Abstract

Composting livestock manure still remains one of the best waste-to-resource technologies practiced in the world. There is however, limited information on composting of livestock manure and wood shavings in Cameroon.  This research, carried out in South West Region of Cameroon assesses the variability of physiochemical properties: pH, pile temperature, mass, volatile solids contents (VS), total solids (TS) and total organic carbon (TOC) of livestock manure with added wood shavings during windrow composting. Different proportions of cow manure (CM), pig manure (PM), fowl manure (FM) and wood shavings (WS) were used in the research over a period of 25 days during the dry season in 2020. The mass and temperature were determined everyday while pH, VS and TOC were measured every three days. Comparing different livestock manure amended with wood shavings to its corresponding raw manure during windrow composting showed that, there was an insignificant difference in the VS and TOC and a significant mass reduction. Similarly, there was a significant difference in temperature between FM+WS and FM and an insignificant difference in temperature in both CM+WS and CM as well as in PM+WS and PM. When comparing only amended livestock manures with wood shavings during windrow composting, it was observed that, in all the amended livestock manure combinations, only temperature and pH had a significant change while mass and VS had an insignificant change. Composting of livestock manure with woods shavings should be promoted since it enhances some physiochemical properties.

Key words: Livestock manure, wood shavings, composting, physicochemical properties.