Alternative Biological Treatment of Manure

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Alternative Biological Treatment of Manure
M. E. de Haro Martí , M. Chahine, and S. St
Hilaire
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Todays presentation

• Manure treatment using Black Soldier Flies
• Black Soldier Fly research in southern Idaho
• Worm composting, how it works
• Examples of working systems
• Future of alternative biological systems in
  southern Idaho

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Black Soldier Fly (BSF)

• Hermetia Illucens
• Naturally occurring in southern USA, Central and
  South America
• Considered non-pest
• Larvae are voracious organic matter eaters
• As adults they dont feed on live or decaying
  organic matter (no working mouth parts)

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How Black Soldier Flies work?

• In nature, adults lay eggs mostly in manure
  (preferred), worm composting, decaying corpses,
  undisturbed garbage (less preferred)
• Larvae feed in the organic matter reducing its
  volume by 40 to 50
• Larvae goes trough six instars
• When reaching the pupae stage they migrate from
  the feeding area looking for a dry and protected
  place to finalize pupation

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BSF research in southern Idaho

• Three years WSARE grant (UI, ISU)
• Two years lab research (ISU, Pocatello)
• One plus year of research within fish industry
  application (UI, Hagerman)
• One year on-farm trial (Dairy in Buhl)
• Results from research are very promising
• More on-farm trials needed to achieve a working
  systems for dry and cold climates

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BSF research in southern Idaho

• Research results in southern Idaho showed
• BSF 40 protein and 30 fat content make it an
  excellent feed source for salmon and trout
• Dried or frozen pupae has a long shelf life
• BSF fed with fish offal has higher omega 3 fatty
  acids content
• BSF can comprise an important part of the fish
  feedstock in local hatcheries
• No after taste in fish fed with BSF

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Research results in southern Idaho showed

• BSF larvae can reduce volume of dairy manure by
  50 and DM solids weight by 40
• Important waste nutrient reduction (table)
• Takes care of separated solids as well as fish
  offal (two waste streams become feedstock!)
• In ID they need to be fed fish offal to reach
  pupation stage faster
• Cold nights significantly reduce BSF activity
• Good results even under adverse environmental and
  working conditions

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Nutrient Reduction in Manure Processed by Black
Soldier Fly
Item Pre-processed manure (Kg) Post-processed by-product (Kg) Net reduction ()
Weight, DM 345.2 212.6 38.4
Total N 10.6 4.8 55.1
Total P 1.97 1.50 23.9
Carbon 156.0 92.5 40.7
Ash 69.0 63.8 7.6
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Events time line
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Fish offal addition
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Two days after fish offal addition
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Black Soldier Fly Larvae at work two days after
fish offal addition
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Vermicomposting

• Composting with worms
• Half dozen different species of earthworm are
  used
• Eisenia fetida most common
• Naturally occurring around the world
• They are scavengers and decaying organic matter
  eaters (vegetal materials)

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Vermicomposting

• Vermicomposting has been used to process
  different types of wastes for many years
• Effective but slow process
• Reduce volume by 40 to 50
• Castings have excellent properties as fertilizer
  and soil amendment
• Worms can be commercialized in diverse ways
• On-farm and municipal scale facilities exist and
  have diverse grades of success

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Using Vermicompost
Turnips 0, 10, 20 vermicompost by volume
added to field plots, Biological Agricultural
Engineering, NC State University
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Vermicomposting examples
Queensland, Australia
Tarboro, NC Swine manure
Geneseo, NY Dairy manure
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UI research and Extension 2010

• Pilot project to test a worm composting unit
  designed in Gooding, ID
• Collaboration with local high school and
  designer company

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Alternative biological systems in southern Idaho
- challenges

• Black Soldier Fly and Vermicomposting systems
  have similar challenges in the area
• Creating a suitable environment to operate year
  round is the most challenging technically and
  economically
• They can handle just part of the dairy and fish
  industry waste streams
• By products are of relatively high value
• More market assessment needed

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Challenges and answers

• Suitable farm scale systems for BSF and
  vermicompost need to be developed more
• Producers and market acceptability needs to
  increase
• More funding is necessary to develop research on
  farm-scale initiatives and adaptation to our
  geographical area
• Capacity to be a sustainable and profitable part
  of dairy and waste management operations

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Questions?