Hog Farm, Chapter 8: Black Gold on the Farm!

Last August, we embarked on a new adventure. I decided to bring two new furry members into our family – house-rabbits. I did all my research ahead and learned what we needed to do to give them the care they needed; and then, I visited the family with the bunny and agreed to adopt him. He needed a companion, so I trekked around Chicago-land searching shelters for one that would get along with my new adoptee – not as easy as you might think. That’s another story.

As I was doing my research on house-rabbits, I learned that rabbit pellets are actually really great for your garden and can be put directly into your compost pile. “Black gold” is what they called it. Eureka! I was in need of another “pro” to convince my husband that two rabbits were better than one. This was it (although, I don’t think he bought it).

So, every time I emptied the hay and pellet-filled litter box onto my compost pile I felt really great. In go the kitchen scraps, on goes some hay and black gold pellets. Layer upon layer upon layer. There is just one problem. It’s been just eight months and my compost pile is over-full and spilling over. Oops. My garden isn’t big enough to absorb the amount of compost I’m creating! I need to take a page from the Gould farm playbook.

At the Gould farm tour, I was surprised to learn that the amount of acreage they grow (3,000 acres in corn, soybeans, and winter wheat) is directly related to how much manure their pigs are producing! They have enough land to spread all of their manure. And we were told that the crop of winter wheat doesn’t make money, the reason they have it is so that they have a place to put manure in the summer (when they can’t spread it on the corn and soybeans).

Their pigs produce 1.4 million gallons of manure each year. The 4-ft deep manure pits, located under the barns, collect the manure for about four months and then are pumped out and used on their crops three times per year.

Manure Injection

They use a piece of equipment that injects the manure 6 to 8 inches into the soil. The injection method reduces run-off and, in theory, odor for the neighbors. The manure is great fertilizer and reduces their fertilizer costs.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture issued the Gould farm a certificate called the “Certified Livestock Manager.” According to them, this basically certifies that the Gould farm knows how to manage the manure.

This makes sense to me! One of the more important things about having animals is managing the black gold! Now, to convince my husband to help me build a bigger compost bin...