Quantifying Losses of Plant Nutrients and Elements during Windrow Composting of Various Feedstocks

The viability of composting as a practical alternative for disposal of the large quantities of organic wastes generated by municipalities, industry and agricultural procesSing depends, to a large degree, on adequate local markets for fished compost. In m y areas, the use of composts as soil ameadments in nearby agridtural fields offqs a large potential mark&. The benefits of adding stabilized organic xnattez on water dynamics and other physical and chemical soil properties is weU established. oftas however, these bmefits do not result in sufficient improvement in crop performance to offset the costs of producing, shipping and applying composts. When composts also supply a portion or all of the soil nutrients required by crops, thek value as a soil amendment is greatly enhanced by reducing naed for industrially produced fertilizers to produce high-yielding crops.