Carbon, Compost, and Very Clean Hands

Only those of you who have raised hogs are going to understand the incredible significance of what I am about to write. However, the simple fact is my hands do not stink.

As I put the finishing touches on the horse lot for today's day of clinics and demonstrations for the Livestock Breed Conservancy I spent a great deal of time in the pens of our Ossabaw hogs. I moved some of the hogs from one pen to another and moved several pieces of heavy wood inside the pens. It has been raining for the last several days. I found myself smeared with mud and wet hog manure.

When got home I washed my hands and thought about how futile it was to do so. I come from many generations of hog farmers. As a child and as a teenager I raised hogs of my own. I know how hog manure seems to seep deeply into the pores of your hands leaving an aroma that last a day or two even when hand washing with soap is followed up with a rinse in rubbing alcohol.

And I did not even scrub my hands particularly well. In fact, I am typing with some finger nails that are visibly dirty.

And my hands do not stink.

We tear up cardboard into fairly small pieces and add it to the pens every week. We put moldy round bales not fit for horse consumption into the pens. We also put a lot of scraps of untreated umber in the pens. Makes for a very messy looking pen until we have a few days of rain. When the pens get muddy the cardboard starts to break down fast and the wood chunks work their way down into the soil.

The infusion of carbon into the mixture eradicates the otherwise strong odors of hog production. It also creates super compost that becomes ever more useful after spending a few months in our large vermiculture container.

The end result is a more diverse microbe collection than would be found in vermicompost using only horse manure....

And, my hands stay very clean.