Nutrients farmyard manure

The three most important constituents of FYM are nitrogen, phosphate and potash. Additionally, there are the bulky organic parts derived mainly from the straw and the part of the food that has resisted digestion. Granstedt (2002) showed that the majority of the N (about 90%) in farmyard manure served to maintain the soil humus store and the long term capacity to supply nutrients. 

By housing cattle overwinter and composting the farmyard manure, the organic farmer has ready access to a balanced fertiliser that can be spread where most required. The grazing animal does not actually import fertility onto the farm but it does recycle nutrients where it grazes and provides a source of manure when housed. This is as true of sheep, pigs and poultry as of cattle. The only problem with outdoor pigs is that they tend to rip up pastures. 

APPLICATION OVER THE WHOLE AREA OR ON THE PLANTING STRIP. After ground-lev-elling work which exposes a lot of dead soil, this supplies humus and quickly brings the soil back to life. After earth-moving work it is advisable to inoculate the whole area with farmyard manure or compost (30-40 m /ha, 2-3 kg/m ) and thus ensure that the soil is brought back to life. Because of their variable composition, composts should be analysed before use and the nutrient content taken into account in the comprehensive record of fertilizer application. 

An examination of some of the results of the Haughley experiment shows comparative yields of potatoes produced on plots fertilized with 6 loads of compost in one case versus 12 loads of farmyard manure on another. Of what scientific or practical value can such data have when neither the moisture nor nutrient contents of the organic additions are given Apparently no attempt was made to make the nutrient levels the same. Presumably, the organic school considers the organic matter, per se, of far greater importance so far as yields are concerned than the nutrient content of the organic matter sources. 

In Malaysia, soil conditioner is defined as any substance that is added to the soil for the purpose of improving its physical or chemical character, enhancing soil productivity, or promoting the growth of crops -exclusive, however, of commercial fertilizers and farmyard manure. In Malaysia, soil amendment has the same definition as soil condition, except it includes the statement that a soil amendmait sipplies some nutrients. 

The sources of natural nutrients are soil, water, atmosphere and biomass and farmyard manures (FYM). 

Prior to the agricultural and industrial revolutions, the main fertilisers applied to the land were animal products which had been derived from it, such as blood and bone meal, farmyard manure and human faeces although seaweed was also applied in coastal areas. A large fraction of the trace elements removed from the soil was therefore returned and the rate of depletion was therefore relatively slow. The system of agricultural production was therefore, to a large extent, self-regenerating, in that both major and minor nutrients were returned to the land in balanced proportions. Although the problem of dispersion of non-essential elements did not exist, soil fertility was sustained by this system at a low level by modem standards. 

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