Composting is an effective method for utilizing agricultural straw waste and livestock manure resources. Using deer manure and corn straw as raw materials, the changes in various indexes were studied during composting under different initial C/N ratios, initial moisture contents, and particle sizes of corn straw, and compost maturity was evaluated. Moisture content, total organic carbon content, and C/N ratio all declined during composting, while total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total potassium, pH, germination index, and electrical conductivity increased. The grey relational analysis method was used to evaluate maturity. The results showed that a mixture of stalk and deer manure with initial moisture content of 55%, initial C/N ratio of 30:1, and a straw particle size of 1.5-3.5 cm constituted the optimal experimental conditions. Taguchi analysis indicated that initial moisture content exerted the greatest influence on compost maturity, followed by initial C/N ratio and crushed straw particle size. This study provides an important reference for the utilization of compost derived from a mixture of livestock manure and straw.
Keywords: C/N ratio; Germination index; Grey relational; Maturity; Toxicity.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.