Chicken manure turned from waste into treasure, with profits up to 500 yuan per ton
According to estimates by the China Animal Agriculture Association, in 2014 the national broiler slaughter volume was about 8.79 billion birds, and by the end of the year laying hen inventory was about 1.32 billion birds. Calculating on the basis that each chicken produces an average of 100 g of fresh chicken manure per day and that broilers are raised for an average of 60 days before slaughter, China needs to handle over 100 million tons of chicken manure each year, equivalent to the cargo capacity of 10,000 freight trains.
On the one hand, as the chicken farming industry increasingly trends toward large-scale and low-cost operations, how to increase income and reduce expenditure has become a barrier that chicken farming enterprises urgently need to establish. On the other hand, the enormous total volume of chicken manure has brought huge pressure on environmental protection. In order to encourage farming enterprises to develop a circular economy, the state has issued multiple relevant policies in recent years: since 2006, the national "Soil Organic Fertilizer Improvement Plan" has invested more than 2 billion yuan. According to the National Agricultural Sustainable Development Plan (2015-2030), in the future more than 50% of nitrogen fertilizer application needs to come from organic fertilizer. The Ministry of Finance plans to subsidize each organic fertilizer demonstration project by 3 million yuan during 2014-2019. The Ministry of Commerce also exempts organic fertilizer from value-added tax. In addition to making organic fertilizer, methods such as chicken manure power generation and raising maggots on chicken manure are also constantly emerging, and farmers are all trying to find the method most suitable for their own farm to "turn manure into treasure."
Raw chicken manure packaged and sold directly
Convenience High
Profit 100 yuan/ton
Cost Negligible
Selling collected chicken manure directly to growers for use as base fertilizer, or selling it as feed to nearby fish ponds, is currently the most common and quickest method for chicken farms in China to handle chicken manure.
It is understood that at present most broilers in the Guangdong area are raised on litter, and about 3 cm of sawdust is spread inside the chicken house as bedding during rearing. The chicken manure collected under such circumstances is basically dry, and the bedding material is equivalent to adding auxiliary material in advance for later organic fertilizer production. After being directly packed into bags, the price is about 10 yuan/bag (each bag about 70 jin). However, the chicken manure from caged laying breeder chickens is mostly pure chicken manure with a relatively high moisture content, and the price for direct bagged sale is about 4 yuan/bag. Farmer Boss Li from Yunfu said that through this method of directly bagging and selling chicken manure, the income obtained from the chicken manure produced by one batch of broilers (10,000 birds) is about 3,000-4,000 yuan.
"There are also some middlemen locally who specialize in collecting chicken manure, and they come to collect chicken manure every 1-2 days." Huo Mingquan of Huacheng Chicken Farm in Jinsha, Nanhai, Foshan, revealed that middlemen generally sell chicken manure to growers for growing vegetables and flowers. The composting and fermentation of the chicken manure is handled by the middlemen or the growers themselves.
Packaging and selling chicken manure not only solves the destination of the largest-volume "waste" on the chicken farm, but also brings extra income, which is a situation all chicken farmers are happy to see.
"But growers' demand for chicken manure has obvious seasonality. In autumn and winter, the amount of fertilizer applied to farmland is large, and demand for chicken manure is relatively high. Once the plum rain season arrives, selling chicken manure becomes a big problem." Zhao Zhiquan, technical director of Guangdong Yangshi Agriculture Co., Ltd., said that generally at such times the only option is to make chicken manure into organic fertilizer on the farm through composting and other methods, which is also currently the most feasible way for chicken farms to handle chicken manure.
Made into organic fertilizer for sale
Convenience Medium
Profit 300-500 yuan/ton
Cost 500 yuan/ton
Compared with selling chicken manure directly, profits after making it into organic fertilizer can be significantly increased. Li Hailin, manager of the organic fertilizer plant of Heshan Xugang Huang Livestock Co., Ltd., said that not counting equipment depreciation, the auxiliary materials, electricity, and labor costs required to produce each ton of organic fertilizer are about 500 yuan, and the selling price ranges from 800-1,000 yuan, yielding a profit of 300-500 yuan per ton. If raw chicken manure is sold directly, the price is only about 100 yuan/ton.
Although composting is not difficult, building a large-scale, industrialized organic fertilizer plant and achieving stable profitability requires a certain amount of investment cost. It is understood that the Xugang Huang organic fertilizer plant was completed and put into production in 2008, with an annual output of 10,000 tons of organic fertilizer. The entire organic fertilizer plant covers 11 mu and involves a total investment of more than 2 million yuan.
In addition to investment cost, sales channels are also a major problem for organic fertilizer plants. Li Hailin said that because growers' demand for organic fertilizer is unstable, they can only "set production according to sales," that is, produce according to customer demand. In addition, the quality of organic fertilizer currently on the market is uneven. If incompletely fermented organic fertilizer is purchased, the chicken manure will continue to ferment and generate heat in the soil, very easily burning crops and causing economic disputes. Therefore, under chaotic market conditions, large-scale production products often have a more competitive advantage because their quality is relatively stable.
Chicken manure power generation profit 450 yuan/ton
Convenience Low
Profit 450 yuan/ton
Cost High upfront equipment investment
If the amount of chicken manure is large, the efficiency of preparing organic fertilizer is not enough to consume it. Thermal power generation and biogas power generation are the remaining options.
"Sunnong has 1,400 tons of chicken manure to handle in a single day, and producing organic fertilizer alone simply cannot consume it. For this reason, we built a chicken manure power station." Fu Ximing, executive vice president of Fujian Sunnong Development Co., Ltd., said that Sunnong has now built 2 thermal power stations, consuming 640,000 tons of chicken manure annually, and can generate 363 million kWh (degrees) of electricity each year. Calculated at an electricity price of 0.75 yuan/kWh, the revenue is about 425 yuan/ton. By burning chicken manure to generate electricity, the problem of chicken manure pollution is solved, and electricity is also delivered to the national grid. The ash after burning chicken manure can also be used to make 50,000 tons of organic fertilizer (sold at 300-500 yuan/ton). The total profit after power generation is about 450 yuan/ton.
In terms of biogas power generation, on April 19, 2009, the biogas power generation project of Beijing Deqingyuan Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. was successfully connected to the grid. In July 2015, the biogas purification and compression project of Minhe Shares was completed. It is reported that it can handle up to 700 tons of chicken manure from chicken farms per day, and can produce 10.989 million cubic meters of biofuel gas annually, replace 12.8 million liters of petroleum, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 260,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
"But chicken manure power generation actually does not make money; it is mainly to avoid causing pollution." Fu Ximing said that Sunnong's chicken manure power station has a total investment of 420 million yuan, but its returns do not match the huge investment cost. In addition, how to connect electricity to the grid system is also a major problem. It is understood that the investment in Beijing Deqingyuan's biogas power plant reached 65 million yuan. This project took from October 2004, when feasibility demonstration was carried out at the Ministry of Agriculture and other departments, to April 2009, when it was successfully connected to the grid for power generation, with coordination in between lasting as long as 4 years, of which the grid connection communication alone took more than a year.
Wang Xianzhong, service director of Hebei Huayu Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., said that chicken manure is one of the livestock manures with relatively low gas production. In addition, chicken manure contains a lot of stone powder, which after settling will affect the operation of biogas equipment. The treatment of the large amount of biogas slurry left by biogas power generation is also a major problem. At this stage, using biogas power generation as a way to handle chicken manure is not advisable.
Other biological treatment methods
Convenience Unknown, estimated as medium
Profit Unknown, estimated as high
Cost 1/5 of the investment in chicken house equipment
In order to increase the utilization rate of chicken manure as much as possible, various biological treatment methods are also constantly emerging. In recent years, occasional farmers have also tried using chicken manure to raise maggots and earthworms.
Wang Xianzhong introduced that his team is studying a plan to use chicken manure to raise maggots. In this plan, every 5 jin of raw chicken manure can produce 1 jin of fresh maggots. The remaining chicken manure, because it has already been metabolized by the maggots, can be directly used as fully fermented organic fertilizer. The maggots can be dried, pulped, or the fresh insects can be directly fed to chickens as a good supplemental protein, which can save about 20% of feed cost. With all chicken manure processed, about 20% of the chicken manure is converted into animal protein (maggots), and the other 80% becomes organic fertilizer.
At present, this set of equipment for producing maggots from chicken manure is still under development. It is expected that construction can begin around the 2016 Spring Festival. The entire system includes several parts: manure collection, heat and moisture preservation, and fresh maggot separation devices. If all the chicken manure from a chicken farm is to be fully consumed, the land area required is about 1/4 of the chicken house, and the investment cost is also about 1/5 of all equipment in the chicken house. As for how feasible these methods are and what the actual returns are, there is not yet a mature conclusion.