Melbourne, Fla.-based TyraTech [1] (AIM: TYR [2]), which develops natural pesticides, has taken on another pest in the world of agriculture, cattle waste.

The company designed an on-site system for dairy farmers which can separate the liquid from the solids in cattle waste, then compost the solids, producing an odorless, pathogen-free soil material, which can be used as an alternative to peat moss.

Dairy farms typically use anaerobic lagoons to treat animal waste, which is flushed into the lagoon where the manure is allowed to decompose, producing methane and carbon dioxide. The solids are eventually dredged out and taken away to be processed.

TyraTech said the system is expensive, and it's certainly not odorless.

One TyraTech system, the bulk of which consists of a 45-foot long composting tank, can handle waste from 1,500 head of cattle, which produce about 60 cubic yards of waste a day.

Douglas Armstrong, CEO of TyraTech, said he was on a farm the other day watching the process at work, with the waste going in one end "and then looking at the end of the system and out the other end is spewing this nice dirt, this nice soil that you can go down and pick up with your hand, and it's odorless and moisture free, and is ready to go."

Armstrong said farmers can use the leftover liquid, which can be easily spread on farm fields as fertilizer, as well as the soil, which can be used as bedding for the cattle.

An added benefit for farmers is that they may be able to increase the number of cattle they can handle without tripping over environmental regulations. The TyraTech system lowers the farm's on-site waste content, allowing for larger and more sustainable herds to be managed within those restrictions.

TyraTech released its first pesticide last month, TyraTech Crawling Insect Spray, based on technology that uses a mix of natural oils that target sensitive receptors found on invertebrates (see Don't let the bedbugs bite [3]).

The company created a new Sustainable Solutions division to work on the cattle waste product, which doesn't use any new technology but ends up having a nice overlap with its pesticides.

TyraTech plans to buy back the soil material from the farmers and use it as a vehicle to deliver its natural pesticides to the horticulture markets, turning the farms into factories for TyraTech.

"If the farms lease these systems, they basically become cash flow positive day one," said Armstrong.

The company's Nature's Natural soil products are expected to be released in 2008.

The waste processing system is already being used by Irish Acres Farms for its 1,500 head dairy herds in Indiana and Ohio. The company is saving $230,000 annually on cattle bedding alone, according to TyraTech.

When the cattle are taken in for milking, the farm hands wash down the stable, flushing and shoveling all of the manure and bedding material that are soiled down into a trough, which is channeled into a holding tank.

Take a look at a diagram of the system here >> [4]

The sludge-like material is then pumped into Tyratech's T-1500 machine, where a centrifuge separates all the liquids from the solids. The liquids get pumped out to a lagoon, but without the smelly, methane producing solids.

Those solids then go into a press, to get out any remaining liquids. From the holding tank, the process so far takes less than an hour.

Next, the solids move into the composter, and over the next 24 hours goes through the complete composting process where all the pathogens are killed.

"It was really, like a lot of patents are, just some good thinking went into this on how to link up a solution for each phase of the problem, and then getting that in a cost effective, economical system that could also just handle this type of waste, and the volumes and weight of the material," said Armstrong.

The move into soil puts TyraTech up against companies like Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE: SMG [5]), the world's largest maker of horticultural and turf products.

Armstrong said that within two to three years, farms using the TyraTech system could produce enough soil product to replace the world's requirement for peat moss. The total U.S. market in 2006 was a little over 21 million cubic yards.

"Might even be able to provide this at a price that's much cheaper than peat moss, but gives you all the qualities. In fact it's better than peat moss," he said. "The growing capability, with the nitrogen, phosphate, potassium content, is much better."