Compost and green manure represents another sources of manure, but many manure majorly consist of animal feces.
Compost consists of mixture of materials (like vegetable peels, leaves, among others) into a bin or pile that’s usually prepared via the decomposition of food and plant waste as well as the recycling of organic materials orchestrated by microbial activities.
Hence, it is the mixture of these organic matters that are decaying or already decayed that are used as fertilizers for the soil.
Compost helps to add to the soil’s humus composition, and it introduces useful soil microbes that help to reduce pathogens in the soil.
It provides rich nutrients to the crops, active in conditioning the soil, as well as providing a cheap means for fertilizer to gardeners and commercial farmers.
Which Materials Can Be Composted?
Commercial waste streams, agricultural and residential means, formed the major sources of materials that can be composted. These materials include;
Human Excreta
This is a compostable organic material rich in nitrogen. This is composted directly in toilets or indirectly in form of sewage sludge in a sewage treatment plant after it might have been treated.
In addition, urine can also be used as fertilizers and in the other hand be on compost piles. The advantage of urine over excreta is that it doesn’t attract different flies, hence have no pathogens in its content.
Composted material with urine has the advantage of increased temperature that defeats unwanted seeds and pathogens.
Read also: How To Compost Cow Manure
Animal Remains
A typical nitrogen rich material on here is the animal carcasses, which may be composed as a disposal option.
Organic Solid Waste
Brown waste and green waste form an important part of this compostable material. Examples of brown waste include woody materials (like sawdust, logs, straw, fallen leaves, wood ash, and so on) and dried vegetation.
Hence, Brown waste represents a carbon source, while Green waste represents a nitrogen source. Examples are; garden trimmings, food waste, grass clippings, butcher residue, animal carcasses, among others.
Animal Manure and Bedding
On here, the bedding serves as the source of carbon while animal manure serves as source of nitrogen.
Major factors like; land availability, cleaning schedules and weather conditions determine the volume of manure that can be composted on your livestock farm.
Major bedding materials like sawdust and straw when mixed with cow and horse manure produces good results for composting.
Read also: Horse Vs Cow Manure
Human Body
Also composed as a disposal option, human corpse is another material of which when mixed in aeration with wood chips can be compostable within a month.
Concisely, Compost examples include:
- Yard Waste which includes leaves, brush, and grass clippings common to urban areas.
- Agricultural By-Products and Manure generated from greenhouses, gardens, and feed lots.
- Forestry and Forest Product Residuals which includes; fiber fines residue, bio-solids (from paper making process), sawdust, and bark.
- Food Processing Residuals which includes compostable material from remains of vegetables, grains, meat, fruits etc.
- Sewage Sludge generated from the biological treatment of sewage at a wastewater treatment plant.
Composting can be costly, but will supply nutrients and humus if added to soil, coir, or peat, as well as boosting the level of organic matter and the overall fertility of the soil when tilled directly into the soil or growing medium.
