Post by Jay Blair on Oct 28, 2005 13:34:47 GMT -5
While we are all aware of the large volume commercial worm harvesters and casting separators advertised by some of the commercial worm farming equipment suppliers, in my opinion, for the low overhead , yet growing worm farmer, there are drawbacks that go along with the advertised advantages of these pieces of equipment.
The most noticeable disadvantage that I see is the initial cost factor that a commercial grower moving from a large scale personal structure to a small / medium commercial level of production will see with many of these advertized pieces of equipment.
Some of the offered mechanical separators appear to cost as much as a good used car or pick up truck
As I tell those interested in establishing small scale personal systems and strapped for investment capital,
"The worms know more about vermiculture, than a worm farmer does. When we put them into bins or barriered windrow farming environment, we are exploiting desirable traits of their natural environments to utilize them for a concentrated process while preventing them from migrating away."
I believe this thought has importance if you ar progressing from personal to commercial status.
The important key to worm harvesting is to initiate control factors on that migration instinct.
A spinning harvester achieves migration by triggering a natural instinct counteracting centrifugal force.
Who as a child hasn't ridden a small platform and hand rail merry go round and moved to the center to keep from getting too dizzy or hurling that milk and cookie snack we had
In a spinning harvester, the worms feel a similar discomfort and move toward the center axis of the contained centrifuge environment.
I have tinkered with an old dryer drum with a screened tube in the center to offer the worms an escape route.
The drum was removed from the dryer body and mounted on a pipe axle on a wooden A frame.
I used a child's mountain bicycle as a torque ratio'd drive mechanism.
I used it for a season until I realized that I wasn't actually interested in large scale worm harvesting and what harvesting I did need, inducing migration of my herd could be achieved in easier ways with my smaller scale worm farm.
Plus my stepson wanted his mountain bike back to make a trick bike out of it
Remembering what my needs were that had to be met with by worm harvesting brings up another point to consider.
The growing worm farmer concerned about large scale harvesting. Are they harvesting for bait or harvesting seed stock to establish additional composting herds.
Are they concerned with how many bait cups they can fill, how many pounds of herd biomass they can harvest to resell to other growers or are the concerned with effective composting after the worms natural winter migration and hibernation?
All of these factors must be taken into consideration as you evaluate your options and goals.
Once you have the above points in mind , then you can decide which means of initiating herd migration will work best for you.
You will have to decide if you want to build something yourself to mechanically migrate them, use environmental conditions or purchase or rent a pre-manufactured harvester.
So lets open up a discussion of the various harvesting options available to those of you making that next transition.
If we discuss and debate we may be able to reduce the gamble of expansion and growth a bit.
Time, earthworm instinct , monetary investment limitations, goals, capabilities and local competition potential profitability. Evaluate all carefully. Not doing so could open a "can of worms" too hard to overcome.
So who among our group is looking to take the step to large scale worm harvester?
Do you want to discuss possible junk pile options?
The most noticeable disadvantage that I see is the initial cost factor that a commercial grower moving from a large scale personal structure to a small / medium commercial level of production will see with many of these advertized pieces of equipment.
Some of the offered mechanical separators appear to cost as much as a good used car or pick up truck
As I tell those interested in establishing small scale personal systems and strapped for investment capital,
"The worms know more about vermiculture, than a worm farmer does. When we put them into bins or barriered windrow farming environment, we are exploiting desirable traits of their natural environments to utilize them for a concentrated process while preventing them from migrating away."
I believe this thought has importance if you ar progressing from personal to commercial status.
The important key to worm harvesting is to initiate control factors on that migration instinct.
A spinning harvester achieves migration by triggering a natural instinct counteracting centrifugal force.
Who as a child hasn't ridden a small platform and hand rail merry go round and moved to the center to keep from getting too dizzy or hurling that milk and cookie snack we had
In a spinning harvester, the worms feel a similar discomfort and move toward the center axis of the contained centrifuge environment.
I have tinkered with an old dryer drum with a screened tube in the center to offer the worms an escape route.
The drum was removed from the dryer body and mounted on a pipe axle on a wooden A frame.
I used a child's mountain bicycle as a torque ratio'd drive mechanism.
I used it for a season until I realized that I wasn't actually interested in large scale worm harvesting and what harvesting I did need, inducing migration of my herd could be achieved in easier ways with my smaller scale worm farm.
Plus my stepson wanted his mountain bike back to make a trick bike out of it
Remembering what my needs were that had to be met with by worm harvesting brings up another point to consider.
The growing worm farmer concerned about large scale harvesting. Are they harvesting for bait or harvesting seed stock to establish additional composting herds.
Are they concerned with how many bait cups they can fill, how many pounds of herd biomass they can harvest to resell to other growers or are the concerned with effective composting after the worms natural winter migration and hibernation?
All of these factors must be taken into consideration as you evaluate your options and goals.
Once you have the above points in mind , then you can decide which means of initiating herd migration will work best for you.
You will have to decide if you want to build something yourself to mechanically migrate them, use environmental conditions or purchase or rent a pre-manufactured harvester.
So lets open up a discussion of the various harvesting options available to those of you making that next transition.
If we discuss and debate we may be able to reduce the gamble of expansion and growth a bit.
Time, earthworm instinct , monetary investment limitations, goals, capabilities and local competition potential profitability. Evaluate all carefully. Not doing so could open a "can of worms" too hard to overcome.
So who among our group is looking to take the step to large scale worm harvester?
Do you want to discuss possible junk pile options?