Why Treat Manure?
Manure from animals is a very wet, bulky material, containing as much as 90% water. Of the 10% that is dry matter, much of it is carbon. The manure handling system can impact the characteristics of the animal waste stream. Water-based waste management systems may have a liquid stream with greater than 98% moisture while manure scraped from open lots can contain a very high percentage of soil. As a result, the nutrient content of the manure is a very small portion of the weight/volume. Hauling nutrients to cropland in the form of manure can get very expensive compared to hauling the same amount of nitrogen or phosphorus in the form of commercial fertilizer.
