Southwest Georgia Ichawaynochaway Watershed Cooperative Poultry Litter Composting Project

Georgia leads the nation in broiler production with 1.234 billion birds per year, and produces approximately 1.54 million tons of poultry broiler litter annually. Poultry litter is commonly stored on the ground, uncovered and often on the edge of wetlands and sinkholes, where leaching of nitrates may occur, until it is spread on crop or pasture lands. Give the litter concentration in the Southwest region of Georgia, there is high potential for nitrates from improperly stored and land applied poultry litter to leach into the underlying aquifer. The soils in this region are generally saturated with phosphorous and other nutrients. There is a considerable need to consolidate management of broiler litter in order to maximize environmental benefits, land availability, and economics. By establishing a community or cooperative facility at which multiple local farms consolidate their manure handling into the production and sale of a marketable value-added product, many of the environmental and economic challenges that each producer encounters individually can be overcome by working collaboratively. The purpose of this project is to engage 22 producers to cooperate in the development and use of a regional litter composting facility that would be the first of its kind in Georgia and in the Southeastern U.S.