Treatment of Poultry Mortalities on Poultry Farms

Abstract

The experimental trials on dead animal composting have been carried out on a poultry farm, using cereal straw and solid hen manure. Other farm wastes such as cardboard and nonmarketable eggs were also included in the last three trials. Eight trials have been conducted on a real-life scale, in the open air and at different times of year using a simple pile system. The pile was moistened with water or with liquid hen manure from a nearby manure lagoon, as necessary. The ratios straw/hen manure and (straw + hen manure)/dead poultry used in the different piles ranged between 4/1 and 5/1 for the first one and 8/1 and 2/1 for the second one. In all trials two clearly different stages were observed. A primary stage where high temperatures (53-66 °C) within the curing pile were reached and the poultry mortalities were completely degraded while straw was only partially degraded. No turnings were made in this stage. The secondary stage used a standard dynamic pile system with turnings and watering. A device was fitted in order to collect ammonia emission and it was observed that this emission is higher when both moisture and the ratio (straw + hen manure)/poultry mortalities are lower and when temperatures are higher. The end by-product has an excellent appearance and can be marketed as organic fertilizer or organo-mineral (C:N between 7.94 and 14.09).