In-field, hands-on learning environments offer the ability to engage and learn in a way that cannot be readily duplicated. This is why the 2019 North American Manure Expo – being held July 31 and Aug. 1 in Fair Oaks, Indiana – wants to offer attendees a chance to get boots on the ground with three tour offerings.

On Wednesday, July 31, a number of local operations from differing sectors will open their farm gates to Expo attendees. Tours include:

Tour #1: Dairy
The first stop of the dairy tour will be at Windy Ridge Dairy, operated by the Bos family. Attendees will get a chance to tour the manure handling facilities and aerobic digester. Midwestern BioAg is the next stop on the dairy tour. In partnership with Prairie's Edge Dairy, Midwestern BioAg is manufacturing an innovative line of TerraNu fertilizers.

Tour #2: Beef and Poultry
The beef and poultry tour will take attendees inside the Rose Acres White County facility, where manure is produced from layer chickens that are fed a mineral package that is sourced from several different locations and grain from local farmers. The second stop of this tour will be at Bio Town Ag., a multigenerational family agribusiness with a true 21st century approach to farming. In addition to its 800-sow pork production facility, the farm is anchored by a 4,500-head natural beef cattle feed operation. The farm receives organic waste by-products from Midwest companies. The by-product material is merged with manure from the livestock facilities to fuel a 7.2-million-gallon anaerobic digester.

Swine Workshop
For biosecurity reasons, the NAME committee has decided to have a Swine manure workshop instead of a tour this year. The workshop will begin with a presentation from Buiter Farm, who works with Belstra Group Farms and Fastrack Fertilizer. With several farms in the area, presenters will discuss the wash bay at Buiter Farms where they clean out the Belstra Group swine transport trailers after moving pigs to and from their different farms. The second presentation will be from Klemp Farm's. Klemp Brothers Ag Services run a manure application business. They use the manure from their swine barn and they contract manure from one of the local dairies.

Tours are $20 to attend and include lunch and transportation to and from Fair Oaks Farms. Preregistration is required.

Don't miss out, register today!