Making Money from Chicken Manure

The oil price boom is turning chicken manure into a form of liquid gold for a Reading-area farmer. Pat Shea still makes the bulk of his money selling eggs. But surging petroleum prices are indirectly boosting demand for the 4,200 tons of manure his 367,000 hens produce each year. With the rise in fossil fuel prices, chemical nitrogen made from natural gas has reached $675 a ton, a jump of almost 50 percent from last year. Shea sells manure for about $10 a ton. Demand has grown enough that Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers has set up a manure trader Web site to link farmers with extra manure to people who want to buy it.

You can read more on this story at The Reading Eagle.