When people imagine how mushrooms enter the journey of a delicious dinner main course, they are likely to imagine something close to people walking in the forest, harvesting fungi from rotting logs and marsh grass. They may not have thought that at the beginning, all of this is a compost material made of organic waste, mixed on the mixing line, and finally spread into the tunnel or haystack. The fact is that collectively growing mushrooms requires more work than foraging in the forest. It takes a lot of steps and time to make these hearty and unpretentious delicacies. 

Central Composting, a company based in Abbotsford, British Columbia, has partnered with its parent company, Champ's Fresh Farms Inc., to help grow mushrooms. According to Central General Manager and Facilities Supervisor Zelko Fuduric, their heavy equipment, including a pair of Doosan wheel loaders, is the backbone of their composting operations.

The main job of Central Composting is to make compost for growing shiitake mushrooms and transport it to the company's breeding sites. The process begins with employees mixing the various ingredients to start the composting mixture. But this compost is not just any random mixture. It turns out that mushrooms are very picky about what they eat, which means that Fuduric, which has been researching for about eight years, must get the right ingredients. 

"Compost is a mushroom substrate," he said. "It is wheat straw, chicken manure and gypsum powder mixed with water. This is a special formula for mushrooms. It is the only substrate on which mushrooms can grow."

All the ingredients of this magical mixture come from local and regional sources. "The chicken manure and plaster are local, and the straw and wheat straw come from Washington and Oregon," Fudurik said. Once all the materials are assembled, it's time to mix it. The central composting team added the raw materials to a large mixer and mixed everything together to create a substrate that would become fertilizer for mushroom growth. To move the ingredients used to make compost and transport finished materials, Fuduric's operators use Doosan DL420-3 and DL420-5 wheel loaders, equipped with fork buckets, which he says are absolutely important in their process.

Mushrooms thrive in damp, dark places because they can feed on rotten substances. To create this setup, Central Composting uses a tunnel farm for the fungus. Employees provide compost material as fertilizer to keep mushroom crops moist. Although this may be an ideal environment for fungi, it does make it difficult for workers and machines. The biggest challenge facing the company's 25 employees is the harsh environment in which they work and operate the wheel loaders. After the team made the compost for mushroom fertilizer, the next step was to transport the compost material to the tillage tunnel. There are 12 farms in the Fraser Valley area, and the compost is placed in special planting tunnels. There, they have enough shade and moisture to create suitable growth conditions for mushrooms. Unfortunately, this process produces a lot of ammonia, which further exacerbates the harsh environment for workers and machines. "It's like installing equipment in a salt mine," Fuduric said. “We work in an extremely harsh environment. The machine corrodes very, very fast. It’s like putting your car in a salt bath. Ammonia corrodes metals, corrodes joints, and corrodes electronic equipment.” My people must wear special displays and Masks," he continued, "that's why the biggest challenge is the actual working hall and equipment conditions. Corrosion is an important part of it, so I need equipment that won't fall apart. "He added that not only their working environment is bad, but the crew often have a long day, sometimes 10 to 12 hour shifts, six days a week. However, although workers can wear protective equipment, the machine is directly exposed to moisture, In an environment full of ammonia gas. Therefore, Fuduric and his team must constantly carry out daily equipment maintenance to ensure that their wheel loaders are ready for work. Although routine maintenance helps to keep the machine running every day, he said, apart from the basics Everything else is handled by the local Doosan Construction Equipment distributor Westerra Equipment. According to Doosan Construction Machinery Products and Distributor Marketing Manager Aaron Kleingartner in North America, "The machines in this application may accumulate more time than other industries. For customers engaged in this work, it is very important to closely monitor the machine and perform preventive maintenance in a timely manner. "He said, customers can monitor the performance of their machines through DoosanCONNECT telematics. "For example, the owner can see when the scheduled maintenance will expire." If there is a problem with the machine, the telematics system will also remind the owner that they can access the system through a smartphone or desktop computer. When a problem occurs, they can also receive an alert via email and can track the operator's machine usage. "They can see if the operator left the machine idle when it is not in use. Unnecessary machine idling wastes fuel and burns within the warranty period." Kleingartner said the operator and productivity advantages of these machines for composting applications are Many, "Wheel loader operators need to get excellent visibility from the cab when handling materials, especially if the wheel loader is working in or around buildings and other objects. Doosan wheel loader improves driving The view of the interior of the room.” He said that Doosan wheel loaders can also be equipped with a rear-view camera, and the operator can activate the camera and see the view on the LCD screen, which can improve the safety of the job site. In addition, many Doosan wheel loaders offer high-lift configurations. "This feature provides operators with additional dumping height and reach, which can increase productivity when loading materials into mixers or trucks."

After Fuduric and his team laid the foundation for mushroom growth by producing the required compost, they let the fungus do their thing. Once planted and harvested, Champs Fresh mushrooms are sent for packaging and delivery to grocery stores and restaurants. The mushrooms Fuduric and his team helped grow through composting were mainly mushrooms, criminis and white buttons. He said that through their efficient process, they can produce about 1 million pounds of mushrooms for cooking purposes every week, and they have a whole team of hardworking workers, specific knowledge and heavy equipment behind them. So next time when you have mushrooms on your fork, imagine a compost machine like Zelko Fuduric-maybe one or two wheel loaders.

Rena Sletten is a strategic communications professional and writer based in Des Moines, Iowa.

This article was originally published as the cover story "Harsh Environment, Rugged Equipment" in the November/December 2020 edition of "Recycling Products News" Volume 28, Issue 8.

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