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Nov 15, 2009 11:16 pm US/Central
Finding Minnesota: Poop-Powered Turkey Farm
RICE COUNTY, Minn. (WCCO) ―
No state produces more turkey each year than Minnesota. It's partly because of the many family farmers who have passed down the practice through three, four or even five generations.
The Minnesota Turkey Growers Association also credits the University of Minnesota for its expertise and a healthy market for turkey in this state.
Outside of Northfield, John Zimmerman and his mother raise nearly 150,000 turkeys, which mean they have one of the
smaller turkey farms in Minnesota. They will produce as much as four million pounds of turkey meat each year.
"These are about 13 weeks, and they'll be going to market Thursday night," Zimmerman said. But that's nothing compared to what's left on the floor of the barns when the birds go off to market. They're left with nearly five million pounds of turkey droppings.
"One of our main revenue streams is turkey manure being sold as fertilizer to other farmers and also on my own crop land," Zimmerman said.
However, instead of fertilizer, he's about to try something different with those piles: loading the droppings into a gasifier, which has just been installed between two of his barns.
"We'll be able to use the heat from the combustion to heat both these turkey barns which will save us on propane," said Zimmerman.
Xcel Energy is providing most of the money to get this experiment going. The gasifier will basically smolder the manure, producing gases that are burned for heat and electricity with virtually no emissions or odor.
"You know, I consider farmers to be the best and the first and probably the original environmentalists. And that's kind of what we're doing here," said Zimmerman.
It's different from an incinerator which would
burn manure and leave a lot of ash behind. The gasifier leaves a more granular substance, called biochar, which is said to be a very good soil amendment.
"And this biochar product is something they've found in the Amazon Rainforest that it's been there for centuries and centuries. And it's an incredible soil amendment that on certain soils is better than raw manure, better than commercial fertilizer," said Zimmerman. If the experiment succeeds, no state would seemingly benefit more than Minnesota with its 600 turkey farms.
"It gives us another option," said Steve Olson, executive director of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. "I think that it's very progressive, and the fact that the Zimmermans are taking a look at this, helps the industry not only in Minnesota but across the nation,"
The Zimmermans hope to get the gasifier operating by next month and within a year they should know if it's feasible.
"We're not really sure how it'll turn out, but you've got to experiment and try," said Zimmerman.
The Minnesota Turkey Growers Association estimates that 46 or 47 million turkeys will be raised in this state this year. That accounts for nearly one out of every five turkeys in the U.S.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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