Perdue Farms has expanded its $68 million investment in nutrient recycling on Delmarva with the addition of a $12 million capital investment in a composting operation.
The AgriSoil composting facility, which started operation next to Perdue AgriRecycle’s organic fertilizer plant in Blades, Delaware, increases the company’s capacity to handle surplus poultry litter from Delmarva chicken farms and adds the capability to recycle other agricultural by-products that were previously land-applied.
AgriSoil can compost poultry litter, nutrient-rich by-products such as treated biosolids from poultry plant wastewater, and such other organic material as soybean stems. With the addition of the composting operation, Perdue expects to nearly double the amount of litter and byproducts recycled and relocated to an estimated 80,000 tons per year. Perdue AgriRecycle, which celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2016, already handled more than a billion pounds of poultry litter.
“Our company depends upon farmers, and we all want to protect the Bay,” said Randy Day, chief operating officer, Perdue Farms. “The $80 million we’ve spent so far on nutrient recycling demonstrates our commitment to supporting the economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture and family farms on Delmarva.
Just as with poultry litter, most of these other by-products have been land applied, presenting the same risk for nutrient run-off. “Fifteen years ago, Perdue saw the coming need for an environmentally friendly alternative to land application of poultry litter and built Perdue AgriRecycle,” said Steve Levitsky, vice president of sustainability for Perdue Farms. “Now, we’re taking the same proactive approach to a broader range of byproducts.
“The Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy is always looking for solutions to water quality problems caused by excess nutrients,” said Jeffrey Horstman, executive director and Miles-Wye Riverkeeper. “We commend and want to support the efforts of Perdue in their new Agrisoil and existing AgriRecycle initiatives. These efforts, investments and new technologies will reduce water pollution from excess nutrients on the Delmarva, which is very much in line with our mission.”