Avon farmer harnesses the mysterious power of worms

Posted at: 10/15/2009 1:56 PM | Updated at: 10/15/2009 4:12 PM
By: Pat McGonigle | WHEC.com

Avon, N.Y. - Tom Herlihy vividly remembers the reactions he used to get when he originally sought investors for a farm that relied on the work of 8 million worms.
"They would say, 'thank you, we already have our fill of crazy'," jokes Herlihy.

Now, Herlihy is enjoying the last laugh as his Avon-based organic fertilizer company "Worm Power" has all of the customers it can handle and is about to embark on a major expansion.

"It's all the buzzwords you hear now," explains Herlihy. "It's sustainable, it's green, it's innovative and it's local."

"Worm Power" uses excess cow manure from area dairy farms and, in a multi-stage process, composts the fertilizer using red wiggler earth worms. The 8 million worms are in three long containers and it takes 40 days for the worms to consume the soil. After the worms have processed the fertilizer, the end result is what Herlihy describes as a "turbo charged" fertilizer that customers pay top dollar for.

Herlihy says his organic fertilizer can sell for as much as ten times what people might pay for regular fertilizer but he says his customers have no complaints.

"We're sold out, I'm literally back ordered into March of next year," Herlihy said.

You can buy "Worm Power" organic fertilizer at Herlihy's website. His site also has extensive information about earth worm composting, which has the scientific label "vermicomposting".

For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.

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