I would like to know how to pre-treat fresh cow dung to feed earthworms or to be considered as manure. As cow dung undergoes natural degradation, covering them could faster the process or leaving them to open air helps better?. I'm willing to analyse the nutrient characteristics of fresh cow dung for a period of 3-4 months (Pre-treatment) till it is considered matured. Kindly suggest any reference works or any supporting materials.
Dear Katheem: Your method is the right one, but according to the ideal earthworm environment, you have to test periodically the chemical-phisycal properties of the raw material before put the earthworms in contact with it. First of all in the pre treatment period, try to test mainly pH, temperature, % moist, etc. Surely in the first four weeks, those parameters will change dramatically. Greetings.
Thank you so much :-). I'm currently trying to characterise the changes occur during pretreatment. Is 4 weeks time is enough to feed it for worms or should I go for 3-4 months time? Any suggestion please.
Thats why you should test those parameterrs: they will determine the right moment for the worms. In other types of material (like chicken slurry) 4 or 5 weeks seems to be the right time. Good luck.
Cow dung is a starter for microbial degradation of plant litter and the latter on partial decomposition in presence of cow dung which would normally take 3 to 4 weeks, becomes an excellent food for earthworms which are introduced at the end of 3 to 4 weeks to feed on and grow. Fresh cow dung should not be used as a medium to grow earthworms as their growth and development would not be proper due to lack of adequate aeration. The objective of rearing earth worms is to produce vermicompost to be used as an organic fertilizer for crops. The earthworms need diverse plant materials particularly leaves that are succulent and soft containing adequate moisture which would be easily decomposed and later fed to the earthworms.
As some have expressed cowdung need not be used alone or sole for composting through earthworms. Cow ( even any bovine) dung or biogas slurry is used as feeder materiel between layers of green / dry farm waste (sandwitch mode). Its exclusive way through worms will not yield better and hygenic compost.There are other methods to compost dung using microbial consortia.
Dear Katheem
Look at the attached paper. I hope it can be of help.
Article Effect of method of storing cattle faeces on the physical an...
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