Perdue to Process Fertilizer Pellets from Poultry Dung

Perdue Farms Inc. said on Feb. 24 that it is planning to build a plant on the Delmarva peninsula (between Chesapeake and Delaware bays) to convert poultry manure into fertilizer pellets. Perdue's partner is AgriRecycle Inc. of Springfield, MO.

The product would be transported to the Midwest, helping eastern farmers under pressure to find uses for manure other than spreading it on fields in Delaware and the eastern shores of Maryland and Virginia. The fertilizer could be easily and safely transported to other parts of the country.

Maryland in 1998 started sanctions requiring farmers to reduce the amount of phosphorous and nitrogen they put on fields.

The pellets would be used in conjunction with other fertilizers but would include organic matter beneficial to soils elsewhere in the nation, according to Associated Press report of the plan.

Jim Perdue, the company's chairman, said the plan will cost .$5 million to $6 million a year.

A site for the facility has not been selected. However, Perdue said it should be operating by the end of 1999. Eventually, he said, it could process as much as 120,000 tons of raw poultry litter each year, producing about 95,000 tons of pelletized product.