Eastern Washington Family Farmers: Much More than Milk: Cows today are producing a very valuable by-product

Eastern Washington’s 150,000 dairy cows are well known for producing high-quality milk, cheese, yogurt and ice cream. But increasing attention is being paid to a very different product produced by these amazing animals.

Cow manure is helping drive the growth and profitability of organic and conventional farms of all kinds. It is even gaining the attention of many backyard and community gardeners. The value of cow manure as a means of improving soil and even as helping address climate change is beginning to open the eyes of many in the environmental community and government.

Commercial fertilizer remains a very important material for efficiently growing food, but organic-manure fertilizer has several very significant advantages, including improving soil conditions. High-quality locally produced organic fertilizer is becoming critically important as farmers face the challenge of growing food for an expanding population with limited land and water.

Commercial farms, organic farms and backyard gardeners are turning to manure compost as an excellent source of fertilizer. But, an exciting new development in the treatment of cow manure will likely bring much more attention to cows and their valuable byproduct. Cows are partnering with worms to not only produce clean water and pathogen-free fertilizer and compost, but also huge quantities of worm castings.

BioFiltro is a new worm-based system for treating liquid cow manure. It is in operation at two Washington state dairy farms with a third farm’s system under construction. Literally millions of worms are fed the cow manure on a continual basis and they convert the manure into clean water, nutrient-rich and pathogen-free compost tea and worm castings. Millions of worms create a lot of worm castings. One farm alone with about 6,000 cows is producing about 12,000 yards of worm castings every year. This has the promise of making worm castings a much more available and affordable natural soil amendment for both backyard gardens and commercial farmers.

Go to almost any gardening website and you will read of the near miraculous benefits of worm castings. Think of worm castings as double-distilled grass. Cows eat grass and excrete waste, then worms eat the cow waste and excrete more waste. Except, worm waste is not waste at all; it is the most highly sought-after soil amendment, selling for about $10 per pound or more. Here’s what the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service has to say about worm castings:

Worms increase the nutrients available in the soil for plants. As worms digest plant material, their castings or excrement concentrate nutrients. Castings are several times higher in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium than topsoil. This nutrient-rich material is mixed into the soil where plant roots can use the nutrients. Also, by incorporating litter into the soil, worms reduce the number of fungus spores on the soil surface and that can help prevent plant diseases such as apple scab.

Cows appear to be a popular target for many these days. Environmental lawyers win big legal fees by accusing farmers of pollution from cows. Environmental groups use disparaging terms like “factory farms” and CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) as a basis for fundraising by making many false statements about today’s farms. Climate change activists repeat claims about cows as a major cause of global warming, despite studies that show many such claims are false.

In the meantime, many are coming to understand that dairy cows are a very valuable resource. Not just for producing milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt and beef, but also for producing a product that is helping other farmers grow great food.

This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Eastern Washington Family Farmers: Much More than Milk: Cows today are producing a very valuable by-product."