Two growers are recognized for thinking "outside the box" and developing profitable new uses for poultry litter. Turkey and broiler integrators in the USA have investigated a number of unconventional uses for poultry litter. Watt Poultry USA has runfeature articles on two litter processing facilities that convert raw litter into fertilizers that can be more easily handled and spread by conventional fertilizer equipment. Integrators are also exploring a number of other large projects for convertinglitter into natural gas, generating electricity and steam. These large projects attract the most attention because they hold the promise of moving large amounts of poultry litter off the land in parts of the country that have a high density of poultry farms. But there are other uses of poultry litter that are being developed and implemented by the most resilient and innovative group of entrepreneurs in the world, American farmers. In order to recognize the accomplishments of poultry growers in devisingand developing innovative, environmentally friendly and profitable uses for poultry litter, the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association added a new category to its 2003 Family Farm Environmental Excellence Awards. This year, two farms were selected to receive Alternative Handling of Litter awards. The farms are Terry and Debbie Jurgensmeyer's T&D Farms and Rozier and Linda Wingate's Old Orchard Farm. Each of these farms has been successful in its own way in confirming that poultry litter is not a waste productbut rather a valuable by-product of poultry farming.
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