Farmington Compost Cooperative-Farmington, Maine
Turned Windrow System—Mark King facility contact
Tuesday Afternoon
Maine Compost School—2013 (photos by Mark King, Maine DEP)
Mark King, (Farmington Compost Cooperative), Farmington
The Farmington Compost Cooperative (FCC) is a “Town-Gown” partnership between the Town of Farmington and the University of Maine at Farmington. This facility was the original “Brain Child” of Ron Slater (long time manager of the Sandy River Recycling Facility) and Mark King (Maine DEP). The FCC composts food from the University of Farmington, Mt. Blue High School and the local elementary school (Mallet School), along with horse bedding from the Town of Farmington’s Fairgrounds. Located adjacent to the Town’s transfer station, the compost operation uses a turned windrow system that Ron jokingly refers to as a, ‘Turned Windpile’.
Tony Ramsey, (Living Acres), New Sharon
Living Acres produces agricultural compost products at its site in New Sharon. Tony Ramsey has made many interesting uses and modifications of farm equipment in this enterprise. Adapting and modifying equipment is a real specialty that helps cut their overhead costs.
Receiving –Collected food is delivered to the Sandy River Recycling Association’s Farmington facility where it is off-loaded and then weighed before being emptied into the front end loader bucket for delivery to the compost pad.
The Process
Composting/Curing: The compost process starts with a large pile of horse-bedding (from the Farmington Fairgrounds) is formed into a windrow on the facilities 100’ x70’ asphalt pad. Collected food is delivered 3x a week, and worked-into the base of the pile.
Every three weeks, the whole pile is turned. Facility Manager, Ron Slater, affectionately refers to his compost process as a “Windpile”. Compost is cured on the same pad, and then moved to an upper gravel pad for screening and bulk sales.
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