At Wolfe’s Neck Center, composting is more than a waste-management solution. It’s a critical link between our dairy operation, gardens, educational programs and our stewardship of the land and surrounding marine ecosystems. Thanks to our Farm Operations team, composting on campus has evolved into a carefully managed, educationally rich and environmentally responsible system.
Composting as a Learning Tool
For many visitors, their first encounter with composting happens in the Education Garden. Designed as a hands-on learning environment, the garden features a three-bay composting system that allows visitors to see, touch and move materials as they learn how food scraps and organic matter are transformed into a product that improves soil health and helps plants grow. School groups and families are encouraged to bury scraps, observe decomposition and understand the value of composting as part of a “closed-loop” food system where agricultural waste is recycled and nothing gets trucked out or in.
Composting for the Whole Farm
Wolfe’s Neck Center also operates a DEP-approved composting site that allows us to compost at a larger scale. With careful monitoring, our compost piles reach temperatures of 160+ degrees, which eliminate harmful bacteria and weeds. The finished compost is safe to use throughout the growing season, unlike with raw manure, where crops must be harvested a certain amount of time after application for food safety reasons.
Wolfe’s Neck Center compost begins with the dairy herd. During winter, sawdust bedding mixes with manure in the dairy barn. Together, they supply the crucial ingredients of compost: carbon from sawdust and nitrogen and phosphorus from manure. Excess material from the barn is combined with fruit and vegetable waste from gardens and greenhouses, transforming waste into stable, biologically rich compost that supports soil health across campus.
Environmental Benefits and Soil Health
Composting is efficient, turning 100 cubic yards of raw material into about 60 cubic yards of finished compost. This reduction means fewer truckloads, less fuel use and lower labor costs. Just as importantly, finished compost is dry and more stable than raw manure, lowering the risk of nutrient runoff into nearby wetlands and coastal waters.
How do we use compost? Guided by annual soil testing, compost is applied every few years to improve soil structure in our fields, which is especially important with our heavy marine clay soils at Wolfe’s Neck Center. A thin layer of finished compost creates a clean, weed-free growing surface that helps crops establish more easily and grow more consistently.
From visitor education to agricultural production, composting at Wolfe’s Neck Center exemplifies a closed-loop system in action. It reduces waste, protects natural resources and builds healthier soils for generations to come.
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