The CDPQ is a non-profit organisation that directs research, innovation and knowledge-sharing for the Quebec pork industry. Its new training centre and farm in Armagh needed a biosecure way to manage mortalities.

Composting removes the renderer’s visits, a potential source of pathogens from other farms, and the need to keep carcasses in refrigerators between pick-ups. With no tractor on site and the composter indoors, employees also needed a safe way to load carcasses: a sow can weigh up to 215 kg.

The system was planned with the new building, in a heated room that also stores the wood shavings used as bulking agent. It includes a BROME 516 rotary drum composter (56 in × 16 ft), a fixed trommel screen at the exit and a fume hood that evacuates water vapour.

Brome Compost and the CDPQ designed a hog tipper that lifts each carcass and tips it into the composter through the sliding door. Compost leaves the drum into aerated bulk bags for curing, then goes to a neighbouring farm to be spread.

The CDPQ was the first BROME site with a smart control panel: it reads composting temperatures in the drum, warns of mechanical errors, and lets the team change the rotation frequency and the aeration blower intensity remotely.