Where Does Peat Come From Anyway?



The do's and don'ts of affordable golf
by James Francis Moore, USGA Green Section Construction Education Program

Peat, of course, is a commonly used organic amendment to root zone mixes. This article was originally in memo form to the USGA Green Section staff and is therefore written in an informal manner. It details a "field trip" taken to New Brunswick to learn more about peat production.

The following pages are about a trip Jim Snow (USGA Green Section National Director), Kimberly Erusha (USGA Green Section Education Director), and I took to see the Sun Gro Sunshine peat mining operation in Canada. Over the past couple of years I have had numerous contacts with Jeff Kozel (a manufacturer's representative for Sun Gro). During one of those conversations he suggested a tour of one of the plants - which is what this is all about. So read on and be sure and look at all the pretty pictures. Be patient with the loading. I did not want to decrease the quality of the pictures any more than I had to so there will be some fairly large size files coming across to your modem that just take time.





Back to the trip


With good planning and common sense, "affordable golf" can be more than a catchy phrase
Jeff arranged for the three of us to meet him and a couple of other folks from Sun Gro in Montreal. (Whine time - one of the benefits of living in Waco is that I had to leave at noon on Sunday just to be able to meet everyone in time for our 1:00 flight to Bathurst on Monday. ) Anyway, once in Montreal we joined up with Jeff, Bob Systma (National Sales Manager), and Dan Jacques (Technical Specialist). We caught our Air Canada flight to New Brunswick and the city of Bathurst. We flew over some of the most beautiful country I have seen in quite some time. This brought back a lot of old memories for me since nearly 30 years ago I was stationed at Loring AFB in the northeast corner of Maine - just across the border from northern New Brunswick.

Bathurst is a beautiful small town on the Baie des Chaleurs (sorry about the French, I asked Jim and Kim to translate since they have eight years of French between them but no luck). This is nearly on the North Atlantic.

We drove down to the coastal town of Caraquet where we checked into a small hotel. Although the management was nice enough, Kim's room smelled like smoke and Jim's and mine smelled like someone's old socks (or a dead rat - I can't tell the difference). We did not spend much time in the rooms so no big deal.

In Caraquet we joined up with another Sun Gro representative, Clarence Breau, the Regional Production Manager. Clarence is apparently the head honcho of both of the large peat production farms we would see the next day. He proved to be the most entertaining of the group and kept us all laughing most of the time. He was also a complete expert on peat and in spite of our best efforts to wear him out with questions never lost patience. Only rarely could he not answer in detail a question regarding peat or Canada in general. However, when stumped he had a stock answer - "How would I know?" which became somewhat of a catch phrase for all over us over the next day and a half.

Early Tuesday morning we set our for the first peat farm near the very small town of Maisonnett. This farm encompassed approximately 1200 acres, about 800 of which was in production. Later that day, we would visit the Lameque farm, a spread of 4500 acres, 3500 of which was being farmed.

During the tours of the two farms, we had the opportunity to see nearly every step involved in the development, harvesting, and packaging of Canadian sphagnum peat moss. I have tried to reproduce the tour for you over the following pages.

So, back to the original question - Where does peat come from anyway? In New Brunswick, it comes from bogs. In contrast to their unflattering names, bogs are extremely beautiful places. At one point during our tour, we walked onto a virgin bog estimated to be seven thousand years old. The variety of plant life (most of which flourished within a couple of inches from the surface) was amazing to say the least. There appeared to be hundreds of species within a few feet of wherever one stood. And, given the remoteness of the site, it was at least possible we were walking over an area very few others had ever trod. For me (and I believe Jim and Kim as well) it was exciting and humbling at the same time. You also understood a little better how the so-called environmentalists wanted to prevent anyone from touching these areas.



Kimberly on an undisturbed, native peat bog

Clarence (our local peat expert) helped us understand that while the surface of the bog is harvested every year (in some cases each year for decades), less than 1% of the bogs in Canada are tapped. In addition, hundreds of the local citizens depend on the industry for their livelihoods. And, when the bog has been harvested to the point that it is time to move on, the bog can be restored through a replanting with live sphagnum. We saw photographs of samples removed from a restored bog which showed remarkable success with this effort. Although it will take hundreds and perhaps thousands of years for the bog to develop enough peat to restore the bog to it's original grade (the bog is lowered a few inches each year during harvesting - sometimes by as much as ten feet), the plant life itself takes hold quickly. The pictures we saw showed a revegetated bog that had produced six inches of new peat in 25 years.

For those who would like to learn more about sphagnum and the environmental issues, contact the North American Wetlands Conservation Council (Canada). They are at:

Suite 200
1750 Courtwood Crescent
Ottawa, Ontario K2C 2B5
613-228-2601 voice
613-228-0206 fax
kcox@igs.net



Surface of the bog, notice the lichens and variety of plants

So, while we hated to see the beauty of the virgin bog destroyed, we also left feeling this was an important natural resource that was being scientifically managed in a manner that was also environmentally sound.



Clump of live sphagnum. The sphagnum is the green topped plant.

Let me try to take you step by step through the process of peat farming (as patiently described by Clarence).

The first, obvious step is to find a suitable bog. Apparently the Canadian Department of Natural Resources has done a thorough job of identifying one of Canada's most important exports - sphagnum peat moss.

Finding the bog is therefore not too difficult. Predictably, getting the appropriate permits is more challenging. Studies must be conducted to determine the environmental impact. An exploration permit must be obtained to determine if the bog is suitable for farming. This study identifies the types and characteristics of peat, the depth of the bog, the possible impact on water quality, and so on. For example, the water that is drained from the bog has a pH of 4.0 while the peat itself is about 4.5. Obviously, care must be taken regarding where the water is discharged.



Ditching machine

Once the studies are completed and permits obtained (a process that takes from 1 to 4 years or more), the initial draining process begins. Large, main drain ditches (one I saw was about 8 feet deep and 6 feet wide) are dug around the bog. Much of this is done with a back hoe. It may take a year for the bog to drain enough to allow the lateral ditches to be dug which dissect the bog in a gridiron manner. The lateral ditches are 100 feet apart.



Overburden removed, surface chopped

Another year will pass before the bog is drained well enough to support the larger machinery necessary to begin harvesting.



Milling tool, looks like a BIG Aer-way


The "spooner" harrow

The first pass over the bog is made with what Clarence called a "chopper". This device removes the top six inches or overburden of the sphagnum - the live plant material. Live sphagnum is of no use since it has obviously not decomposed. The upper six inches is also where the bulk of the roots from the other plants that inhabit the bog are located. The material removed by the chopper is used to help build the haul roads across the bog and to fill in bog ponds.

By the way, in spite of all the draining, the bog is still extremely soft. The equipment has high floatation tires that help keep it from sinking out of site. On the virgin bog, even Kimberly was sinking six to eight inches as she walked. I, of course, sank more deeply. Our guides told us (and I believed them) that parts of the virgin bog can be so soft that you could literally sink out of sight, never to be found.

Once the overburden is removed, the real harvesting can begin.

A rotary harrow (I believe Clarence also referred to this tool as a milling harrow) is then used to turn over the top 4 inches or so of the peat to help it dry.

A spoon harrow is then utilized to windrow the peat into furrows approximately six inches high. This also helps the drying process and makes the peat easier to vacuum. Yes, I said vacuum.



One of at least 15 vacuum/tractors harvesting the peat

Rube Goldberg must have first been a peat farmer. I have never seen such an unusual collection of equipment. The most impressive by far were the large vacuums used to suck up a thin layer of the peat (much less than an inch at a time).





Dumping the load



The piles are compressed by the loader

These giant vacs then deposited their loads into large piles that where pushed together with a large dozer. This is the point at which the first concerns regarding fires arise. The peat is so dry, spontaneous combustion can occur.

Immediately after the vacs cover a section of the bog, the spoon harrow returns to build new furrows. The process is repeated over and over, each time lowering the level of the bog a fraction of an inch.



A trailer full of peat on the way to the plant for cleaning and packaging

Eventually, the bog is lowered to the point that the quality of the peat is now longer acceptable. The bogs vary widely in their depth.



Just a few of the many tubes on the site


As the peat is packed into the tube, the tube unfurls and pushes the tractor forward.

The front of the tube packing machine. The peat is dumped into this hopper.

Some of the peat is stored in long, heavy plastic storage tubes. The peat can retain it's moisture (about 48%) over a period of a couple of years in these tubes as long as they are intact.

Most of the peat is loaded into trailers and hauled to the processing plant. It was obvious that after Rube got tired of inventing millers and spooners and vacuums, he moved to the plant. Conveyors were everywhere as were various types of automated and semi-automated machinery. The whole time we were in the plant I kept thinking of Orwell's Animal Farm - and the structures boys build with Legos.

Don't take these comments the wrong way. The plant appeared to me to be extremely efficient. Without question, the folks working there were hard at it and very productive. Clarence was obviously very proud of both the plant and his crews. They have virtually no turn-over and have not hired new employees since 1989. Jobs are hard to get in this rural part of New Brunswick. Only the commercial fishing industry employs more folks than the peat farms. Tourism is a distant third.



One of the plants. Notice the new metal. An explosion blew the ends of the building out.


The Big Shots with the Big Shot

This was a great trip overall and very educational. I hope these pictures give you a good idea of how the peat business works. Kimberly and Jim took plenty of slides (mine are all prints so they can be scanned into this web site as well as Power Point presentations) so give one of us a call if you would like some copies.

Here are few more factoids you can share with the folks you visit over the season.

Sun Gro markets a number of peat products. The product our industry uses the most is the Grower Green grade of sphagnum. The other products are not as suitable since they are not as finely screened. When you hear someone complaining of "sticks" in their greensmix, these are probably the roots left behind in the bog when the overburden is removed. There are no "sticks" in Grower Green. However, some of the horticultural grades will have a significant percentage of such material. Your complainer probably bought or somehow got the wrong grade of peat.

The bales come in three sizes. There are 3.8 cubic foot bales, 5.5's, and the "Big Shots" which contain about 60 cubic feet. These number represent compressed volume. The peat is packed into the bales on a 2:1 compression ratio. The "Big Shot" therefore expands to about 120 cubic feet of loose peat.

The "Big Shot" is packed in a nylon/plastic, disposable bag and would probably be the best means of ordering peat on a job that involves more than one green.

A "typical" project involving 18 greens will require approximately the following quantities of peat.

90/10 mixture - 1.5 cubic feet of compressed peat per ton of sand 85/15 mixture - 2.0 cubic feet of compressed peat per ton of sand 80/20 mixture - 2.5 cubic feet of compressed peat per ton of sand

With our "typical" project requiring about 8000 tons of rootzone mixture, about 3000 - 3600 of the 5.5 cubic foot bales will be needed.