Improve Manure to Make Better Fertilizer

Backgrounder

If you are a farmer then you already know that by adding fertilizer to your soil you can increase yields and improve the quality of your crops. You can buy fertilizers that are made from chemicals. But you can also use things that you have around your home or farm to make your own fertilizer. For example, you can use composted garden and kitchen waste. Or you can make fertilizer from animal manures such as chicken or cattle manure.

In fact, animal manure is commonly used as fertilizer. But fresh animal manure contains weed seeds and disease germs. Today we’re going to talk about how you can make animal manure into better fertilizer by composting it. Chinese farmers have been using this method for centuries. They make a compost heap with fresh manure, add some plants and soil, and cover the heap with mud. The heat that builds up inside the compost pile kills many weed seeds and disease germs, and produces better fertilizer.

Do you want to try making a compost heap with animal manure? Here’s how.

To begin you will need a few square metres of flat land near the place where you grow your crops.

Clear away all the sticks, stones, and rubbish lying around.

You will make your compost heap in four layers.

Make the first layer from weeds, straw, leaves – any plant materials that will rot with time. This layer should be about 20 centimetres high and flat on the top. Twenty centimetres is about the distance from your wrist to the end of your longest finger. Now, make the second layer. Spread fresh livestock or poultry manure on top of the plant materials. This second layer should be about the same height as the first – about 20 centimetres high. Next add the third layer. The third layer should be made of moist soil.

Use three times as much soil as manure or plants so that this third layer is 60 centimetres high. Sixty centimetres is the distance from your shoulder to your hand. If you don’t have moist soil, add dry soil, and then water it. But just water it enough to make it moist -not more than that.

There’s one more important thing to do to make good quality fertilizer. Cover the entire heap with a thin layer of mud. Cover the top and sides of the heap with mud all the way down to the ground. The more clay there is in the mud the better. Clay is made of very small particles which stick together. The mud cover is important for two reasons. First, it keeps heat inside the mound. And second, it keeps the nutrients in the heap from being lost to the air.

Now, leave the heap alone for ten days. You might not see anything happening on the outside. But, inside the heap, tiny creatures called microbes are busy eating and breaking down the materials into tiny pieces. All their activity creates a lot of heat. This heat kills most of the weed seeds and disease germs inside the compost heap.

After ten days, take the heap apart with a shovel and mix all the materials together thoroughly. Your fertilizer, also known as compost, is now ready. You should use it as soon as possible. Here’s why. If you leave your compost sitting in a pile on the ground, it will start to lose nutrients. Some of the nutrients will be lost to the air. Some will be washed into the soil when it rains. If you can’t use your fertilizer right away, cover the heap with banana leaves or other large leaves that will protect the pile.

Let’s do a quick review of the steps. Remember to build your compost heap in four layers — plants, animal manure, moist soil, and then a cover of mud. Leave the heap alone for ten days. Next take it apart and mix it thoroughly. Now your composted manure is ready to use.

When you want to use your compost, spread it on the soil between your crops, or put it into individual planting holes. You will discover, as Chinese farmers have for years, that composted manure makes your crops healthier and gives better yields.