Gin Trash: Is It Really Trash?

By SHANNON HOLMAN

Somehow, American agriculture continues to solve tough problems and turn proverbial lemons into lemonade. That is definitely the story with gin trash, as many innovative ginners are attempting to convert a waste by-product into a potentially valuable commodity.

A decade ago, burning gin trash was the easiest way to dispose of it. However, because of environmental issues, most states have made burning illegal.

“There was a push to stop burning gin trash to improve air quality,” says Don Boquet, an agronomist at Louisiana State University’s Agricultural Center. “However, it was also a good product that was being wasted.”

According to Boquet, the particulate matter that comes off of the gin trash as it burns is so heavy that it causes a great deal of smoke which leads to air quality problems. To further complicate the situation for gins, when gin trash composts naturally, it contains such a rich material that it breaks down very fast and natural combustion often starts a fire.

Thus, “to abide by best management practices, gins had to build levies around the gin trash so that if it caught on fire they could water it and stop it from burning,” explains Boquet.

As a solution, many gins are attempting to compost their gin trash in order to produce a material that they can bag and sell to nurseries and home gardeners. Another idea is to apply the raw gin trash or compost back onto farmland.

Composting Gin Trash
According to Boquet, once it is composted, gin trash becomes a rich, humus material, and the high nitrogen level in the trash (approximately three percent) allows it to compost readily.

Gins can either compost the trash with a wet method or a dry method, according to Jack Miller, manager of Pettus Gin in Lonoke, Ark., who says he uses a dry method of composting.

“We put up a collector at the bottom of the gin, then transport it to a small field where we spread it out,” he says. “It is naturally composted in the field in about a year.”

Miller adds that fires do start occasionally with this method, and an available source of water is necessary to put them out.

On the other hand, some gins prefer to use a wet method of composting to reduce the volume of trash and eliminate the possibility of fires.

Joe James, a cotton producer and owner of the Texas Road Gin in Waterproof, La., prefers the Lipsey gin trash system that currently is being used in his gin.

He says the process involves putting the gin trash into a cyclone which drops it into an auger containing water jets that mix anywhere from five to eight gallons of water per bale. It is then dropped into a pile to compost down.

“One of the advantages of this system is that it eliminates a large volume of trash because the water packs it into a smaller area,” says James.

In addition, Boquet states that when you have 50 percent to 60 percent moisture content, the gin trash will compost significantly faster.

“If the trash is turned a few times and kept wet, it makes a better quality compost,” he says.

“And composting destroys many weed seeds and disease organisms that might be present because it heats up to such high temperatures.”

Benefits of Gin Trash
Apparently, not only compost, but raw gin trash also can be beneficial to producers. In field trials conducted for three years, Boquet spread gin trash in the fall on no-till cotton fields at a rate of four tons and eight tons per acre. By the spring the trash was hardly noticeable and they planted right through it.

“We saw good yield increases with it, compared to just applying nitrogen fertilizer,” says Boquet. “We did not see any disease problems and had yield increases of approximately 20 percent for the first two years and had a somewhat smaller yield increase the third year.”

He says there has been some concern about weed seeds in the gin trash when it is not composted. Although this could be a problem, Boquet says most of them will germinate quickly and freeze over the winter. Furthermore, the herbicides available today are much better, and even if some weed seed remains in the field, they probably won’t be much of a problem.

“I have not found any problems with applying raw gin trash to cotton fields and then planting into it,” he says. “The only problem is that there is not enough of it to go around.”

Some producers already are adding composted gin trash to their fields. James says he has applied it to his cotton fields and hay fields.

“In the pastures, it seems to make the grass greener and healthier, and you can definitely tell a difference in the fields where you have it,” says James.

He uses spreaders to put anywhere from a ton to a ton and a half back on the cotton ground in the fall after he cuts his stalks.

Bagging and selling gin trash for compost is another way some gins are trying to profit from it.

“We have four different blends we make out of gin trash, including compost, landscape, potting soil and humus,” says Jack Morgan, manager of the Tensas Cooper-ative Gin in St. Joseph, La. “We put a great deal of work into it, and although I don’t yet know how profitable it is, we are at least making ends meet.”

Certainly it seems that gin trash is not trash at all, but an undiscovered commodity that has potential value.

Shannon Holman is a freelance writer based in Lonoke, Ark. She can be contacted at 501-676-3254 or by e-mail at shannonh@ipa.net.