A shop with several full-time employees is kept busy with equipment fabrication. Another unique aspect of this farm was the proactive efforts that are underway in response to a concern about animal welfare, which is becoming a major issue in Holland. Some experimental cages are being tried that include a roost for the birds and a door between pairs of cages enabling the birds to move between them. On this farm, manure is collected on a belt system under the cages. The raw manure is taken to a static pile composting unit, where it is mixed with equal parts of wood chips on a volume basis.
Air is forced through the manure for three days.
The air is heated by an exchanger which captures heat generated in the compost unit. After five days in the drying tunnel, the manure has been dried to ten percent moisture. The air coming out of the drying tunnel is sent to a scrubber to remove ammonia which has been lost by the manure. The ammonia is removed as a liquid which is then sprayed back on the manure in the compost unit to return lost nitrogen. One half of the air leaving the scrubber is recycled back to the drying tunnel, while the other half is cooled in a long tunnel outdoors before passing through a biofilter to remove odors.