these folks can divert their scraps in the meantime.
Winter Composting
While winter composting in cold climates comes with challenges, there’s no reason your operation needs to stop with the snow. Microorganisms and the larger decomposers continue breaking down organic matter as long as conditions allow; the only time decomposition comes to a true halt is when the materials freeze. If you have a large enough pile or a big enough bin, it’s possible to continue composting even through cold winters. Winter access to your compost system is a factor to consider, and covering and capping your piles or bins can be key to success. Find more guidance for winter composting in the tools and video resources in this section.
Winter composting, Firefly Farm in Burke VT
Some composters have different locations or systems for winter composting. Assess your site and what will work best for you!
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Intro to winter composting (pdf)
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Adapting as farm goals change
When farm operations change, your compost operation may also need to evolve. Changes affecting material availability, such as bringing new animals onto the farm or eliminating a category of farm production, have implications for your approach to composting. If you find you are producing more compost than your farm can use – or not as much as you'd like - it may be time to change the model. Whenever you're thinking about changes to your compost model, be sure you take the time to understand what is entailed. Looping back to some of the initial tools can be helpful.
Adding Aeration
Aeration systems can increase the oxygen flow through your pile, helping to raise the temperature and allowing for less frequent turning. But they can also dry a pile more quickly and interfere with regular turning. Learn more about the pros and cons of aeration systems.
Positive aeration at Tamarlane Farm in Lyndon VT
Facing contamination
Contaminants in farm composting operations vary by setting, system, and operator practices – and are somewhat determined by what you do and don’t decide to handle. What seems to be true across all sites, however, is that there is less contamination and contamination is easier to address when food scrap collection is rooted in relationships between operators/managers and food scrap contributors. A relational approach typically has feedback systems in place as well, so that when contamination does creep in it’s easy to address quickly.
Relational composting systems tend to be more responsive.
Common contaminants include what is visible – for example, stickers from fruit and vegetables, twist ties, and tea bags. It can also include what we can’t see – for example, microplastics, PFAS (Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances, a group of ubiquitous manufacturing chemicals), persistent herbicides, or soil-borne jumping worms.
Some contaminants can be managed with strict control measures (see box right) early in the process or better communication with all involved parties. Others are harder to avoid completely and becoming more prevalent across all types of compost operation.
Contamination can result from inadequate management (as when PFRPs are not met and the finished compost contains viable weed seeds or pathogens) or improper site design (as when leachate from new piles flows into and contaminates compost that is curing).
Food scraps successfully separated from produce stickers. Image credit: Willow Tree Community Composting
Critical Control Points
A critical control point is defined as a step in any process where control can be applied and is essential to prevent or eliminate a hazard from the finished product OR reduce that hazard to an acceptable level. In composting, CCPs include steps where measures are taken to specifically guard against contamination.
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Introduction to biosecurity - CAV tipsheet (pdf)
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Deciding to Expand
Scaling up food scrap collection
A way to rapidly grow pile volume is to begin taking in food scraps from beyond your farm – possibly from neighbors, employees, or CSA members. Growing into this type of community operation also comes with challenges, from the logistics of drop-offs to new contamination risks to questions of costs and charging fees. If you do consider scaling up the food scrap portion of your compost operation, we recommend partnering with a local organization or a dedicated and informed group of community members. Take a look at the Community and Organization sections of this toolkit for more ideas about this.
Partnering With a Hauler
Athena Lee Bradley, one of CAV’s senior consultants, shared the slidedeck from her presentation on moving to community food scrap collection. This presentation guides you through assessing the costs and risks of each, and includes model operations in states around the Northeast. Or, take a look at the NRRA’s complete composting toolkit here.
Selling compost
For some farmers, the potential to realize additional revenue is part of what draws them to composting. There is usually considerable need and a ready market for compost-based soil amendments. Keep in mind that making compost a product rather than using it on your farm comes with a new set of regulations and product quality restrictions. Business advisors trained in compost technical services can help you incorporate compost into your farm business plan and product list, and calculate anticipated profit and other pertinent figures.
Adding Compost to Farm Business Plans
Sale of compost products is on the rise, presenting a viable value-added product opportunity for farmers. Few take advantage of this opportunity, however, often lacking key capacities (including time) to explore turning compost into an additional product. “Composting presents a strategic opportunity for farms to earn income through fees for accepting materials for composting, as well as selling value-added material into the marketplace. As a business, it involves developing a product, marketing, maintaining equipment and employees, and adhering to regulations and standards.” - Northeast Recycling Council
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Adding composting to farm business plans - CAV tipsheet (pdf)
Operator certifications
Certified compost operator trainings may be of interest to farmers looking to deepen their knowledge of compost best practices. These trainings are conducted online as well as in person. Topics covered at operator trainings can include in-depth review of topics such as pile monitoring and management, storm water and leachate management, compost recipe refinement, aerated static pile composting, mortality composting, permitting, and more.
The Compost Research & Education Foundation (CREF) coordinates Compost Training Programs around the US
The Maine Compost School offers a nationally recognized compost site operator certificate program
The 131° School of Composting is the educational branch of Compost Technical Services, a consulting practice founded by James McSweeney (author of Community-Scale Composting Systems).
Individual state agencies may also maintain a list of approved courses for their jurisdictions (for example, here’s the list from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation).
Keep learning
with five more content modules
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Your First Year
Get to know the basics of composting. Definitions, materials and recipes, principles of good management, and more. Content to get you going and to come back to as you iterate and improve.
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Year Two and Beyond
Learn to make improvements based on experience. Evaluate your first finished compost and consider how to adapt your system and practices when your farm model changes, or respond to the unexpected.
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Troubleshooting Tips
Strategies and solutions for head-scratching eventualities, from low temperatures to frozen piles to keeping wildlife out, plus deliberations for more experienced composters, such as whether to add an aeration.
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Advanced Topics
Specialized content and advanced topics of the trade, including meeting your compost under a microscope and capturing heat through Compost Aeration and Heat Recovery (CAHR) systems.
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Learning Forum
A forum for any practitioner to pose questions and quandaries for the CAV On-Farm Composting technical team and other experts to address. Find an answer or ask a question to help your on-farm composting get even better.
Not finding what you’re looking for? Search the entire toolkit…
You’ve made a commitment to composting – now get support! Resources in the Organization and Community sections are designed to help your collaborators.
