Beef

Adams Land & Cattle Co. - Broken Bow, NE

After seeing a demo, a Brown Bear 500 was immediately purchased and put to work drying the pens of Adams Land & Cattle Co. during "the wet spring of 93." Adams Cattle Co. is also using their composted manure for fertilizer. "We'll dry it from 80% moisture to 25% moisture, then spread it on our own agricultural land," explains Gary Kenel, supervisor.

As with all cattle producers, Bill Adams is very concerned with his rate of gain. "Increased cattle comfort means increased gain. If they have to fight mud, it just eats you alive; it's unbelievable. We've seen a 1/10 pound per day gain. You do all you can for cattle comfort because that will pay back to you in big dividends."

 

Double MM Farms - Kearney, NE

Double MM Farms has a small 2500 head commercial beef cattle feedlot and several thousand irrigated row crop acres. They have been using co-compost generated from the manure out of their feedlot and the waste water sludge from the nearby Kearney WWTP, to supplement commercial fertilizers on their crop acres. The manure and sludge is mixed, blended and composted by Mercers, using a Brown Bear I compost machine. The dry, granulated end product is spread on the farmland using a dry box spreader.

Cold Springs Dairy Farm – Hanover, IL

Maintaining milk production on a Midwest drylot dairy farm is very difficult during the muddy season when the combination of melting snow, ice and rain contribute to muddy lots, which in turn stresses the animals. Scraping the lots helps keep the cattle out of the mud, but creates masses of wet manure that crusts over and will not dry out in the pen. Hauling the manure out of the pen increases open pen space but creates a mass of non-drying manure that will not pile and covers many acres. To solve the problem, Cold Springs Dairy has started composting their piled manure with a Brown Bear PTOPA35-10.5 attachment on a New Holland TV-140 farm tractor. Composting reduces the volume by two-thirds and kills the seed germination and pathogens in the manure, making it more valuable for application back on their cropland (corn yields progressed from 80 bpa to an average of 180 bpa).  The PTO auger aerator delivers a second major benefit in bed clearing – the consistent pickup of manure at its shear point with the clay below, which greatly reduced clay-replacement costs and improved overall cattle health and weight gains.

Cold Springs Dairy Farm’s success with the Brown Bear auger aerator spurred a veteran Illinois county agricultural agent to state, “The Brown Bear is the only aerator composter we know of that builds its own initial windrows.  Since it always works directly in line with windrowed materials, it requires no alleyways.  Existing space is better utilized, mixing is more thorough, and the compost produced is of very high quality.  We feel confident in recommending this type of aerator compactor to all serious beef producers, small, mid-sized or big.”