The Benefits of Worm Farming - For Small Animal Farmers

The farming of small animals is increasing in popularity as traditional farmers diversify from typical income streams. Minimal space is required for small animals compared to larger grazing animals or broad acre cropping.

Common small animals include Rabbits, Quail, Chickens, Ducks and other small species grown for meat and by-products.

Worm farming is an ideal sideline when raising these types of animals as there is ample supply of manure, old nesting and food scraps to feed your worms with. Worms are equally as beneficial for eliminating waste in these situations as they are practical and profitable.

Rabbits are perhaps the easiest to establish a joint worm farming operation due to the practical way the rabbit cages are set up. Commercial rabbit cages are around 500mm (or more) from the ground allowing worm bins to be set up under the cages so that manure, food and bedding waste falls through to the worms. This is a seamless operation with the only ongoing maintenance being the emptying of the bins when the worms have finished.

Alternatively, regular cleaning under cages will provide ample food for traditional worm farm set ups.

Poultry such as Chickens, Quail, Ducks and other bird species have high Ammonia manure which may require prior partial decomposition before feeding to worms. Some growers are happy to feed it straight to worms but I have experienced worms spilling over (evacuating) a worm bed when they experience high ammonia feeds.

The size of your worm farming venture should be in line with the size of your small animal production. Too many worms and not enough feed and your worms will suffer. Too much feed and not enough worms and you will have a pile of rubbish with a potent odour waiting to be fed to the worms.

Worms will typically eat their own body weight in food each 24 hours. Translated to a larger scale 10kgs of worms will consume an average of 10kgs of food in the same time frame. This is handy to know when working out how many worms you will need to consume the amount of waste your small animal farm produces on a daily or weekly basis.

As your worms breed and numbers increase you will have to either expand your food source or sell your excess worms to other breeders, farmers or as fish bait.

In addition, to selling excess worms you will also have worm castings you can either use on your own property or bag and sell as a natural fertiliser, soil conditioner or potting mix additive.

The same principle could apply to larger animal farms with the only difference being the collection of manures from paddocks and manually feeding to your worm beds.

? Eric J. Smith

Eric J. Smith writes about his interest in many areas of Environmental concern including the Health impact of Toxic Chemicals in our Community. As an experienced Horticulturist, Eric has a passion for Organic Gardening and Permaculture with an emphasis on the sustainable use of environmental systems. Becoming a representative for ONE Groups Certified Organic Miessence range of Skin, Body, Health, Oral and Home care products was a natural follow on from his interest in Organics and The Environment. Miessence Representative enquiries are welcome by visiting http://www.lifestyle-advantage.com/ or for product enquiries visit http://www.buy-organic-products.com/.

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The Benefits of Worm Farming - Organic Farmers

Organic Gardening and Farming have a synonymous connection with Composting and Worm Farming. Organic gardeners have known the benefits of compost since times when domestic gardening first made an appearance. The benefits worms have to the soil have been known in some circles for centuries though some have written they felt worms would eat a plants roots and should therefore be eliminated from a garden environment. This logic proved false. Worms now hold a place in all garden environments. In fact, a large amount of worms in a test area would be a sign of an active healthy soil with ample organic matter to please both plant and worm.

Organic Farmers are in an excellent position to use worm farming for the natural feed source for their crops and pasture with an abundant supply of greenery, manures, hay, straw and of course household scraps.

Organic farmers are in an excellent position to use worm farming as a supplemental income stream to their regular farming income. Organic Farmers who venture into worm farming as an income stream will typically offer vermicast (worm castings) and breeding or composting worms for sale, though organic farmers could easily participate in all aspects of worm farming for profit.

As a general rule, Organic Farmers will use worms for 2 purposes.
To compost left over plant material and other farm based waste products.To create a growing medium and fertiliser for propagating seedlings and for conditioning and fertilising before and during a crops growth cycle.

Containing Options for Large Scale Worm Farming

Organic farmers are able to use many things at their immediate disposal for holding their worm farms. Simple things like old bath tubs have been used for smaller scale farms while 200Litre drums split in half have been used on others. Old crates used to hold and transport bread make excellent containers as these can be stacked allowing worms to move up each level as they have completed working each crate. This allows for easy separation of worms and castings - when worms have migrated to the top container it can be moved to become the bottom crate for the next batch. Castings in the bottom crates can be harvested and bagged or used as required.

Pasture worms

Worms in pasture are excellent for soil aeration and transporting nutrients to various parts of the topsoil. There are various figures used to estimate the required number of worms per metre of pasture but a good measure is to aim for at least 1000 worms per metre of pasture.

Breeding worms allows you to increase the number of worms per metre. You could add worms directly to the soil but many prefer to add capsules to the soil allowing them to hatch and populate themselves. Casting worms would also be a good secondary measure to increase immediate populations.

Certified Organic Farmers will need to ensure the supplementary food given to their worms was derived from within the property or it was purchased from Certified Organic growers to ensure compliance with strict and worthwhile testing criteria.

? Eric J. Smith.

Eric J. Smith writes about his interest in many areas of Environmental concern including the Health impact of Toxic Chemicals in our Community. As an experienced Horticulturist, Eric has a passion for Organic Gardening and Permaculture with an emphasis on the sustainable use of environmental systems. Becoming a representative for ONE Groups Certified Organic Miessence range of Skin, Body, Health, Oral and Home care products was a natural follow on from his interest in Organics and The Environment. Miessence Representative enquiries are welcome by visiting http://www.lifestyle-advantage.com/ or for product enquiries visit http://www.buy-organic-products.com/.

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The Benefits of Worm Farming - Sewerage Treatment

Worm farming has been used to reduce waste in many commercial applications in addition to the increasing popularity of home worm farming. Commercial use of worms for waste reduction requires a huge quantity of worms. I have seen some commercial worm farms that have several windrows each being hundreds of metres in length and 3 to 4 metres wide.

The treatment of raw sewerage using worm farming is in use in many parts of the world. As more and more local governing bodies become more realistic about respecting the environment, alternative treatment options are being sought - worm farming is an obvious winner in this alternative approach. It has been said that treating sewerage using worms is so good it can actually produce drinking quality water through the treatment process.

All worms typically used for worm farming are suitable for the treatment of sewerage - Reds, Blues and Tigers. Considering this is a large scale set up the process is relatively simple and straight forward.

The standard operation uses a boom to trickle raw sewerage over large worm beds. As with a home worm system the worms eat their way to the surface. More slurry as added and the process repeats.

The worm castings become the filter medium for the slurry as it builds up. The particles stick to the surface of the castings and the liquid filters through the castings and is collected.

Similar to a home worm farm, the castings left by the worms become a quality rich soil conditioner and fertiliser which can be bagged or sold in bulk to nurseries, garden centres or farmers.

The traditional treatment of sewerage requires several biological processes requiring much more effort compared to sewerage treated using vermiculture (worm farming) principles. The end result also has many added advantages through varied industries.

On a smaller scale but similar in principle to sewerage treatment using worms are waterless toilets. These work by directing human waste into a pit or holding vessel where waiting worms reduce it to castings for use on domestic gardens and council parks. Waterless toilets can be designed to include a water (urine) only section and a solid waste section. This can be useful if installed in public toilet or camping facilities where the ratio of liquid to solid waste is typically higher.

Bacteria is always present in these types of natural fertiliser so as a standard safety measure when handling the finished product it is recommended you wear gloves and a dust mask to reduce the intake of small particles as you breath. Always wash your hands before handling food after working with your worm farm or commercial operation regardless of the source of raw material.

Eric J. Smith writes about his interest in many areas of Environmental concern including the Health impact of Toxic Chemicals in our Community. As an experienced Horticulturist, Eric has a passion for Organic Gardening and Permaculture with an emphasis on the sustainable use of environmental systems. Becoming a representative for ONE Groups Certified Organic Miessence range of Skin, Body, Health, Oral and Home care products was a natural follow on from his interest in Organics and The Environment. Miessence Representative enquiries are welcome by visiting http://www.lifestyle-advantage.com/ or for product enquiries visit http://www.buy-organic-products.com/.

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