<\/p>\n
ANNAPOLIS, MD <\/strong>\u2013 The Maryland Department of Agriculture and Green Mountain Technologies today sponsored a tour \u00a0of \u00a0a new manure composting system at Days End Farm Horse Rescue in Howard County. The innovative composting system is the first completed demonstration project funded by the state\u2019s Animal Waste Technology Grant Fund.<\/p>\n Although composting is not new, the closed in-vessel composting system installed at Days End Farm reduces environmental factors that impact the composting success. The state-of-the art system can process batches of 1.5 tons of horse manure in two weeks, and reduce nutrient and input volume by about 50 percent. According to Days End officials, the final compost product will be used for bedding, on-site landscaping needs and possible sale to a local nursery.<\/p>\n \u201cPreliminary information from the Environmental Finance Center at the University of Maryland indicates that Days End Farm will save approximately $12,000 a year by eliminating landfill expenses and reducing bedding costs,\u201d said Maryland Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder. \u201cDeveloping new technologies to protect natural resources and improve farm profitability is a win-win for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Green Mountain Technologies, which operates out of Seattle, Washington implemented the project for Days End Farm Horse Rescue. The company employs the latest technologies and has the ability to use web-enabled controllers and probes to monitor temperatures and manage the composter remotely.<\/p>\n \u201cGreen Mountain Technologies\u2014in partnership with the Maryland Department of Agriculture and Days End Farm Horse Rescue\u2014 is delighted to demonstrate this exciting new concept in manure management for equine facilities,\u201d said Michael Byan-Brown, the firm\u2019s president and chief engineer. \u201cOur goal is to lower operating costs for equine facilities while reducing their environmental impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n Reauthorized in 2013, the Maryland Department of Agriculture\u2019s Animal Waste Technology Fund provides grants to companies that demonstrate innovative technologies on farms and alternative strategies for managing animal manure. These technologies may generate energy from animal manure, reduce on-farm waste streams, and repurpose manure by creating marketable fertilizer and other products and by-products. To date, the program has issued $3.7 million in grants to demonstrate alternative technologies for manure management.\u00a0 For more information on additional grant projects, visit mda.maryland.gov and type \u201cAnimal Waste Technology Fund\u201d in the search box.<\/p>\n \n ###<\/p>\n Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter @MdAgDept<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Howard Co. Manure Composter is First Completed Demonstration Project ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2013 The Maryland Department of Agriculture and Green Mountain Technologies today sponsored a tour \u00a0of \u00a0a new manure composting system at Days End Farm Horse Rescue in Howard County. The innovative composting system is the first completed demonstration project funded by the state\u2019s Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20492,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20491\/revisions\/20492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}