One cow averagely produces 10 tons of manure per year. Any large-scale farm sooner or later faces the task of manure properly processing to improve soil fertility.
Fresh manure must not be applied to the soil. Under natural conditions, without human intervention, nature requires at least two years to neutralize pathogenic biome, ammonia liberationa and heavy metals in manure.
Fresh cattle waste is not an appropriate fertilizer. Besides the mentioned above useful substances it also contains:
- opportunistic pathogenic and pathogenic bacteria that can be dangerous to both animals and humans;
- fungal and putrefactive bacteria spores (especially in cow pats) that can infect plants;
- weed seeds which can germinate inhibiting cultivated plants growth;
- residues of chemicals used for cattle raising;
- helminth eggs (worms) that remain viable for several years;
- increased level of ammonia (especially in porcine excrement) which results in plant growth inhibiting.