BACKGROUND: Vermicompost has many characteristics such as high porosity, ventilation and proper drainage, high moisture absorption and maintenance power, high uptake level for water and food stuffs, and its use in sustainable agriculture is very useful to improve soil porosity and thus more availability of nutrient elements required by plants. Manure plays an important role in ...

Phosphorus (P) loss in overland flow varies with spatial distribution of soil P, management, and hydrological pathways. The effect of flow time, flowpath length, and manure position on P loss in overland flow from two central Pennsylvania soils packed in boxes of varying length (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.75, and 4.0 m long x 15 cm wide x 5 cm deep) were examined by collecting flow samples at 5-min inter...

Methane emission is an important tool in the evaluation of manure management systems due to the potential impact it has on global climate change. Field procedures used for estimating methane emission rates require expensive equipment, are time consuming, and highly variable between farms. The purpose of this paper is to report a simple laboratory procedure for estimating methane emission from s...

Manure application increases pasture crop production and minimizes manure storage costs. Excess N not absorbed by pasture vegetation can leach past the root zone and into ground water. A yearlong study was conducted on grazing pastures at 2 dairy farms to monitor potential nitrate (NO3) movement from the surface through the soil profile toward ground water. Precipitation, irrigation, manure app...

An understanding of the contribution of manure applications to global atmospheric N2O loading is needed to evaluate agriculture's contribution to the global warming process. Two field experiments were carried out at Dufuya wetland (19°17'S; 29°21'E, 1260 m above sea level) to determine the effects of single and split manure applications on emissions of N2O from soil during the growing seasons o...

Manure is applied to cropland areas with varying surface cover to meet single‐year or multiple‐year crop nutrient requirements. The objectives of this field study were to: (1) examine runoff water quality characteristics following land application of manure to sites with and without wheat residue, (2) compare the water quality impacts of land application of manure to meet 0‐, 1‐, 2‐, 4‐, and 8‐...

An on-farm composting network operates in the Basque Country (northern Spain), in which solid manure produced in livestock farms (mostly dairy and beef cattle) is composted through windrow turning. This network aims to produce a valuable resource (compost) for the farmers whereas the volume of the solid manure was reduced at farm level The objective of the study was to assess the gaseous losses...

Cassava peel based substrate formulations as an alternative substrate were used to grow mushrooms. The effect of two compost heights, three composting periods on the mycelia growth, physical characteristics, yield, and nutritional qualities of Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq. ex Fr.) Kummer was studied. Mean mycelia growth of 16.2 cm after a period of seven (7) weeks was the best for 1.5 m compost he...

Agricultural runoff from areas receiving livestock manure can potentially contaminate surface water with antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs). The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of narrow grass hedges (NGHs) on reducing the transport of antimicrobials and ARGs in runoff after land application of swine manure slurry. Plot-scale rainfall simulatio...

Rahman, S., Chen, Y., Zhang, Q. and Lobb, D. 2005. Evaluation methods on manure exposure from liquid manure injection tools. Canadian Biosystems Engineering/Le génie des biosystèmes au Canada 47: 6.9 6.16. Laboratory and field studies were conducted to explore evaluation methods on manure exposure (refer as to manure being not covered by soil, but exposed to the air) for liquid manure injection...