POTENTIAL FOR PRODUCING STANDARD COMPOST FROM BEEF CATTLE AND CORN WASTES

The success of the corn agro-industry is greatly influenced by fertilizeravailability. A notable effort to support that situation is to increase compost production through the utilization and processing of beef cattle and corn wastes. Thisresearch proposed to produce compost from the utilization of beef cattle and corn wastes by following the Indonesian National Standard (SNI). The composting process was carried out by preparing several materials consisting of beef cattle manure (BCM), wet/dry stover (WS/DS), and EM4 solution. These materials were fermented anaerobically, then checked and stirred every three days.The fermentation was stopped after 40 days. This study used a Randomized Block Design (RBD) consisting of five levels of compost materials treatments, namely P0, P1, P2, P3, and P4, with three replications. The parameters observed were the characteristics of cattle and corn waste, the physical feature of the compost, and the nutrient content of the compost (yield, water content, pH, P2O5, K2O, organic C, total N, and C/N ratio). P2 treatment (BCM:WS:DS:EM4 =1:2:1:1) produced compost with the best characteristics, namely blackish brown color and crumbly with slightly sour aroma. The yield obtained was 32.95%, water content was 10.08%, pH was 5.59, P2O5was 0.50%, K2O 1.26%, organic C was 52.34%, total N was 1.34% and C/N ratio was 39.06. These characteristics are by following under the SNI cheap, practical in manufacture and application in the field, and environmentally friendly.