Goat waste as organic fertiliser
Rizal and Ustaz Jaafar
The processing of goat waste into organic fertiliser for sale is considered lucrative. Lucrative enough to be classified as “black gold”. We at Ladang Fatima also believe in recycling the waste to put to good use.
We have been looking at the processing of goat waste for some time now. In early 2007, Zai, Zaini and I visited Captain (Rtd) Kamarul Zaman at his vermicompost farm in Kajang. I still remember Captain’s words that the worms basically process the green waste that they feed on and then excrete them as vermicompost. And if they feed on goat waste, which has already been processed once (by the goats, of course), then the vermicompost should be even better. Or something like that.
I remember thinking that goat waste should be okay as a stand alone fertiliser.
Neither Zai or I have attended any special courses on the production of organic fertiliser. Web resources are available, such as that listed as a downloadable file here.
Manure in various stages of the drying cycle in Sdr Rizal’s farm
Last week, Ustaz Jaafar took Zai and me to visit an organic fertiliser farm in his birthplace, Kampung Jus.
It was a simple operation, nothing fancy. No long and scientific sounding terms were heard during our discussions with Sdr. Rizal, who operated the farm together with his father.
Basically Rizal collected the waste from his cow and goat farm, dried the stuff, then ran the stuff through a wire mesh “filter”, then ground it using a grinding machine, ran the stuff through another finer “filter” and packed the stuff.
The grinding machine. Note the basket of ground fertiliser.
That was it.
He told us demand was encouraging enough for him to collect the waste from other farmers in the vicinity. Some farmers also sent the waste to him.
This operation seems basic enough and cheap to set up.
It seems that goats produce about 12 kg of waste a month. For us at Ladang Fatima where we let the goats out a few hours daily, the rate should be more like 9 – 10 kgs, I suppose. The rest would have been excreted whilst they were exercising in the fenced up area. Also we do not have too many goats at the moment. We also use the goat waste to fertilise the turi trees, our gaharu trees as well as napier grass we grow.
Packed and ready to go. These are 25 kg bags. Sdr. Rizal also sells in 5 kg packs.
But we intend to increase our goats head count, and there should be a corresponding increase in goat waste. We will also be learning as much as we can about this processing.
When we are ready, and when the stocks of waste are economically feasible, our processing and marketing will begin in earnest, Insya’Allah.
Great stuff, well written. Hope to share info with you.
Regards
HS
Thanks, Mr. Wong. I have just visited your blog and it seems to be a fantastic resource. I am emailing you to seek your permission to visit your farm or otherwise to get to know you.
Best regards
Give me a call when you are next in KL. My farm is only about 40 mins from KL.
You can meet my biz partner, Cik Norhana and see how we can use her account with Jusco, Isetan, Cold Storage, to co-brand and jointly market your goat meat.