By Steve Thomas, Nature Safe
Specialty Products Manager
What is the difference in
quality of meal based ingredients which are used in organic fertilizers –
i.e. feather meal, blood meal, meat meal, etc.? It would be simple if we could say that “all animal
proteins are the same.”
However, this is not the case.
Animal feed proteins are
regulated by the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). They
establish definitions and insure the consumer gets what the seller is
guaranteeing on the label. The label is prepared by the seller or manufacturer
and establishes what level of nutrients they will guarantee. For example: Supplier A may offer feather meal with
a guarantee of 78% protein. Supplier B may also make feather meal, but can
guarantee 85% protein. AAFCO will certify that both products meet their
guarantees and can be sold for animal feed use. Does that mean the two are the
same? Hardly! The only criteria
which has to be met under the provisions of AAFCO, is that feather meal must
not have less than 75% digestible protein. This is not a very stringent
requirement. To illustrate this, we can consider Supplier A making 78% protein
(12.48% nitrogen) which happens to be 75% digestible. This would give you 9.36
units of available nitrogen. Supplier B makes and 85% protein (13.66% nitrogen)
that is 95% digestible. This would give you 12.92% units of nitrogen available.
Both products are suitable for feed and can also be used for fertilizer.
Supplier B’s feather meal has 27% more available nitrogen.
Our feather meal stands
apart from other feather meals found in the feed industry. Griffin Industries
has patented technology, patent #6,101,736 which is exclusive to our company.
The hydrolyzing equipment and process we developed allow us to make the most
nutritious animal feed products available in the industry today. In fertilizer,
this equates to the most efficient and available ingredients in our products.
This doesn’t just hold true for feather meal. All of our meals including
blood, meat, bone, fish and poultry, are designed to deliver the most nutrition
whether they are used in animal feed or in fertilizer.
Protein meals in the feed
industry can vary not just in protein content and digestibility (availability
in fertilizer) but in other nutrients and their availability, impurities,
moisture and the sources of the raw material. Our meals all carry guarantees
for phosphorus and calcium. Not only are these vital nutrients for animals, but
they are significant to plant growth and health.
Also, all of our raw
materials come from food processing operations that are USDA /FDA inspected. If
our protein meals are not used in fertilizer, they are used in the pet food
industry which has set very strict quality control specs that have to be met.
Griffin Industries takes
pride in the fact that we can make high quality feed ingredients. Because we
are making our own ingredients, we can make the specifications that we need to
bring the most nutrient packed meal-based fertilizer on the market with no
filler. For years we have been formulating for the feed industry. We have taken
this knowledge and applied the same principles to fertilizer formulation.
This approach seems to be
working. Recent research was published by Dr. Charles Peacock from North
Carolina State University. He compared the nitrogen release rate of Nature
Safe, Milorganite and Bion. These are three representative types of organic
fertilizer. The nitrogen sources vary - Nature Safe 8-3-5 is animal protein
meal-based, Milorganite is treated sewage sludge and Bion is hog manure waste.
Final release rates, averaged
between the two separate replications done over a ten week period over two years,
were approximately 80% for Nature Safe, 50% for Milorganite and
30% for Bion. Nature Safe was the most consistent over the two years with only
an 8% difference in release rates. Milorganite had the most variability between
years of 22%. In fact, the overall conclusion in this study was that Nature
Safe released the way turfgrass managers need a product to release -
consistently in both timing and magnitude.
Griffin Industries has
quality control measures in place to insure consistency and availability of
nutrients. This research further demonstrates the importance of such quality
control. With more competitors in the marketplace riding the Nature Safe wave,
it’s important that products have the research and customer validation to
support their claims. All organic fertilizers are not the same and even more
importantly, all ingredients within an organic fertilizer are not the same.