CU experts: Web-based tool helps composters meet pollution rules

Evaluating the final product from Cornell's composting facility on Stevenson Road are, from left, Gary Tennant, manager of Farm Services, and two developers of the Co-Composter program: Douglas Haith, professor of biological and environmental engineering, and Ellen Harrison, director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute. The university's facility combines wastes from livestock barns, greenhouses and dining halls to produce tons of rich compost each year. Charles Harrington/ University Photography

By Roger Segelken

Environmental engineers and waste-management specialists at Cornell are offering a new Web-based planning tool, Co-Composter, free of charge to farm managers and composters who want to meet toughened environmental regulations, while making the most of excess animal waste.

Developed by Douglas Haith, professor of biological and environmental engineering, and Jean Bonhotal, composting specialist in the Cornell Waste Management Institute, the planning tool is at http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/wmi/Compost/CoCompost.html , the Cornell Center for the Environment web site.

"Interest in composting continues to grow, with more than 270 composting facilities in New York state for leaf and yard waste, biosolids, food scraps and agricultural residues," said Bonhotol. "Farm-based composting of manure is a nutrient management tool of increasing importance, and regulations are being implemented to control nutrient loading from livestock farms."

Funded, in part, by New York state's Energy Research and Development Authority and the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, the computer tool, which consists of seven worksheets, can help farm-based composters make decisions about methods, equipment and input materials that will work best for their operation, according to Haith. "The model provides for many user inputs, such as manure and bedding type, quantity and physical characteristics, as well as handling procedures and equipment availability. All of these parameters determine the size and type of facility, quantity of compost to be generated and the costs associated with creating and running a compost operation," he said.

Co-Composter was refined over the past year through work by Ed Staehr, an educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County, and Wayne Knoblauch, professor of agricultural, resource and managerial economics at Cornell. They compared the model results with a full economic analysis at four compost operations. The comparisons demonstrated the model's value for assisting farmers to create their own compost facilities, according to Haith.