Feedlot & Poultry Manure Advisory

Your manure is either a cost you tolerate or a profit line you're leaving on the table.

Most operations age and screen manure, then sell it cheap. Properly composted — aerated static pile, not windrow — it's a different product, a different market, and a different price. Advice from 25 years actually running these systems, not just recommending them.

Ask About an Assessment Read the Handled Right Series
$18→$120
Per tonne, same manure, six years, different handling
23%
More nitrogen retained — forced aeration vs turned windrow*
25+
Years running feedlot & poultry composting operations

Built for operations already producing manure at scale

This is advisory for feedlots and poultry operations — not a generic composting pitch. It's for a site that's already aging, stockpiling, or windrowing manure and wants to know what it would actually take to turn that into a compliant, higher-value, lower-hassle product.

This is a good fit if you:

  • Currently age and screen manure, then sell it cheap, with no real QA behind the price
  • Are fighting windrow turner maintenance, fuel, and manpower costs in caustic conditions
  • Need to demonstrate biosecurity, EPA/licence, or product-quality risk is being actively managed — not just tolerated
  • Want a product that can legally be labelled and sold as compost (AS 4454), not just "manure"

This isn't the right starting point if you:

  • Are still deciding whether to build a facility at all — start with SO1, Input Audit & Concept Proposal
  • Want to sell 100% of your manure as compost from day one — that's usually the wrong call; staged market development is part of the advice, not an afterthought
  • Are looking for a turnkey build with no involvement in your own process — this starts as an assessment, not a handover
I ran a poultry manure composting operation for six years. In that time, the same basic product went from $18 a tonne to $120 a tonne. Same manure, same farm, same person running it — what changed was how it was handled. Windrow turning was the biggest cost: heavy equipment in caustic, corrosive conditions, constant maintenance, fuel, and manpower. Moving to aerated static pile — build the pile properly, let automated aeration do the work, sensors give you a real temperature record for compliance and QA — cut that burden dramatically and made the product consistent enough that buyers actually paid for it. The market didn't get built on a brochure. It got built on demonstrated performance, one farmer telling another over the gate. — Martin Tower, Radicle Compost
Handled Right

What we're publishing on this, week by week

A weekly series (Fridays) on what the evidence actually says about composted vs. aged manure — nitrogen economics, labour and time cost, odour, compliance, market development, and mortality management. Written for feedlot and poultry operators, not a general audience.

First up

I ran windrows for years — here's what I didn't know I was losing

A first-person account of the windrow-to-ASP transition, and the $18→$120/t journey behind it.

Coming

Your compost's price is set by nitrogen you're currently venting into the air

The nitrogen-economics case for aerated static pile over turned windrow.

Coming

What turning a windrow actually costs you

Labour, fuel, and equipment maintenance — the real operating cost comparison.

Coming

Why the neighbours smell your windrow and not your ASP

Odour management, and what actually drives complaints.

Coming

Reading the Feedlot Code of Practice as a manure-value document

Environmental compliance, reframed as a value question, not just a licence-condition checklist.

Coming

Why we won't sell you more compost than the market can absorb

Staged market development — including what happens when you convert 100% of output before the market's ready for it.

Coming

Composting is Australia's own emergency mortality protocol

What AUSVETPLAN-approved mortality composting means for routine, not just emergency, use.

This page is updated as each article goes live — check back, or follow Radicle Compost on LinkedIn for the weekly post.

📋 *The 23% nitrogen-retention figure is from a single published study comparing forced-aeration to conventionally turned compost — a strong, credible headline number, but treated here as indicative rather than settled fact until corroborated by a second source. Ask us for the reference if you want to check it yourself.

Two ways to start

No pricing conversation until we understand your situation — that comes after, not before.

Option 1

Process Assessment

An honest look at what you're currently doing with your manure, where the value is leaking, and what it would take to capture it. No capital outlay to start.

  • Review of current handling, equipment, and product outcomes
  • Biosecurity, EPA/licence, and compliance risk read
  • A clear picture of the gap between where you are and AS 4454-compliant compost
Ask About This Option →
Option 2

Build & Implementation

For operations ready to move to aerated static pile — design, SOPs, QA and compliance recordkeeping, and a staged plan for growing the market rather than flooding it.

  • ASP system design and specification
  • SOPs, QA process, and temperature/compliance recordkeeping
  • Staged market-development plan — proof of performance before scale
Ask About This Option →
Radicle Compost Advisory

Still ageing and screening?

Tell us what you're currently doing with your manure. We'll give you an honest read on where you're at, no capital outlay to start, and no obligation to go further.

Talk to Radicle Compost
No obligation — happy to discuss
where you're at