[USCC] Urine soaked cardboard

[Allison L H Jack]

Hi all,

Bill do you mean hog urine or effluent from a manure lagoon? Those are two
very different materials.

Tom Christenberry runs a hog manure vermicomposting facility in North
Carolina, I saw him speak at one of Rhonda Sherman's vermicomposting
workshops a few years back. He might be able to answer some of your
questions about working with this feedstock in a vermicomposting system.

Adding to Cary's comments on this: In order for a nutrient amendment (or
pest control product) to be used in commercial certified organic
agriculture it must meet the current guidelines in the National Organic
Program legislation. These rules are constantly being updated. The Organic
Materials Review Institute (OMRI) tests materials and then creates an
official list of what products certified organic growers can use. You will
see "OMRI listed" on many labels and that's what it means.

In order for a compost-based product to be OMRI listed it must meet the
time and temperature requirements for PFRP (taken right out of the
biosolids rules). There was an effort to categorize vermicomposts
separately, but as it stands now the only OMRI listed vermicomposts go
through an initial thermophilic composting step to meet the pathogen
reduction requirements. Edo's right on this point though, nowhere in the
regulation does it say that the manure feedstock for the compost has to
come from a certified organic facility. That would of course be
complicated because most certified organic livestock systems are at least
partially pasture-based, so there is no easy way to collect the manure in
a central location. I don't know if this is the case for all livestock
operations, but the dairy providing manure to a NY vermicomposting
facility keeps any sick animals in a separate barn because they can't be
on medication and be milked. This barn does not connect to the central
manure collection pool, so any manure from medicated livestock does not
end up as a feedstock in the vermicomposting process.

Getting your material OMRI listed is only important if you are planning to
market it to commercial growers. The home gardener market is much more
open. Bags of Malorginite have the word "natural" on them and home
gardeners buy it when they or may not be aware that this material is
composted biosolids from Detroit which would not be allowable amendments
under the NOP rules. Very few hobby gardeners scrutinize where their
amendments come from and I know there is a lot of confusion in the general
public over labeling.

-Allison
Cornell University



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Allison L H Jack
Graduate Student
Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology
http://pppmb.cals.cornell.edu
Cornell University
335 Plant Science
Ithaca, NY 14850
607.273.5762
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