Top: Earth Flow 4012 installed at Flying Change Farms. Flying Change Farms owner Grace Kamphefner (inset). Photos courtesy Green Mountain Technologies.

Flying Change Farms, an equestrian boarding and training facility in Loomis, California, recently commissioned an in-vessel composting system to process manure and stable waste. The facility has two barns with 39 stalls and 10 paddocks with shelters. The owner, Grace Kamphefner, wanted to avoid the cost of hauling the organic waste offsite, and was seeking a composting system that paired well with the Airlite bedding used in the stalls, which is made from preconsumer cardboard. Kamphefner opted for a Site-Built Earth Flow 4012 composting system from Green Mountain Technologies, which consists of a fully enclosed 40-foot by 12-foot bunker with a mechanical auger. Annual processing capacity is planned at more than 400 tons/year.

Flying Change Farms opted not to have aeration in the floor, so the tilted auger mixing system continuously aerates the material as it gradually moves it toward the exit end. Four tubes on the cross member of the auger assembly help mix and agitate the contents as the auger flighting moves up and down the system. Retention time in the vessel is two to three weeks, followed by six or more weeks of curing. The finished compost will be used on the farm’s fields as a soil amendment. A portion will be sold to local landscapers.