Joel Salatin talks compost

Joel Salatin demonstrates how Polyface Farm runs their compost operation. They compost all their scraps including meat, offal, and carcasses from the slaughtering process. Filmed at Polyface PIDS 2015.

[@buddingnaturalist]

Never heard of this guy before but when I saw the belt + suspenders I knew I was in for some serious wisdom.

[@wendyscott8425]

@c fedyszyn You don't actually think this "president" wants people with _expertise,_ do you?

[@kathychildress18]

He's a genius

[@bradsimpson8724]

Joel Salatin is basically homesteading royalty. Everything this guy teaches is absolute gold.

[@Tonnsfabrication]

We use many of Joel's techniques on our farm,. Met him at the paw paw festival a few years ago, wonderful human being.

[@sauce410]

I want that stuff for my garden so badly! Perfect covering to nourish the soil!

[@Tropicalfarming]

great content Joel! Need to get my compost system up and running better. You've inspired me!

[@Pigearvet]

I really enjoyed your video. I make tea with my compost. Take care Rob and Nat

[@JamesFleming1]

Joe wears a belt & suspenders because you can never be too sure!

[@thetacountry4487]

James Fleming yeah, you could end up being one of those old guys where their pants fall down while their at a wedding 🤔

[@tomhancock541]

joel

[@anthonyc362]

James Fleming he talks about the redundancy of a belt and suspenders being akin to the enormous amount of hay he stores for an emergency.

[@Levi-tm4gl]

I wear belt & suspenders because the suspenders hold up your pants & the loose belt holds you pliers, gloves, and phone

[@Trakehner20]

@momentinpassing LOL good way to look at it

[@David-zv2em]

uncle George! good to see you again. :-)

[@andrewhallford7267]

Other gardeners: don't put any meat or bones in your compost, just vegetable scraps. Joel: *dumps whole cow corpse in compost pile*

[@marshwetland3808]

Difference between a working farm and a neglected plastic cone in someone's back yard.

[@rickjames2664]

🤣

[@ciarataylor702]

Chickens are composed too

[@VanderlyndenJengold]

@@ciarataylor702 I've composted birds and rats before but I'm on a smaller scale. I unearth the bones later and they remind me what went in.

[@ambermcfarland6273]

We've done a goat that passed chicken. I mean you can go and buy bone , blood and feather meal. Why not

[@branimirmarold7343]

respect!

[@308dad8]

Smart guy with a lot to share

[@brianshelley88]

That's how I compost meat on a smaller scale using pallets as the enclosure.

[@maxdecphoenix]

if you're not in the city and you have fowl (or other omnivores i suppose), look into a fly-larve setup for small scale meat conversion. Mine is literally a 3.5g bucket (with lid) hung from a tree. Just drilled several holes in the bottom and up near the top, once that stuff gets to stinking, man the flys ABOUND! Couple days later larva will be pouring out. Don't use it continuously though, the smarter chickens will quickly become complacent by it and just sit under the thing waiting for bugs to fall out instead of grazing.

[@InTuGuru]

Its crazy how I read in a book that its bad to compost with meat but yet here is prof that it can be done and it works great!

[@marshwetland3808]

The book is likely referring to a small composting system that won't get as hot and run by an amateur, so good chance of improper care - and attracting rats and so on. We also don't usually compost human feces...but then there are composting toilets and the Humanure Handbook. The simplest idiot proof method is - just veggies, no meat or human feces.

[@colleenpritchett6914]

Don’t use on your garden, use on your fields

[@darkmistico]

the thing about using meat in the compost... u need to cover that up be really shure no animal can find it or smell it.... i use quail feathers and his organs in the compost pile

[@davidl1294]

Maybe the author of the book is referring to cooked meat.

[@brianreinhardt7907]

Where does Joel say he puts that compost?

[@kelisurfs247]

Actually I think that the noise is coming from the pigs getting into the feeder. If you watch the video the camera pans over to the pigs and you can see the feeder with lids on each section of the feeder. It was driving me crazy too!

[@azimovwatts6425]

yeah what they feed the pigs into

[@nathanbaker5773]

hahah i thought it was a kid lol

[@paulkoehl2447]

What does the pig feed consist of?

[@JesseStutsman]

interesting!

[@stephenchilcott1595]

I was getting so annoyed with the person I thought was flipping the lid.... until at 9:10 they show the pigs were doing it!! Then I had to forgive them... they're pigs...

[@igorbukovy4313]

1 tractor can do work of several people so if you want get involved more people to this system you have to ged rig of machines and replace with hands.

[@nicholashunt734]

What kind of trees are the shed posts made from?

[@JeffGray]

Nicholas Hunt They’re most likely cedar or black locust. That’s what Joel uses most for weather-resistant wood because it’s native.

[@koltoncrane3099]

I watched an interview with him saying we need more carbon in the soils and life. But I think he needs to be promoting biochar mixed with compost because manure and compost does lose nitrogen and things over time but the biochar can absorb it, and provide space for microbes.

[@KalvinistKyle]

just before 14 minutes he says "as long as it'll go through the manure spreader..." maybe idk what it is but how would any of this rough compost go through any spreader except by hand? curious

[@bigdpw]

By the time it's finished composting it will go through a spreader. You are just seeing an early phase of the compost cycle.

[@nancyfahey7518]

A pig opens a door with his snout to eat and when he takes his head away the door slams.

[@billlord9116]

This man needs to be DC.

[@johnthreesixteen5643]

what should you do with compost? do you lift the ground and put it in there ? or you just spread it in the surface?

[@DonnieBrasco-dy9yd]

Surface.

[@randall-king]

There’s another video at Polyface where it shows them spreading it on the surface.

[@antiquecatfishing7068]

What is the carbon, Wood chipsand sawdust?

[@deborahgrantham7387]

He say s wood chips

[@theversatileartist6446]

Do the bones of the cow decompose or not? from what I understand not because he was talking about his kids finding skulls and jaws in the piles?

[@JeffGray]

The bones decay, but only over a long period of time. If you're wanting to get the compost back out on the fields within a year then expect there to be large bones in there. Which you'd need to avoid if you're putting it on a hay field because the bones can jam up the equipment. If you're dealing with small things like young chicken bones, they *may* decay within a year in an active compost pile.

[@theversatileartist6446]

Thank you for the quick reply Jeff, I bet the tour with Joel was beyond fun, he's a great guy.

[@reidcrosby6241]

Poor Uncle George.....

[@jethro9341]

A good use of waste meat and guts is a maggot bucket. Chickens love maggots.

[@k_froggy]

Not good to feed chickens back to chickens though. Can cause disease.

[@jethro9341]

You're not feeding them chicken. You're feeding them maggots. It doesnt matter what meat you feed the maggots.

[@k_froggy]

@@jethro9341 The problem with that is all the liquid rotted chicken is all over the maggots. Bacterial infections can happen from that.

[@jethro9341]

@@k_froggy We've been using maggot buckets since i was a kid. My grandma used them since she was a kid. We've put all kinds of things in there, chickens, all flavors of road kill, table scraps, gut piles from hunting and fishing trips. No issues to report.

[@koontzman123]

You like 3 turns, but your worker "likes 2 because too much nitrogen is lost". How do you measure the carbon to nitrogen ratio?

[@darkmistico]

30:1

[@jordant7207]

"you don't debone the cow first" 😂

[@mattbee1871]

No.... he said bones and all? This was after Joel said she decomposes to nothing. The guys was asking if the bones decomposed as well. Joel misunderstood the question... so did you.

[@thetacountry4487]

Matt Bee exactly, that actually kind of irritated me

[@Berkeloid0]

Especially when he later said kids can find bones in the compost so they don't put it where they are growing hay as it jams the machines? Maybe he meant the guts they put on first decompose to nothing but the whole carcass still has bones left over?

[@Seanparky01]

I thought wood chips were very slow to decompose. I wonder if greens are also added

[@JeffGray]

Greens are added in the form of dead animals or animal offal from slaughter. Plenty of nitrogen in there to help break down the wood chips.

[@nono3143]

Can this be done without a roof?

[@JeffGray]

Yes, but you'll lose a lot of your nutrients to the rain runoff (unless rain isn't an issue in your area).

[@farmerkhmer2021]

Good

[@theyoungnative93]

I wonder if you could do wood chips mixed with kitchen scraps

[@JeffGray]

We do that a lot. It does take a while to break down because it’s not triple ground mulch, but I’ve got time. 😉

[@michellehallock9001]

Any suggestions on how to obtain large amounts of carbon material for cheap or free, such as the wood chips that Joel uses?

[@JeffGray]

You could call around to tree service companies and see if you can get on their radar for delivering wood chips. Unfortunately, I've found that that pretty much never works. Like, never. Tree service guys are too busy and can't (won't) keep lists of people close by to deliver to. If you want the stuff delivered for (mostly) free, your best bet is to stop a tree service crew chief at a gas station and offer (bribe) him $20 to deliver the chips at your place. He'll only do it if you're relatively close to where he's chipping. If you've got a pickup truck, almost every tree service has a yard where they dump excess chips (usually the county landfill has one of these, too) and they really want people to come and take the chips. So, if you don't want to pay for a gym membership, you can go hand load some free chips using a manure fork or ensilage fork. :D Other options are to get on Craigslist and see if there are any places trying to offload mountains of sawdust (like furniture companies or sawmills).

[@marshwetland3808]

@@JeffGray Guess it depends on the area. Free wood chips and sawdust are easy to get where I am.

[@MegaRobo25]

Best bet is a carpentry shop furniture, pallet maker etc.

[@joeytuckey1517]

Does Joel Salatin talk holistic farming practices?

[@wendyscott8425]

He calls it regenerative farming, but yes.

[@ludlowfalls8856]

I thought that you were not supposed to put dead animals in compost...although i remember as a kid seeing dead animals in the woods or along the road/ditch and as they decomposed, the grass was always taller and greener. Great video!

[@sweetvuvuzela4634]

ludlow falls you can if you can get your pile big enough and hot enough it will break down

[@randall-king]

Bury it in there deep enough and use enough carbon, and it will be fine. And give it long enough. Like he says, they do a year.

[@oldauntzibby4395]

If you are making compost in town it is often recommended to not use certain things like meat that can smell or attract scavengers that will dig up your compost and strew it around. The compost Joel Salatin is making is mainly so he can dispose of his dead animal parts as he butchers. Also, if you are spreading compost on your vegetable garden you don't want to use things that may transmit pathogens to humans. No pet feces or raw pork because of the chance of worms, for instance. I think Salatin spreads this compost on animal pastures, not vegetable gardens. And as others have replied, if you make sure the compost heats up enough it will kill the pathogens. Many backyard compost piles don't get hot enough because they are too small. The items will break down but pathogens won't be killed by heat.

[@teacherdoug1797]

@@oldauntzibby4395 I think it's more that the pathogens die out once their food source is depleted. If they didn't, ALL dirt would be unsafe for vegetable gardens.

[@skinnyWHITEgoyim]

Just bury the dead animals straight in your garden. It works like a champ. Dead animals and fish are the absolute best fertilizers in the world. Mukch over top and you got perfect growing soil.

[@thartanian]

man that handle dropping every few minutes is so loud in my car hehe

[@moneymikegotuvideos312]

Loud AF

[@PM_82]

I was no handle, i guess it were the pigs messing with the feeder or water.

[@netcam2]

Where is all the zobojack sauce?

[@karlk1257]

Is somebody skateboarding in the background?

[@JeffGray]

It’s the pigs in the next stall dropping the lids on the hog feeder.

[@suemcfarlane4199]

Composted hay often still has grass seeds in it which is a pain when it comes to mulching your veggie patch

[@Berkeloid0]

The seeds get killed if the compost gets hot enough though.

[@charlielee3945]

Ever put biochar in compost as well?

[@JeffGray]

That’s the best place for it. It inoculates the carbon with bacteria/fungus before you put it in the garden. Keeps it from harming your soil.

[@tkjazzer]

What do you do with the bones after everything else is composted?

[@JeffGray]

+tkjazzer Joel just leaves them in the compost. Then he puts them out on the fields via the manure spreader. As he says at 13:50, you put compost that will have skulls in it on fields where you don't mow hay, for obvious reasons.

[@markroeder2491]

If there were ever bones leftover, you could turn them into biochar. They make a great biochar. Then you can inoculate the biochar by putting it back into the compost which will be applied to the soil which will be able to store more nutrients, biota, etc. and increase soil fertility. You just gotta love how efficient nature is.

[@heartlandHeritageFarm]

Jeff Gray j

[@thetacountry4487]

🤔🧐You could glue them together in strange formations and become famous for discovering a new fake dinosaur!!! 😍

[@kricketjoy]

This is really smart, but I think I'm going to make dog food out of the parts I don't need, and bone broth from the bones.

[@tkjazzer]

What is his best book if I am only going to buy one?

[@JeffGray]

+tkjazzer It depends on what you want to read about. If you want a good overview of the whole sustainable food landscape and a book that evangelizes that method, then read "The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer". If you want a book that will encourage you-realistically-to go farm for yourself, read "You Can Farm". Those are probably Joel's best ones to start with.

[@SnakeReam]

I'd agree with Jeff here. I did alot of online reading of Joel's principles and watched alot of his videos on KZbin and the likes, but after reading "Sheer Ecstasy" I felt empowered and excited to make changes and move forward. Great book, really! Cheers +tkjazzer

[@tkjazzer]

I read 1/2 of Sheer Ectasy. I like it. It is a good read. I have to cringe when he wanders too much in to science though. He's not a scientist! But it's a great book overall. Just have to cross out certain sentences... which I think is funny. He should get an editor who is both an organic farmer and a scientist

[@kvaz21]

+tkjazzer "The Lazy Gardener"

[@ImAChristianFirst]

sci·en·tist- a person who is studying or has expert knowledge of one or more of the natural or physical sciences. Aren't most of us scientist? We all study natural and physical sciences on the farm. We just don't do it in a university setting. We may not have expert knowledge on everything there is to know, but many of us including Joel has expert knowledge on a good amount of what he does and the science behind it.

[@fayvinplace]

Kick whoever is playing with the bucket handle....

[@JeffGray]

Sorry about that. The constant banging was the pigs lifting and dropping the feed lids on their feeder. You can see them around the 2:00 mark.

[@newwaytogo2997]

the horses do that with their feed tubs sometimes too. Nice video!

[@jimpederson1328]

I thought the same thing. Might be the pigs eating to the side of him. maybe...

[@WallyJ2K]

On your next video, please edit the audio to be loud enough, and then edit out any unwanted sounds, like the banging, which is louder than Joel. But thanks for the video.

[@black_squall]

Damn pigs are so ignorant. Trying to hear the video.

[@scottscott2620]

what is this carbon that you speak of ?

[@JeffGray]

"Carbon" is any kind of lignified or woody material. It's material that is mostly carbon (as opposed to nitrogen and water). When composting, it's sometimes called the "browns" (as opposed to the "greens", which are things like fresh vegetable matter, coffee grounds, urine, lawn clippings, etc.). So for instance, "carbon" would be things like wood chips, sawdust, straw, hay, peanut (or any nut) hulls, cardboard, old leaf piles, etc. In this video, Joel's combining wood chips (carbon) with animal guts (nitrogen). If you combine browns and greens at a roughly 30:1 ratio, you'll get a properly thermophilic compost pile. It'll heat up, pathogens and weed seeds will die, and the whole thing will compost in a few weeks. The trick is that certain browns and certain greens have higher or lower internal brown/green (carbon/nitrogen) ratios. So, for instance, sawdust itself has a really high carbon ratio: it's 600:1. Hay has a much lower ratio, 80:1. So when you're combining a carbon source with a nitrogen source, you'll have to add more hay to get the same thermophilic effect as you would with sawdust. Hopefully this is helpful and not overwhelming. :) There's a good article on C:N ratios and composting here: whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/fundamentals/needs_carbon_nitrogen.htm

[@jethro9341]

@9:25

[@colleenpritchett6914]

Woodchips

[@jjk2one]

This is the implementation of synthetic earth at every level. Carbon nanotubes and polymer coated proteins. Goldman Sacs quote - Synthetic is the new artisan.

[@sylvesterstalone1859]

Human pee with leaves works very well

[@topsoilplantation7341]

Compost 101

[@MarkTodd33]

USE HEMP HURD

[@a206h]

how about humanure? does he compost it the same way?

[@JeffGray]

+aaro neous I'm not sure. I know the intern quarters have composting toilets, but I'm not sure exactly what model they're using for those or if they put the intern humanure into these larger piles to degrade fully.

[@donrad]

+Koo Laid When a person is dealing with the general public and the FDA it just can't be done. He would probably do it if he was just feeding his family. You can't give yourself a disease you already have, but you can spread diseases to others. Also, it's just too risky, if a food born illness was traced back to his farm it could shut him down.

[@jksatte]

Most people that use their own humanure only use it on fruit tree's and non food beds. Janice

[@somatder]

read "the Humanure Handbook" by Joe Jenkins. Very recommandable!

[@TheWritingGirl]

you can compost it just not on edibles, trees, shrubs, flowers, etc totally fine

[@Fish5919]

Joel, I save human urine, which is sterile, and use that as a N source for composting and for liquid fertilizer. You have a lot of people, have you ever used liquid gold?

[@neilellis812]

thats sick

[@JeffGray]

It's actually pretty normal to use urine as an innoculum for compost because it adds moisture and nitrogen. It's not normal in commercial operations, but it's pretty normal for homesteaders. If you're selling your produce to consumers or at farmers' markets or wherever, it's probably not allowable. One thing to watch out for is that you can't use urine tainted by medications (pharmaceuticals). They'll get into the compost and mess things up.

[@alternativeenergy2133]

The old practice of "wassailing" from the Christmas carols; people would go from farm to farm singing in groups, being given cider or beer and they would pee on the fruit trees to help fertilize them for the next year.

[@michaelvangundy226]

Alternative Energy You better not ever walk up my driveway.

[@sweetvuvuzela4634]

Also known as night soil

[@Djddubcjkyuu]

Good info but a really irritating noise that whole time

[@randall-king]

It’s the pigs at their feeder.

[@lingdong4119]

Bones don’t decompose…

[@pascrew4639]

Who keeps tapping his skateboard in the background... driving me insane..

[@Poqanics]

on his comment about rough compost..it's better..it's auto aerated

[@farmerdude3578]

Composting is not free. You need equipment, fuel, labor, carbon, waist.

[@DonnieBrasco-dy9yd]

You don't "need" that, sucker.

[@sweetvuvuzela4634]

If you use your head you can for free free leaves in autumn free cardboard free hedge clips free grass clips

[@CaptCutler]

Composting meat? I was always told to keep meat and dairy out of compost.

[@karlp1117]

Only reason not to is rodents. Which he talks about as far as his place. On a smaller scale just bury it deep in the compost.

[@CaptCutler]

@@karlp1117 Really cool! I thought it had something to do with disease or something. You learn something new every day! I just discovered "bokashi bin" composing. :thumbs up:

[@karlp1117]

@@CaptCutler yes those are concerns, but just not if you are placing the meat within a system that will properly compost it. I looked at the bokashi bin you mentioned; it says it can take meat but I dont really know anything about the fermentation it is talking about. If it is okay to put meat in there, it is not okay for the same reason why it's okay to compost meat. I wouldnt feel comfortable using that or extracting a tea if I had recently placed potentially hazardous material in it until I knew more about the process.

[@Berkeloid0]

I read something a while back that said meat is so full of nitrogen and decomposes so quickly that it can throw out the balance of the compost and turn it into an anaerobic mess. But as long as you put enough carbon in (like those wood chips) and manage any rodents it may attract then it is fine to compost.

[@colleenpritchett6914]

This isn’t going on his veggie garden, it’s going on his fields...huge difference

[@TheDutch231]

The background noise is unbearable

[@dnldhttnjr]

Why don't you feed the hogs with some of the guts and stuff?

[@agargoyle12345]

If you butchered the animal, so you're the reason it's dead, that's fine. You may need to freeze it and feed it to them slower so it doesn't go off before they can finish it. But if you don't know what it died from, or you do and it's a disease, you could spread it.

[@sarahpauline4904]

sick.

[@jasminflower3814]

I hope you are feeling better today Sarah pauline. ;-)

[@launabuck8837]

Who ever is touching the bucket, omg. Stop.

[@007more7]

Who's the damn dip shit hitting on something

[@mr.c2564]

Should be titled composting with e-coli and salmonella

[@JeffGray]

Both of which are killed by proper composting. Although Joel's had his chickens tested and they don't even have salmonella in their poop. As Joel said, this compost goes out onto the fields where it fertilizes pastures. It's not going onto vegetable gardens. But I wouldn't worry about it either way. Animals poop and die in gardens all the time. It's something the natural system is designed to be okay with.

[@skoski79]

was a good video until the dude kept hitting the bucket or whatever it was VERY ANNOYING!!

[@JeffGray]

That's the pigs lifting and dropping the feed lids on their feeder. You can see them around the 2:00 mark.

[@thetacountry4487]

skoski79 you are annoyed at pigs, you pig hater you

[@dermotmurphy6733]

He loves sound of his own voice! Don't like how he put a man asking a sensible question down. Bull artist.

[@DonnieBrasco-dy9yd]

Dumbass...

[@swtgrl2no]

Wow so the poor pigs right next to this horrid pile get to smell their own kind rot..thats pretty f'd up you could at least do this away from them!

[@JeffGray]

There's no smell in the compost shed besides the smell of wood chips. And considering pigs will eat each other I don't think they'd be particularly sentimental about a pig buried in wood chips in the stall next door. They'd mainly be frustrated that they couldn't eat it.

[@stacyyoust]

@@JeffGray when do they eat each other and why?

[@JeffGray]

​@@stacyyoust For instance, if a pig dies in the woods, the other pigs will come and eat it. Or a mother pig will kill and eat a piglet that's deformed (she decides somehow that it's not fit for survival). It's actually the same with chickens. They're omnivores, so they like meat and they'll scavenge it if it's reasonably fresh. My point is that pigs don't have the squeamish sensitivities that we have.

[@edorahdawson]

@@JeffGray i am shocked/ amused at the comments on this thread. I guess I have taken being raised on a farm for granted

[@sharonbuck6333]

If done correctly it really doesn’t smell. Besides the pigs don’t care about smells!

[@joe4324]

Its like watching a needlessly complicated machine, Look at all this infrastructure and land used, just to deal with animal waste from animals that also use tons of space... You could just eat plant products and use aggressive cover cropping and green cover cropping with good crop management and rotation. Regenerative ag my ass, More like waste as much time/space/energy as possible ag.

[@JeffGray]

SunRa I think you’re underestimating the work involved in a plant-based ag system. Plant-based almost always requires lots of tillage, which is always destructive to soil. It also requires greater use of fuel and machinery due to the tillage. But fundamentally it doesn’t build topsoil nearly as quickly (if at all) as using animals. There’s also the issue that a plant based diet just isn’t going to cut it nutrition- and calorie-wise for most people. Especially in developing countries, their use of animals is the quickest and most effective way to get both calories and soil fertility. Plus, kids never run up to tomatoes and hug them. Animals add a level of wonder and joy to farming that pure plant ag lacks. And they taste way better than veg. :)

[@wmoli872]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... What are the names of your many books that you've written on the subject? Do you have an internationally recognized LOCAL farm? How many interns do you employ every summer? Do they come from every corner of the country? Let's see some credentials beyond 3 credit hours of Sustainable Ag.

[@curioushooter]

You have never attempted to live off plants you have grown. If you did you would quickly realize that humans are not herbivores and cannot meet their nutritional needs this way without ENORMOUS energetic inputs. Greenhouses, quadraphonic, and all this stuff requires tremendous inputs.

[@wendyscott8425]

Actually, Joel recommends as little infrastructure as possible. His methods regenerate the soil. Plants and animals (and humans) evolved together. The plants feed the animals and the animals feed the plants with what they compost inside their digestive systems. Even if you have a plants-only farm, you'd have to put some manure on it or some sort of fertilizer or the plants won't grow well. An all-plant-based diet requires some supplementation or we omnivorous humans don't get everything we need. In regenerative agriculture, the animals live nice lives, happily munching on the foods they love and were designed to eat, and then they feed us after a humane end. This is much better than how corporate agribusiness is done. I hope you at least will appreciate that.