Referred to as the world's largest grower-shipper of lettuce, Tanimura & Antle, Inc. (T&A) also is a major producer of compost. With a compost making capacity of 50,000 tons per year at its operations near Salinas, California, the end product is applied at a rate of three to eight tons per acre. To date, it's estimated that 15 percent of the farm's 25,000 acres have had compost applications. Feedstock consists of yard trimmings, manure, spent mushroom compost and lettuce culls.
Writes Dan Stephens, western editor for American Vegetable Grower: "In the heavily farmed Salinas Valley, where the soil never rests, organic matter measures about one percent. If that doesn't change, growers fear the soil will not be able to produce the yields and quality for which the area is known. But with the annual applications of compost, along with other prudent soil management techniques, Brian Ziemann of T&A hopes to raise the organic matter to seven percent within 10 to 15 years."
The cost of composting and applying is estimated to be about $40 per ton. Sums up Ziemann: "Extreme farming the past 40 years has hurt the soil ... Composting is not a quick fix. You can't put two tons an acre on and see a benefit. But we've been doing this since 1993, and we've seen the results."
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