Johan Eksteen designed pelleting machines for feed, but found waste makes a wholesome and balanced fertiliser pellet. Chris Nel reports.
Johan Eksteen set up Bloemfontein-based company Agricon Pelleting 12 years ago. With an MSc in agriculture and an MBA from the University of the Free State, he set out to manufacture machines to make animal feed in pellet form and his design has earned him the Enablis agricultural award.Mixing all the constituents of a feed ration into pellets stops the animal selecting the ingredients it prefers. This ensures a balanced diet.Agricon also experimented with pelleting other materials such as chicken and horse manure, rooibos tea, wax, kelp and sawdust. A year ago it began to take this “organic waste pelleting” seriously.
Meeting a market demand
Depending on the size of the machine and the material, Agricon Pelleting units can produce from 200kg of pellets per hour to as much as 2,5t of pellets per hour. The average machine manufactured overseas turns out around 30t/hour, which is suitable for only the largest operations.The smaller Agricon Pelleting machines are becoming particularly sought-after on small European farms. There, anti-dumping laws create the ideal market for farmers desperate to clear away mountains of animal waste. “Farmers have to get rid of waste and it’s too expensive to dump,” explains Johan.
Compacting reduces bulk and the product can often be used as fuel. The company’s smallest pellet mill is small enough to transport to the waste site on the back of a bakkie. By weight, pellets are also more valuable than raw material.
Agricon Pelleting supplies pellet mills to the South African market and customers abroad, who use them to set up small businesses. There is an interesting emerging market in pelleted chicken manure enriched with fertiliser.
The prices of the Agricon Pelleting units range from R72 000 for the small units to R264 000 for big units. |fw
Tireless workers
in a kit from CulterraAn earthworm kit from Culterra makes balancing soil-nutrient levels easy, writes Chris Nel.
Culterra, a manufacturer of organic fertiliser, have introduced red wriggler worms (Eisenia foetida) in a kit, as a product to recycle organic plant and animal material. Everyone creates about 3,5kg of waste a week. Then there’s waste from food preparation and biodegradable packaging such as cardboard and paper. The worms can consume all this at a rate of their own weight every day. In high numbers they can enrich the soil at a rate of 100t/ha/year. Without oxygen, organic waste mixed with inorganic material produces a harmful mixture of leachates, polluting groundwater and emitting methane.
How the kit works
The kit consists of three polyethylene bins stacked on top of one another. The top two bins are filled with organic waste. Concentrated worm tea collects in the bottom bin. The earthworm casts, or fertilis, create topsoil and maintain soil fertility. They add calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and many beneficial enzymes and bacteria. Fertilis can be applied directly to even the most delicate plants. It’s highly water soluble, which makes the nutrients immediately available. The earthworms’ unique digestive system coats the casts with a mucous-like polysaccharide. This maximises aeration and water retention. The kit is available from leading nurseries and Garden Centres for R1 000. |fw
