The men who introduced the concept of freezing as a poultry disposal practice on Delmarva shared their thoughts on the practice for this month’s iRender magazine cover story.
The international trade publication explored how the freezing/rendering model has many advantages. The magazine interviewed growers, educators and industry representatives from across the nation.
Terry Baker and Victor Clark, co-owners of Millsboro- based Greener Solutions, were among those cited in the article. “We saw this as a win-win for the individual grower, the industry as a whole, and of course the environment,” Baker, who is also a grower, was quoted as saying.
Their company has been collection equipment and hauling services for growers since 2014, after proving the concept through a state-funded pilot project tied to the nutrient management benefits of the practice.
“This is a recycling model, not a disposal model like composting,” Clark told the magazine. He noted that “every pound of material that is recycled is one less pound of high-phosphorous material that would otherwise have been land-applied on farm fields. We think this will be the model of the future because of the heightened interest in nutrient management and biosecurity.”
The magazine reported that the biosecurity benefits of the poultry disposal and recycling model were further reinforced in a recent National Wildlife Research Center study. Biologists had demonstrated that mammals can transmit avian influenza virus to birds, and therefore the risks posed by mammals visiting poultry farms suddenly rose in importance for those crafting biosecurity plans.
One way to reduce those risks, according to several of the people quoted in the article, is to store routine mortality in freezer collection units for later transport to a rendering facility, after the flock is caught. One of those sources was retired University of Delaware poultry specialist Bud Malone. A long-time proponent of composting, Malone told Render that he now favors disposal of routine mortality in freezer collection units to reduce the number of animals and flies and lessen the risk of disease transmission.
The practice was originally developed to help reduce the amount of high phosphorous material being generated by composting. As explained in the article by J.J. Smith, president of Valley Proteins Inc., which owns rendering plants in Maryland and Virginia, farmers in the Chesapeake Bay region are under a great deal of pressure to eliminate runoff.
Though introduced on Delmarva only a few years ago, freezer units have been used by growers in other regions of the country for decades.
Growers switching to this practice have been able to greatly reduce the time and money they previously spent on composting, realizing thousands of dollars a year in operational savings. Other benefits include the elimination of the smells, flies and scavengers associated with composting, so the grower and the grower’s neighbors enjoy a greatly improved quality of life.