What is the Difference Between Manure and Compost

The key difference between manure and compost is that manure is typically animal dung and is a byproduct of livestock farming, whereas compost is a mixture of various components and is a collection of different waste materials.

Manure and compost are important soil fertility enhancers. These materials can increase the nutrient content in the soil to enhance the growth of plants.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Manure
3. What is Compost
4. Manure vs Compost in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Manure vs Compost

What is Manure?

Manure is the organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture and mostly contains animal feces. There can be other components in manure as well, such as compost and green manure. Manure typically contributes to the fertility of the soil and the total nutrient content of the soil. It can add organic matter and nutrients to the soil. The most common nutrient manure can add to the soil is nitrogen, which is used by soil bacteria, fungi, and other organisms in the soil.

In the modern days, we use three main classes of manure in soil management. These are animal manure, compost, and green manure. Animal manure is a common type of manure containing feces. The most common forms of animal manure include farmyard manure and farm slurry. Farmyard manure also contains plant material such as straw that was used as bedding for animals. These plant materials also absorb the feces and urine of animals.

When manure is in a liquid form, we call it slurry. It is formed from livestock rearing systems that are intensive. Concrete or slats are used for this formation. Manure from different animals have different qualities and compositions. Therefore, their uses are different as well. For example, manure coming from horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, and guano from seabirds have different compositions. This is because these animals eat various things. For example, sheep manure is rich in nitrogen and potash. Pig manure has relatively low amounts of both. Since a horse typically eats grass and some weeds, their manure contains grass and weed seeds because they cannot digest seeds as cattle do.

What is Compost?

Compost can be described as the decomposed remnants of organic materials, and it is a type of manure. Generally, compost has a plant origin but can often contain animal dung and bedding material. Therefore, compost is a mixture of different ingredients useful in improving soil fertility. Typically, compost is formed from the decomposing plant and food waste, including recycling organic matter. This decomposition results in a mixture rich in plant nutrients and some beneficial organisms. These organisms include worms and fungal mycelium. Typically, compost can improve soil fertility in gardens, agricultural landscapes, horticulture, urban agriculture, etc.

The use of compost has various different benefits, including nutrient providing to crops, acting as a soil conditioner, increasing the content of the humic substance in soil, and introducing new bacterial colonies to the soil to suppress the pathogenic species in the soil.

At a simple level, composting generally requires the collection of a mix of greens coming from green waste and browns coming from brown waste. Greens come from plant parts rich in nitrogen, such as leaves, grass, and food scraps. Browns, on the other hand, come from woody materials such as stalks, paper, and wood chips.

What is the Difference Between Manure and Compost?

Manure and compost are important sources of nitrogen and other nutrients in the soil. The key difference between manure and compost is that manure is typically animal dung and is a byproduct of livestock farming, whereas compost is a mixture of various components and is a collection of different waste materials.

Summary – Manure vs Compost

Manure is the organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture and mostly contains animal feces. Compost is the decomposed remnants of organic materials, and it is a type of manure. The key difference between manure and compost is that manure is typically animal dung and is a byproduct of livestock farming, whereas compost is a mixture of various components and is a collection of different waste materials.

Reference:

1. “Compost.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Manure pools in Haikou 01” By Anna Frodesiak – Own work (CC0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Compost site germany” By Crystalclear – Own work (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia