A Chemometric Comparison of Organic Manure from Different Animal Sources using a Principal Component Analysis

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the physico-chemical properties of organic manure from different animal sources, namely: farm and village cows a pig and layers chicken droppings. The application of principal component was used to differentiate between these sources. Several physico-chemical parameters including ash content, pH, conductivity, as well as some nutrients were used as variables. The results showed differences between the four animals with the chicken affording the largest variation (PC1 = 62.5%) then the pig (PC2 = 4.5%) while the two cow samples overlapped showing that both animals do not differ significantly. The major contributor to the difference between the samples was conductivity (about 90%), a property that is conferred by the dissolved ions irrespective of their identities, followed by calcium (about 35%), a vital element in layers chicken for egg shell formation, hence a major nutrient in the chicken feed. The major contributors in the second component, ascribed more by the pig, were potassium, copper, zinc and iron, while the other parameters did not confer much difference. This report therefore demonstrates that the chicken manure contains more dissolved ions than the other samples. This may not necessarily be an advantage since the basal level of soil ion content needs to be evaluated before application of any manure. However, the study has demonstrated the application of multivariate analysis in comparison of the organic manure and has differentiated the organic manure by animal source.