The state of Georgia, U.S.A. is capitalizing on a hot commodity in the agricultural market to the tune of $70 million a year. That’s not chicken shit. Oh wait. Yes it is.
Web site links those with chicken manure to those who want it
Web site links those with chicken manure to those who want it
accessnorthga.com
Updated Tuesday, November 30 at 2:11 PM
ALBANY – Georgia chicken farmers now can look on the Internet to help them get rid of the mountains of manure produced by their flocks – while providing a cheap alternative fertilizer to cotton and corn farmers.
The University of Georgia has partnered with the Gainesville-based Georgia Poultry Federation to create the Web site focused on moving chicken litter – as it is known. The goal is to link chicken farmers with crop farmers who want to use the chicken litter as a cheap alternative to commercial fertilizers that supply nitrogen, potassium and phosphate to the soils.
Chicken litter has become a hot commodity, worth about $70 million a year, according University of Georgia poultry scientist Dan Cunningham. That’s $20 million more than the value of the state’s famous Vidalia onion crop and about equal to the state’s watermelon and peach crops combined.
The 2.5 billion chickens raised in Georgia each year – millions of them in the Gainesville area – generate $2.5 billion for producers. That’s about half the value of all the state’s other farm commodities.
The problem for the industry has been – what to do with it.
With so many chickens, the industry has had to tackle the problem of disposing of the estimated two million tons of waste each year.
POLLENATRIX 