Nutrient content and greenhouse gas emissions of goat manure compost processed without and with decomposer

Abstract

Processing of livestock manure into compost needs to be done to increase its nutrient availability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The objective of the study was to evaluate the compost of goat manure processed without and with decomposer on nutrients content and greenhouse gas emissions. Three treatments were Control = 100% manure; C-Dec1 = 85% manure + 15% sawdust + 0,25% urea + 0,25% TSP + 0,25% Decomposer1; C-Dec2 = 85% manure + 15% sawdust + 0,25% urea + 0,25% TSP + 0,25% Decompposer2. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with 5 replications. The results showed that application of the two decomposers significantly affected fermentation temperature. The methane gas emitted from C-Dec1 and C-Dec2 compost were 341 and 340 ppm, which were less than control being 623 ppm. However, there was no difference on methane gas emissions between C-Dec1 and C-Dec2 groups. The usage of both decomposers did not significantly affect the N2O gas emissions, compost nutrients contents, and ratio C/N. From this study it can be concluded that goat manure compost processed using decomposer produced less methane gas emissions, while the nutrients content of composts produced from the three groups were similar.