An Overview of Compost Maturity during Solid Composting in Mixture of Dairy Manure and Crop Residues

Abstract

Moisture content and C/N ratio become a dominant factor in stabilizing compost. Well matured compost can be obtained by the temperature in compost before curing process ranged fron 65 to 70°C or more, the moisture content of a cured compost as between 45 and 50 percent for screening of bulking agent and handling without difficulty, and the C/N ratio of it as 20 or less. In order to maintain the moisture of the fresh compost around 50 percent and C/N ratio of it as less than 30 for a higher degree of curing, it was apparently necessary to control the moisture and to measure the C/N ratio for the selection of compost bulking agents.