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Recently I submitted a post about commercial fertilizer and food security (link). During 21 years in the fertilizer industry I heard many attacks on “chemical fertilizer” and I thought it would be a good idea to verbalize how essential commercial fertilizer is to preventing mass starvation in the world. Even though I pointed out that organic fertilizer could not provide enough plant nutrients to come close to feeding the global population, I definitely didn’t want to leave the impression that manure is not an essential part of food production whether you are a large farmer or a home gardener.
Manure/Compost Enhances Crop Production
Manure makes many important contributions to agriculture and has for thousands of years. It is very important that people who want to remove meat from the human diet (link) remember: when you remove animals from our diet, you also remove manure which is used for producing food.
Benefits of manure:
Manure is an excellent source of organic matter the USDA defines organic matter here(link):
Soil organic matter (SOM) is the organic component of soil, consisting of three primary parts including small (fresh) plant residues and small living soil organisms, decomposing (active) organic matter, and stable organic matter (humus).
When manure is incorporated into the soil it contributes these valuable components to the soil ecosystem. Many people think of dirt as a dead medium that plants grow in, but in fact, soil is alive with tiny organisms and bacteria that are hard at work converting dead plant tissues and minerals into available sources of nutrients for plants. For example, plants cannot utilize elemental sulfur. But there is a little microbe that converts elemental sulfur into sulfuric acid! That little guy must be some tough critter! The acid quickly converts to sulfate that plants can use. Bigger organisms like earthworms and ants help improve the soil structure so air can get to the roots of plants. Manure increases all types of biological diversity in the soil.
Manure/compost also improves soil structure by improving the soil tilth (or fluffiness). Soil with abundant organic matter is more permeable which allows air to reach the roots and rainwater to soak in without running off thereby minimizing soil erosion.
Nutrients. Even though the nutrient density of manure is low compared to commercial fertilizer, it still contains primary and secondary plant nutrients as well as micronutrients.
It also improves the water and nutrient holding capacity of the soil which helps prevent nutrients from leaching out of the root zone and reduces irrigation requirements.
Cost can be low if you are near an abundant source of manure or compost.
As you can see, the advantages of manure are many.
Waste Not, Want Not
It would be good if all the animal manure in the world was utilized to improve production of crops and gardens. If you are using manure in your garden, be sure to incorporate it in the soil to prevent it from washing into ponds, streams, or lakes where it can cause ecological problems.
Also, if you have a compost pile, you might toss a handful of nitrogen fertilizer into the pile occasionally. The microbes breaking that compost down would probably love an extra shot of nitrogen. Nitrogen can be a limiting factor to how quickly your compost is broken down and ready for use.
Avoid putting salty table scraps into your compost pile. Sodium from the table salt is not good for the soil.
Happy gardening.