Dryland Soil Research (DLSR)

Dryland Soil Research (DLSR)

Effect of carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of chicken manure on composting process with turned-windrow pile method

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Vahid Hasanmoghaddam
Amir Hossein Khoshgoftarmanesh
Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
10.47176/dlsr.02.01.1058
Abstract
Despite benefits of using chicken manure as an organic amendment to soils deficient in organic metter, there are several conerns on direct application of the manure. The composting is a common process which help to overome the restrictions of using raw manure in agricultural soils, A better knowledge on the optimum conditions for composting is necessary to improve the efficiency of composting and achieveing a proper product. In this study, we investigated the optimum carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of raw chicken manure for composting process. For this purpose, the raw materials with three C:N ratios including 1:20, 1:25, and 1:30 were prepared by combination of chicken manure and various amounts of sawdust. The amounts of sawdust were chosen by considring the target ratio of carbon to nitrogen of the raw materials and the C and N contents of sawdust. The composting materials were sampled from different piles (75-cm depth). Results showed that the composting resulted in significant loss of nitrogn from the chicken manure; about 45% recudtion in nitrogen of compost was found in comparison with the raw chicken manure. The EC of the compost decreased at all C:N treatments over time. In contrast, an increase in pH of composting pile (increased to about 7) was observed at the final step that might be an indictor for compost maturity. In two weeks, a significant reduction in the concentration of NH4+ and micrbial activity of compost was observed while after 2 weeks, the NH4+ concentration and microbial activity remained unchanged to the end of compositng. In conclusion, a chicken manure with carbon-to-nitrogenn ratio of 30 led to the lowest loss of nitrogen in the form of NH3 and produced a compost with lower pH containing higher amounts of N and organic matter.
Keywords
Ammonium
Manure
Organic amendment
Soil Fertility
Sustainable agriculture
Subjects
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Dryland Soil Research (DLSR)
Volume 2, Issue 1
March 2025
Pages 163-170

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