IMPACT OF DRYING METHOD ON BROILER LITTER ANALYSES

Drying broiler litter prior to chemical analyses may alter its chemical composition and result in excessive or inadequate nutrient applications to crops if such analyses are used for recommendation purposes. A study was conducted to determine the effect of drying method and temperature on broiler litter N, P, K, Cu, Fe, and Zn contents. Treatments consisted of no drying (ND), air drying (AD), oven drying at 40-degrees-C (OD40), oven drying at 60-degrees-C (OD60), microwave drying at 40-degrees-C (MW40), microwave drying at 60-degrees-C (MW60), and freeze drying at -40-degrees-C (FD). All drying treatments lost N when compared to ND, and greatest losses were observed with the FD, OD60 and AD treatments; losses were 15, 12 and 12% of the ND total N, respectively. Changes in broiler litter P, K, Cu, Fe and Zn due to drying were small and were inconsequential with respect to agronomic and environmental considerations. It appeared that maintaining broiler litter in a moist, refrigerated state before chemical analyses was more desirable than drying. However, our results show that from a practical standpoint, the MW40 treatment may be a desirable alternative.