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Paula Luu
A composting facility in western Iowa is receiving federal fertilizer funding, putting compost-based nutrient recovery squarely within a broader push to strengthen domestic fertilizer production.
Natural Fertilizer Services recently opened its first Waste Into Nutrient Recovery (WINR) Center near Woodbine in Harrison County. The facility uses controlled aerated static pile (ASP) to process organic byproducts from food processors and livestock operations into engineered fertilizer products for agricultural use. The project received a $3.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The WINR award also offers a useful precedent as USDA rolls out its new $500 million FIELDS Program. The Iowa project was funded through the earlier Fertilizer Product Expansion Program, but FIELDS similarly aims to expand domestic fertilizer manufacturing. Under the new program, composting and anaerobic digestion projects are not broadly eligible unless they manufacture a commercially available fertilizer and materially increase production capacity. A coalition of compost producers and recovered-nutrient manufacturers is now urging USDA to explicitly recognize qualifying biologically derived and recovered-nutrient fertilizers within that framework.
The Woodbine facility also represents a new chapter for a project that previously faced community resistance. An earlier proposal near Harlan drew concerns from neighboring residents about odor, flies, property values, and the potential consequences of poor facility management. Some residents cited problems at a former composting operation in Eddyville, Iowa, as an example of what could happen when a site is not properly managed. Others were supportive of composting in principle but questioned whether the proposed location was appropriate.
The current WINR Center received its Iowa composting facility permit in March 2026 and is listed by the state as operating. Natural Fertilizer Services says the facility is designed to recover nutrients from organic residuals and formulate products with specific nutrient profiles, including phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, and calcium.
For founder Abe Sandquist, the project is fundamentally about keeping nutrients in circulation rather than treating them as wastes. “I’m actually taking a waste stream, turning it back to fertilizer and we’re solving so many problems with this,” Sandquist said in a local news interview.
One of those problems is nutrient management. USDA Rural Development officials have pointed to the potential for compost and organic matter to help soils retain nitrogen, potentially reducing losses to waterways and decreasing reliance on liquid nitrogen fertilizer. That connection is particularly relevant in Iowa, where nitrate contamination in water supplies has become an increasingly prominent concern.
The project also creates another destination for organic materials that might otherwise be landfilled. Recovering phosphorus, potassium, and other nutrients from food and livestock residuals allows those materials to return to farmland while potentially reducing dependence on fertilizer sourced from farther away. Local production can also reduce transportation costs, an advantage cited by area farmers considering the compost-based product.
Natural Fertilizer Services has been developing nutrient management programs since 2007 and today manages more than 60,000 acres in western Iowa. The company says the WINR model is intended to connect food processors, livestock operations, and farmers through regional nutrient recovery infrastructure.
A second WINR facility is planned near Audubon, Iowa. If the Woodbine model proves successful, the expansion could offer another example of how regional composting infrastructure can simultaneously create fertilizer products, preserve nutrients, and provide new outlets for agricultural and food processing residuals.
