BACKGROUND: The Northern Forest Compost Collaborative (NFCC) project was conceived by several farmers located in central New York State. These farms were interested in improving the production and quality of farm composts. Cornell Waste Management Institute (CWMI) and WASTE NOT Resource Solutions (Waste Not) worked with the farms to develop a proposal that would facilitate the development and exploration of a collaborative that would share equipment, technical assistance, supplies and farmer-to-farmer knowledge with the intent of improving compost production and end-use practices.