Ganghwa County Provides Free Compost Maturity Testing for Livestock Manure

[Suwon Ilbo=Correspondent Seo Dong-young] Ganghwa County announced on the 18th that it will provide free compost maturity testing for livestock manure compost and liquid fertilizer as the mandatory compost maturity inspection system for livestock farms enters full implementation on March 25.

The mandatory compost maturity inspection system requires farms above a certain scale to periodically undergo compost maturity testing—which measures the degree to which livestock manure has been decomposed and aged—to prevent issues such as odors that occur when spreading animal manure.

Livestock farms wishing to undergo testing should collect samples from five or more locations representative of all compost and liquid fertilizer, place them in clean sealed bags, and submit them for inspection at the Agricultural Technology Center.

Meanwhile, under the mandatory compost maturity inspection system, farms required to register their livestock manure discharge facilities must undergo compost maturity testing once per year, while farms requiring permits must undergo testing once every six months. Test results and management records must be kept for three years.

Additionally, when spreading livestock manure compost on farmland, farms with barn facilities of 1,500㎡ or larger must use compost at the late maturity stage or higher, while farms with barns smaller than 1,500㎡ may only spread compost at the intermediate maturity stage or higher.

Failure to comply with or violation of compost maturity standards will result in administrative fines of up to 2 million won, and failure to maintain compost and liquid fertilizer management records will result in fines of up to 1 million won.

A county official stated, "Livestock farms must conduct compost maturity testing on a regular basis," and urged "that compost complying with maturity standards be shipped out to farmland."

For more details, contact the Comprehensive Testing Office of the Scientific Farming Team at the Agricultural Technology Center (032-930-4156).