Our blog has been dedicated since our beginnings to sharing a great diversity of ecological alternatives for crop management, an endogenous resource of which we have talked about immensities of times is bovine manure, an element that is economical, provides important nutrients to the ecosystem and can be the main ingredient for the elaboration of organic fertilizers ideal to have a balanced soil.
One of the easy-to-make fertilizers is manure tea, it is a liquid alternative that, as its name indicates, the main raw material is bovine manure, although other raw materials are also applied such as fabaceae leaves, ash that allows a balance in carbon-nitrogen, these materials go through an aerobic fermentation process.
To guarantee an excellent fertilizer, the mixture to be used must be balanced, taking into account the carbon-nitrogen ratio of the residues, which must be in an optimal range between 20:1 to 25:1, the formula proposed by Rynk 1992 can be used to balance the sample).
Balance of the mixture to be used for the preparation of a Manure Tea
Source: Taken from Amesty, Pineda et al. (2013).
The factors involved in the process of decomposition of organic matter in agroecosystems have been discussed, these factors also have a high influence on the production of manure tea and Guerrero (1994), highlights the following: Raw material to be used, aeration and Carbon/Nitrogen ratio. Ryan and Riffo (2007), point out that by properly mixing the different residues with different carbon/nitrogen ratios, a balanced substrate can be obtained. In general, waste such as manure has a low carbon-nitrogen ratio; on the other hand, materials such as dry leaves have a high carbon-nitrogen ratio.
On the other hand, it is important to mention that the use of beef manure as an organic fertilizer has health risks as proposed by Crespo, Arteaga, Valdés and Vera (2006), but the same authors point out that these risks can be minimized by aerobic curing or fermentation, since, during maturation, a series of microbial and chemical transformations of manure occur from fresh to mature manure.
During the aerobic fermentation process, the mineralization of organic to inorganic elements that are easily assimilated by the plant occurs, for his part Jiménez (2010), states that some research has shown that a period longer than 90 days guarantees the inactivation of vegetative bacteria and parasites present in manure.
Another aspect to consider is the point made by Orozco (2014), which indicates that back-to-back sprinklers can be used for the application of manure tea, emphasizing the time that the product should be applied and the time that should elapse after its application, for example, in the case of pasture fertilization, some researchers recommend applying them the same day as the animals leave the paddock, stating that it is unlikely that the animals will stop consuming the grass or acquire any disease after 14 days have elapsed after having applied the organic fertilizer.
Dear readers, this was just a sketch of some of the aspects that should be considered in the preparation of manure tea as a fertilizer to be applied to the soil and of course provide the necessary nutrients for plants, in future publications we will describe the step by step of how to make it to obtain an ecnomic and effective product for fertilization.
Articles related to the topic addressed
Rynk R., Maarten K., George W., Mark S., Tom R., John K., Francis G., Lucien L., David K., Dennis M., Harry H., William B. 1992. On-Farm Composting Handbook. Natural Resource Agriculture, and Engineering Service. 196 pp.
Guerrero, J. (1994). Organic fertilizers technology for the ecological management of soils Lima: DANAC.
Ryan, J., and Riffo, O. (2007). Composting and its use in agriculture. Santiago, Chile: University of the Americas.
Crespo, G.; Arteaga, O.; Valdez, G. y Vera, J. (2006). Obtaining organic fertilizer and biogas from the waste of livestock facilities. Institute of Animal Science (comp.). Physiology, biomass production and silvopastoral systems in tropical pastures. Organic fertilizer and biogas (pp. 329-361). Havana: Institute of Animal Science.
Jiménez, M. (2010). Evaluation of the effect of three (03) organic foliar liquid fertilizers, enriched with microelements on the primary forage production of different promising and introduced pasture species. Riobamba, Ecuador.
Orozco, D. (2014). Determination of yield in Cynodon nlemfuensis and Brachiaria hybrid under two organic and one conventional fertilizations at the Santa Elisa Ranch, Honduras. Diploma Work (in option to the degree of Agricultural Engineer). Zamorano.
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