The manure can be processed into fertilizer and to do this, the manure is first collected and kept in a pit, covered for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, the dung is turned into another pit. The whole process until the cow dung is ready for use takes a total of 6 months.
Cow dung processing
The dung is usually covered during the entire process of processing in order to accumulate heat which helps in the decomposition and also prevents the loss of nutrients like Nitrogen through volatilization.
The compost can be made by mixing cow dung and goat manure. This makes the decomposition happen faster and at the end of the day, the compost produced is richer in nutrients than compost made from each of either cow manure or goat manure.
Compost as a fertilizer provides a vast number of nutrients to the crops ranging from both macro and micronutrients while inorganic fertilizers like NPK only provide the essential nutrients.
Using compost
During composting, there is a leachate liquid that comes out of the cow dung and this can be harvested and used as a foliar fertilizer.
The liquid can be collected during the turning of the cow dung. The amount of liquid fertilizer collected depends on the season and more foliar fertilizer is collected during the rainy season than in the dry season.
Using fresh cow dung is not advisable because it scotches the plants and also doesn’t readily release nutrients to the plants.
The compost from cow dug is very important, especially in establishing perennial crops like coffee where the compost is mixed with topsoil and used during planting.
