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For instance, sheep manure is high in nitrogen and potash, while pig manure is relatively low in both. Horses mainly eat grass and a few weeds, so horse manure can contain grass and weed seeds, because horses do not digest seeds as cattle do. Cattle manure is a good source of nitrogen as well as organic carbon. [3]
Animal manure fertilizes the pastures and enables Polyface Farm to graze about four times as many cattle as on a conventional farm, thus also saving feed costs. [3] The small size of the pastures forces the cattle to "mob stock", or to eat all the grass. [4] Polyface raises cattle, pastured meat chickens, egg layers, pigs, turkeys, and rabbits.
Cattle reared on a primarily forage diet are termed grass-fed or pasture-raised; meat or milk may be called "grass-fed beef" or "pasture-raised dairy". [6] The term "pasture-raised" can lead to confusion with the term "free range" which describes where the animals reside, but not what they eat.
An anaerobic lagoon or manure lagoon is a man-made outdoor earthen basin filled with animal waste that undergoes anaerobic respiration as part of a system designed to manage and treat refuse created by concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Anaerobic lagoons are created from a manure slurry, which is washed out from underneath the ...
Livestock in the United States produce 230,000 pounds of manure per second, and nitrogen from these wastes is converted into ammonia and nitrates which leach into ground and surface water causing contamination of wells, rivers and streams. Mature compost of plant-based origins, used in animal-free agriculture, can reduce leaching of nitrate ...
The manure is usually stored in slurry form (slurry is a liquid mixture of urine and feces). During storage on farm, slurry emits methane and when manure is spread on fields it emits nitrous oxide and causes nitrogen pollution of land and water. Poultry manure from factory farms emits high levels of nitrous oxide and ammonia. [108]
The nutrient content in these manure sources should be adequate to meet plant requirements, making commercial fertilization unnecessary. [2] Rotational grazing systems are often associated with increased soil fertility which arises because manure is a rich source of organic matter that increases the health of soil.
Animal manure (also referred to as animal waste) can occur in a liquid, slurry, or solid form. It is utilized by distribution on fields in amounts that enrich soils without causing water pollution or unacceptably high levels of nutrient enrichment. Manure management is a component of nutrient management.