The Bovine Bugle

A drought, and taking care of the compost

We hadn't had rain for a few days and things were drying out around the farm. It looked like we might get started turning the 600-foot compost windrow we had built during the winter. While Ben clipped the grazing strips with our two-wheel drive tractor, I used our four-wheel drive tractor with the loader bucket to shape the compost material into a 7-foot wide, 4- to 5-foot tall windrow. This is the size windrow that will fit through our Sittler windrow turner. We purchased the turner (with a generous grant from Stonyfield Farm) through a Toronto, Ontario company called Global Repair.

The next afternoon the windrow was ready to turn. Ben had greased and prepped the turner and hooked it up to the two-wheel drive tractor. We use this tractor to operate the turner because its transmission has a creeper gear range. This allows the tractor to move very slowly, which allows the turner to turn the compost material fully and reshape the material into a nice, conical-shaped windrow. The row turned very well with Ben only getting hung up once. Traveling at a speed of less than 20 feet per minute, it took Ben a little less than an hour to turn the 600-foot windrow. For the amount of material we stacked in that windrow over the winter, the first turning went really great.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont