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Introduction: One of the things we do to produce quality
compost is to mix our 3 major ingredients every day as they are added to the pile. Instead
of all manure one day, a pile of straw the next and so on, each load added to the pile contains at least the 3 basic ingredients.
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Q: What is in your
alpaca compost? |
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Answer:
- Alpaca Manure
- Waste Hay and Straw
- Saturated
bedding (hardwood or corn cob)
- Soil
- Stone Dust
- Coffee
grounds, leaves and soiled alpaca fiber
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Q: What is the difference between manure, fertilizer, compost and soil amendment?
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Answer:
Manure is dung, fresh or dried or stored in a pile. Fertilizer
could be manure but could also be 'synthetic' as in ammonium nitrate. Soil amendment is anything that improves the soil, such as sand
if your soil is heavy clay or peat moss if your soil lacks organic matter. Compost is aged organic matter that has been changed by micro-organisms,
heat, and macro-organisms like earthworms. It can include manure, other plant debris and sand or crushed rock. It is not actually
fertilizer but can add fertilizing nutrients as well as physical and biological enhancements to the soil.
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Q: Why don’t you make ‘tea’ directly from fresh alpaca
dung?
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Answer:
While some say that alpaca beans can be put directly into a garden without risk of ‘burning’
the plants, we are not comfortable with that. General principles of bio-safety tend to discourage the use of fresh manure
of any kind or "tea" made from it because of ubiquitous and dangerous (gram rod negative) water-borne bacteria.
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Q: Has your compost been kiln-dried or heat treated to sterilize it?
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Answer:
No, the only heat treatment our compost receives is from thermophylic (heat-loving)
micro-organisms, which raise the temperature of the pile to about 160 degrees Fahrenheit. This is sufficient to kill seeds
and destroy any residuals from alpaca worming treatments. Our compost is not sterile, but full of living organisms that are
beneficial to soil.
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Q: Is your compost certified organic?
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Answer: We are beginning to document our processes, which are compliant with the USDA regulation
7 CFR 205. Our compost can be used on certified organic farms.
Quoting from correspondence we have had with the USDA, "There are no standards for compost certification.
Compost does not have to be certified organic in order to be used on organic farms. "Compost used on organic farms must meet section 205.203 of the National Organic Program (NOP) regulation
7 CFR 205. If your compost meets the criteria in 205.203 it could be sold as suitable for use on organic operations."
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