Trivia questions about manure
What is manure?
A: Manure is organic matter that is used as organic fertilizer in
agriculture.
Most manure consists of
animal feces; other sources
include what?
A: Compost and green manure.
Manures contribute to the fertility of soil by adding
what?
A: Organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are utilized by
bacteria, fungi and other organisms in the soil.
Higher organisms then do what?
A: Feed on the fungi and bacteria in a chain of life that comprises the soil
food web.
According to a Byzantine tradition attributed to
Cassianus Bassus pig dung was generally what?
A: Not usable as fertilizer, except for almond trees.
What is the source of the foul-smelling odor of manure?
A: Skatole.
Most animal manure consists of what?
A: Feces.
Common forms of animal manure include what?
A: Farmyard manure (FYM) or farm slurry (liquid manure).
FYM also contains plant material (often straw), which
has been used as what?
A: Bedding for animals and has absorbed the feces and urine.
Agricultural manure in liquid form, known as slurry, is
produced by what?
A: More intensive livestock rearing systems where concrete or slats are
used, instead of straw bedding.
Manure from different animals has different qualities
and requires what?
A: Different application rates when used as fertilizer.
Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys,
rabbits, and guano from seabirds and bats all have what?
A: Different properties.
For instance, sheep manure is high in what?
A: Nitrogen and potash, while pig manure is relatively low in both.
Horses mainly eat grass and a few weeds so horse manure
can contain what?
A: Grass and weed seeds, as horses do not digest seeds the way that cattle
do.
Cattle manure is a good source of what?
A: Nitrogen as well as organic carbon.
Chicken litter, coming from a bird, is very
concentrated in what?
A: Nitrogen and phosphate and is prized for both properties.
Animal manure may be adulterated or contaminated with
what?
A: Other animal products, such as wool (shoddy and other hair), feathers,
blood, and bone.
Livestock feed can be mixed with the manure due to
what?
A: Spillage.
Chickens are often fed meat and bone meal, an animal
product, which can end up what?
A: Becoming mixed with chicken litter.
What is compost?
A: The decomposed remnants of organic materials.
It is usually of plant origin, but often includes what?
A: Some animal dung or bedding.
Green manures are crops grown for the express purpose
of what?
A: Plowing them in, thus increasing fertility through the incorporation of
nutrients and organic matter into the soil.
Leguminous plants such as clover are often used for
this, as they do what?
A: They fix nitrogen using Rhizobia bacteria in specialized nodes in the
root structure.
Animal manure, such as chicken manure and cow dung, has
been used for centuries as a what?
A: A fertilizer for farming.
It can improve the soil structure (aggregation) so that
the soil does what?
A: Holds more nutrients and water, and therefore becomes more fertile.
Animal manure also encourages what?
A: Soil microbial activity which promotes the soil's trace mineral supply,
improving plant nutrition.
Odor is an obvious and major issue with what?
A: Animal manure.
Animal manure with a particularly unpleasant odor (such
as slurries from intensive pig farming) are usually what?
A: Knifed (injected) directly into the soil to reduce release of the odor.
Manure from pigs and cattle is usually what?
A: Spread on fields using a manure spreader.
Poultry droppings are harmful to plants when fresh, but
after a period of composting are what?
A: Valuable fertilizers.
