He Composts His Dead Hogs

He Composts His Dead Hogs HOG EQUIPMENT & IDEAS Hog Equipment & Ideas (351) 20-5-36 There's a better way to dispose of dead hogs than burying them around the farm or paying a rendering truck to come and haul them away, according to a Teutopolis, Ill., farmer. Chris Hartke has been turning his dead hogs into compost that he has been spreading on his fields since 1994. His composter consists of two concrete bins, 14 ft. deep by 13 ft. wide by 6 ft. tall. A third bin holds green sawdust which he mixes in with the hogs. The sawdust is spread 8 to 12-in. deep on the floor of the bins and around the dead animals with a skid steer loader. It takes 4 1/2 to 5 months to fill each bin with casual-ties from Hartke's 300-sow farrow-to-finish operation. Piles are turned with a skid steer loader after three months. After turning the pile, it's left for another three months before being spread on fields. "When you turn the pile there's only a musty smell, like leaf piles in the fall," Hartke says. "Otherwise, there's no odor at all as long as you keep carcasses covered by 8 to 10 in. of sawdust at all times. "Temperature at the center of the pile is 140? which is hot enough to turn bones to a rubbery substance by the end of the first three-month cycle and to make them disappear completely by the end of the second three-month cycle." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Chris Hartke, Rt. 1, Box 215, Teutopolis, Ill. 62467 (ph 217 924-4116).

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