Poultry Farming Practices Affect the Chemical Composition of Poultry Manure and Its C and N Mineralization in a Ferric Acrisol

Industrial poultry farming is a booming sector in Africa. This activity generates a significant amount of manure that could be used to improve crop yields on low-productivity soils. We wanted to characterize the variability in the chemical composition of poultry manure and its ability to release mineral nitrogen when applied to soils compared to other organic sources of nutrients such as cattle manure and human feces. We conducted a survey in 79 poultry farms to characterize their practices such as the type of poultry raised, the type of feed and the bedding litter. Poultry manure, cattle manure and human feces samples were collected and analyzed to determine their chemical composition. An incubation study was conducted with all three types of organic resources for 91 days to measure mineral nitrogen release. We found that agricultural practices explain more than 60% of the chemical composition of poultry manure. Wood chips were the most common bedding litter (77% of cases) and about 70% of farms use industrial poultry feed. Broiler manure contains more C and N than laying hens that contain more Ca. Poultry manure releases nitrogen faster than cattle manure when applied to the soil. A combination of broiler chicken manure and laying hen manure could be more beneficial to the crops.