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Pretreatments Methods for Vermicomposting of Poultry Litter

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  067009,  2006 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.21007) @2006
Authors:   Arbab M.A. Khan, Doug W. Hamilton, Matthew L. Lemmons
Keywords:   Vermicomposting, poultry litter, microbial composting, auto heating, ammonia toxicity, Eisenia foetida

Vermicomposting is a low cost technology providing valuable end products; however limited data makes vermicomposting of pure poultry litter a challenge. High ammonia concentration and auto-heating are two of the most important reasons for not using pure poultry litter as a feed substrate for vermicomposting. This study investigated the effects of C/N ratio, feed rate, and feed type on percent biomass change of Eisenia foetida. There was a significant three-way interaction (at = 0.05); therefore the effects of one treatment were analyzed at constant levels of the other two treatments. The C/N ratio of 100 produced the highest gain in percent biomass change. The precomposted litter resulted in a greater percent biomass increase than the raw poultry litter and the horse manure for most of the treatment combinations. The feed rates did not produce a particular trend. However the feed rate of [one feed/eight weeks] doubled the decrease in percent biomass change as compared to the feed rate of [feed/week]. Based on the negative percent biomass change, [feed/week] is considered superior to [one feed/eight weeks].

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