Assessing the effect of different treatments on decomposition rate of dairy manure

Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) contribute to greenhouse gas emission, but the magnitude of these emissions as a function of operation size, infrastructure, and manure management are difficult to assess. Modeling is a viable option to estimate gaseous emission and nutrient flows from CAFOs. These models use a decomposition rate constant for carbon mineralization. However, this constant is usually determined assuming a homogenous mix of manure, ignoring the effects of emerging manure treatments. The aim of this study was to measure and compare the decomposition rate constants of dairy manure in single and three-pool decomposition models, and to develop an empirical model based on chemical composition of manure for prediction of a decomposition rate constant. Decomposition rate constants of manure before and after an anaerobic digester (AD), following coarse fiber separation, and fine solids removal were determined under anaerobic conditions for single and three-pool decomposition models. The decomposition rates of treated manure effluents differed significantly from untreated manure for both single and three-pool decomposition models. In the single-pool decomposition model, AD effluent containing only suspended solids had a relatively high decomposition rate of 0.060 d−1, while liquid with coarse fiber and fine solids removed had the lowest rate of 0.013 d−1. In the three-pool decomposition model, fast and slow decomposition rate constants (0.25 d−1 and 0.016 d−1 respectively) of untreated AD influent were also significantly different from treated manure fractions. A regression model to predict the decomposition rate of treated dairy manure fitted well (R2 = 0.83) to observed data. •Manure treatments have significant impact on decomposition rate constants.•For treated manure use of manure specific decomposition rates are advised.•The use of manure specific decay rates will improve greenhouse gases prediction.•Biochemical composition is an accurate predictor of manure decay rate constants.