The Hectic Life of a Worm Farmer

Despite his own worm apocalypse of 2015, Aaron Smith, founder of SproutFaster, has found the proverbial worm that laid the golden castings. 

Smith harvests, packages and sells the castings of the worms he raises. Castings is the technical term for worm poop.

“It’s a little cylinder that comes out of the back of the worm,” Smith said. “They will not clump together so the benefit theyprovide in the soil is separation in the soil which creates pathways for better water flow, air flow and to help condition the soil for the plants to thrive.”

Those pellets are full of millions of micro-nutrients and micro-organisms that help plants thrive. When the pellets get wet they absorb the moisture and naturally release benefits into the soil.

Compared to synthetic fertilizer, the castings help condition the soil. The more you use it, Smith said, the richer the soil gets and the more your soil life grows.

“You’ll get quick results from a synthetic but long term the castings build soil life and are just a better alternative to keep things healthy and chemical free,” he said.

How does one get started in the worm castings business?

Smith said he was finishing up his master’s degree and had to write a business plan. Someone approached him and gave him the idea of starting a worm farm. He wrote the business plan and even had someone offer to provide funding. He declined and went to work at Christ in Youth.

“I did my stint at CIY and then left that and joined a company that my dad owns working for him,” Smith said. “A couple of years ago he said, ‘hey, let’s diversify our portfolio a little bit. Why don’t you pull out that old business plan and see if you think there’s any opportunity.”

So, Smith began doing research on the business idea. His father, Ron, agreed there was some opportunity in the idea and, along with others, decided to invest.

“We bought worms, we got going and I killed my first 5,000 worms,” Aaron said. “We lovingly now refer to it as the worm apocalypse of 2015. We went back and did more training and got the process refined, changed a couple key pieces to it and really just fell into a groove and started pumping out some beautiful product.”

With help from the small business center at Missouri Southern State University, Aaron began working on areas to market the castings.

“For a while I was like one of those monkeys with the clanging symbols just trying to get people to listen to what I had to say about worm poop,” Aaron recalls.

The business started selling at Webb City Farmer’s Market, and then moved into markets in Springfield, Bentonville and other places.

“And then people came back and started buying more because they were noticing a really stark difference in what their plants were doing. What we thought would be a few weeks at Webb City ended up becoming the rest of the year,”  he said.

This year the business has recruited sales representatives and expanded into 11 different markets in three states.

Through Aaron and his reps they are also working on selling to nurseries, local farmers and other distribution channels.

SproutFaster sells the castings in five pound containers for $10 and 30 pound bags for $50. They also sell what they call pure potting mix for $20 per bag.

“That’s our soil that we use,” he said. “Essentially it’s not your typical Missouri soil. It’s pure, beautiful soil.”

A few organic farmers in the area buy 100s of pounds of the castings and as the word spreads, people are getting excited about the product.

“They’re the ones that are helping us all by growing good food. To have our product be a part of that – there’s a lot of pride involved in that,” he said. “It’s just neat to come along with them and do something for the greater good.”

Because the castings are odorless and don’t have a shelf life, any size gardener can benefit from the product.

Smith uses a proprietary process to feed, and breed the worms and harvest the castings. Essentially, when all the variables are

controlled, including how much they eat, temperature, pH, moisture, etc., the quality is good and the product is consistent.

The harvest is done weekly. The worms are separated from the castings and egg material and placed in fresh bedding. The worms live about a year and a half and are sold for bait when their life cycle is nearing the end.

“What’s cool is that we have machinery that does it. It’s very gentle. It separates everything out very quickly. I can produce 11 pounds of castings in less than 30 seconds. Then we get them right back to work.

“As long as we keep them happy and keep them well fed they will keep producing. They are the best employees because they don’t complain, they show up for work, you don’t have to pay benefits. You just feed them well.”