Conclusion
Addition of cattle manure provided easily available carbon
sources for composting microorganisms. However, the higher or
without addition of cattle manure reduced the metabolic activity
of microorganisms. Highest reduction of moisture content was
observed in trial 3, result of the higher temperature evolution in
this trial. The pH was changed from slightly acidic to neutral at
the end of composting process. Highest reduction of organic
matter was observed in trial 3 (30.9%) followed by trial 4
(27.6%), trial 2 (20.5%), trial 1(18.4%) and trial 5 (9.8%).
Highest reduction of BOD, COD, CO2 evolution rate and OUR
were also observed in trial 3 during the composting process.
Total and fecal coliform were reduced significantly, which are
pathogen indicators in the compost. This study concluded that
the addition of optimum amount of cattle manure was very
efficient for agitated pile composting of water hyacinth.