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About Us
Milky Way Farm
After
discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1858, settlers extended the
natural meadows by irrigation to provide hay, meat, and butter
for the miners in Virginia City and neighboring towns. From
1870, German, Danish, and Swiss immigrants enlarged the area
still more to supply produce to the booming area.
In the late 1890's, Craig Witt's great grandfather, Henry Godecke, migrated from Germany to the Carson Valley. He had a son named Clarence Godecke. Clarence and his wife, Esther, established Milky Way Farm in the 1920's as a working dairy. One of their daughters, Eleanor, married Herb Witt and they eventually took over the farm operation. Herb and Elinor had two sons, Jason and Craig.
Craig Witt, Owner/President
Born
and raised on a Carson Valley dairy farm, Craig Witt knows
what farming once was, what it has become, and the direction
it needs to go in order to survive.
After graduating in 1978 from the University of Nevada Reno with a Bachelor of Science Degree in General Agriculture, Craig returned home to run his family's third generation dairy farm. He quickly realized, however, that to keep the farm productive and profitable, he would have to "unlearn" university agriculture and begin studying and implementing more sustainable farming practices.
Craig's journey down the road to sustainability began in 1985. In order to convert and reduce the waste generated by the dairy's 300 cows in a way that would not be detrimental to the nearby Carson River, Craig turned to passive composting. He then progressed to turning the compost using an end-loader. Still, the composting process took two years and the dairy was producing more manure than this system could keep up with.
In
1996, Craig graduated to specialized turning equipment with
his purchase of an AeroMaster
Turner which reduced the compost cycle to an amazing
eight week period! This incredible acceleration of the process
coupled with the vast improvement in compost quality encouraged
Craig to learn all he could about the process and increase
his knowledge of soil science. Simultaneously Craig purchased
his first 500 gallon Earth Tea Brewer and implemented the application
program of compost tea agriculturally on the farm and in the
compost windrows. He began attending conferences pertaining
to sustainable agriculture and also took courses on composting
microbiology and soil agronomy while continuing his research
and analysis of the compost and compost teas that he had produced.
Craig Witt, now Owner and President, has since converted the dairy farm into a thriving, full-scale composting operation, the first of its kind permitted in the State of Nevada. Doing business under the name of Full Circle Compost, Inc., they are also the first composting site offering the recycling of organic materials from the Tahoe Basin and the Carson Valley. In addition to humified compost, Full Circle produces custom compost mineral blends, blended topsoil, fertile mulches, compost tea, and vermicompost.
Besides
his involvement with numerous local community programs, Craig
has been certified as a Composting Expert by the State of Nevada
Environmental Protection Agency, is a consultant and representative
of Midwest Bio-Systems where he conducts feasibility
studies for new compost sites and start-up for new composting
equipment, has been a featured speaker at composting schools
throughout North America, Canada, and Mexico, and is listed
on the 2006 Lake Tahoe BMP Resource Professionals list.
Most recently Full Circle Compost was awarded the 2006 EDAWN Chairmen's Business of the Year Award for demonstrating strong involvement in and commitment to our community.
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