+ Click here to expand to better understand methods of processing animal waste

Animal waste historically has been used as fertilizer. The composition, and its subsequent value of animal waste as a fertilizer, is affected by the type of animal, the types of feed stock ingested, and the animals’ overall health. Dairy cow manure has value in the enzymes that are in it. These enzymes are very good for breaking down dead plant stalk material and creating a nice bed for increasing organic matter in soils. Chicken manure is both high in nitrogen and phosphorus, two of the three primary nutrients required by plants in their growth cycle. Pig manure is more or less a nuisance that doesn’t have a great purpose. It can be used for fertilizer, but it generally is not accepted as having real value. For that reason pig producers tend to give away the manure for free…..if they can even find someone to take it. Even so we can make use of this pig waste.

The good thing is that animal excrement is viewed as organic fertilizer. The bad thing is that it smells horrible and can cause serious ecological issues. Aerosolized ammonia from the combined solids and urine can be an extreme irritant to anyone or anything close to it. In high concentrations it has been known to even kill some animals and humans. It can also leach into waterways, which can do damage to the natural ecology of aqueous species and cause issues with our drinking water.

Excrement associated with large animals, such as cows, pigs, sheep, goats, and horses tends to be moved into large pits. One modern method of dealing with this type of waste is through harvesting the methane for energy through a digester procress. This has proven to be a good method of dealing with the waste, but the equipment is extremely expensive. Most operations cannot afford it. Another process uses irradiation, which essentially heats up and dehydrates the solids into a dry material similar to peat moss. As this process is effective, the equipment is also extremely costly. On top of that it essentially wipes out most or all bioactivity in the waste solids. That gets rid of the pathogenic microbes, but it unfortunately gets rid of the beneficial microbes as well.

Birds, like chickens, turkeys, and geese, have different issues. Their solids and urine waste both come out together as one. For this reason the waste that comes out in a semi-liquid state is loaded with nitrogen rich urea. That urea quickly converts to dangerous ammonia if not stabilized. The horrible smell around poultry operations is nitrogen volatizing as ammonia gas. That ammonia gas is incredibly dangerous to both humans and the birds. Whether birds are growers or egg layers, their health and subsequent growth patterns are significantly altered by the constant inhalation of the ammonia around them in the houses and coops. Chicks have a higher death rate and the birds grow at a much reduced rate, according to studies, when in a high ammonia environment.

Companies have come up with chemical means of inhibiting the release of the ammonia. Ammonia is a strong base (caustic), which is the opposite side of the pH scale from acids. These chemical means reduce the release of the ammonia by buffering with strong acids that are sprayed onto the bedding in the poultry houses and coops. The acid offers up hydrogen atoms to hold the volatile ammonia (NH3) as NH4+, which does not volatilize as a gas. The largest issue with this process is that it uses dangerous acids. Not only are they dangerous for the poultry operation employees to handle, it is dangerous for the birds. The birds are known to get burned feet from stepping on the strong acids that have been applied to their bedding. Burned feet is not only inhumane, it stresses the birds’ to a point of inhibiting growth or egg production.

Microbes are an excellent solution for all types of animal waste. Microbes naturally break down manures as part of the natural order of things. They produce enzymes that break down the materials so the bacteria and fungi can digest it. It does this in a natural process that we often refer to as composting. The microbiological action combined with the sun heats up the “compost pile”. While this is going on beneficial bacteria and fungi go to work, breaking down fibers and drying out the liquids. In this process the nitrogen fixing bacteria are going to work holding onto nitrogen in the ammonium (NH4+) form. Nitrogen will eventually be released into the air as the entire nitrification process completes its cycle, but a minimal amount of that releases as the dangerous ammonia gas. Furthermore, once the compost gets to a certain temperature the process kills off the pathogenic microbes, leaving behind the beneficial ones. Adding microbes to the process will speed up this composting process for the manure pits. It will also help hold the nitrogen in the chicken manure by drastically reducing dangerous ammonia release. And since the microbes do no damage to the birds this proves to be a much healthier method of keeping the birds safe. And healthier birds lead to better growth cycles and more frequent and more consistent egg production. And that only leads to better health for humans that consume the birds or the eggs they produce.