Feed milling with turkey manure energy

Work on the new, $3 million biomass operation is expected to begin by late
August or early September, said company owner Harley Sietsema.

The
equipment will generate steam and electricity from the litter of 1.1 million
turkeys being raised at eight of Sietsema’s farms, said Norma McDonald,
operating manager with Phase 3 Renewables in Cincinnati, which is working with
Sietsema Farms Feeds on the project.

“It’s just a matter of getting the
most out of all your products and byproducts,” Sietsema told The Daily News of
Greenville.

The turkey and feed mill operation is based in Allendale and
has 38 associated farms within a 75-mile radius of the city.

The company
raises around 1.3 million turkeys per year. Its pig operations finishes around
300,000 pigs per year.

Sietsema Farms Feeds, which he opened five years
ago, at two feed mills (Howard City and Ravenna) annually 175,000 tonnes of feed
is produced.

Sietsema started looking years ago for other uses for the
turkey waste besides fertilizer. He discovered that large farm operations had
started using a process called gasification to extract energy from animal
waste.

In October, the US Department of Agriculture awarded Sietsema
Farms Feeds a $500,000 grant and a $700,750 loan guarantee to construct the
project.

Sietsema said he doesn’t expect a profit from the new venture
for three or four years but that should eventually change as energy costs
continue to rise.

After meeting the mill’s energy requirements, the
excess electricity will be sold to a utility company.

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