This invention relates to improved manures and composts and processes for the production thereof. A growing number of gardeners and farmers prefer to use fertilisers derived from natural sources, such as manure from chickens, cows or other animals, or composted green waste. A typical such product is made by heating chicken manure to dry and sterilise it and then bagging it. However, I have found that this type of manure does not provide the balanced amounts of Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash required for a general purpose fertiliser. A typical analysis for dried chicken manure (i.e. dried to about 30% moisture) shows 4.0-5.0% Nitrogen, 3.0-4.0% Phosphate and 2.7-3.0% Potash, whereas the ideal for many purposes would be about 4%:4%:4%, and so there is an imbalance in Phosphate and Potash.

I have found how to produce a naturally-derived manure or compost with a more balanced composition of Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash, without introducing significant amounts of non-organic matter. For simplicity we have used the term "manure" in this Specification to embrace composts and manures generally.

Accordingly, in one aspect of this invention, I provide an improved manure comprising a mixture of an amount of non- combusted manure and an amount of combusted manure residue.

I have discovered that the imbalances in Phosphate and Potash in manure may be compensated at least partially by introducing the combusted manure residue which is relatively rich in these compounds. Although this technique may be used with various animal manures, such as cow or horse, or mixtures thereof, poultry manure is particularly preferred on account of its ready availability and combustibility. The term animal manure as used includes the litter or substrate onto which the animal droppings fall, such as woodshavings, straw, etc. The manure is preferably left for a while partially to decompose to remove or reduce the ammonia content, before it is dried and/or combusted. The above techniques may also be used with green manure comprising composted green waste. For animal-based manures, the non-combusted animal manure and combusted animal manure residue components are preferably from the same animal species.

The non-combusted component is conveniently dried either before or after mixing, by heating in an oven or the like, preferably to a temperature to destroy seeds or harmful organisms.

The mixture preferably comprises from between 5% - 50% combusted manure residue, and ideally around 33%, based on the weight of the dried manure prior to combustion, although the proportions may be altered according to the composition of the raw manure, which varies quite widely, and the required Nitrogen:Phosphate:Potash proportions of the final product. 100kg manure produces 5 to 25kg of residue or more

depending on the source and content of other combustible material, such as woodshavings or other litter material included in the manure. For convenience, I have referred to the % weights of combusted:non-combusted material on the basis of the weight of the material combusted prior to combustion. Thus a 33%:67% mixture by weight of combusted:non-combusted material means a mixture in which, say, 67kg of dried manure are mixed with the residue obtained by burning 33kg of dried manure. In practical terms this means that the composition in this aspect typically contains 1-25% by weight of residue.

I have also realised that the heat generated by the combustion of the manure may be used to heat an oven for drying the non-combusted manure. The litter or substrate content of some animal manure may assist the combustibility of the manure. Depending on the relative proportions of combusted:non-combusted manure required in the final mixture, the energy input may be supplemented as necessary by the addition of fuel oil or other highly combustible material.

Accordingly, in another aspect of this invention there is provided a process for producing a manure product, which comprises combusting an amount of manure to provide heat, using at least a portion of said heat to heat an oven, drying an amount of manure in said oven, and then mixing a combusted amount and a dried amount to provide said manure product.

The manure may be derived from animal or green waste

sources, but is preferably animal manure from a single animal species. In this case, the residue of the animal manure combusted to heat the oven may be later mixed with the animal manure previously dried in the oven. The process may be continuous, with a stream of animal manure passing through the oven to be dried, the stream then being divided to pass a component of dried manure back to be combusted to heat the oven, the combustion residue then being combined with the remainder of the stream from the oven. Alternatively, a supply of dried manure may be obtained from stock. The timing and phasing of the passage of material through the process may be adjusted as required, taking into account the required final composition.

Still further, in another aspect of this invention there is provided a manure composition made by partially combusting an amount of manure, to produce a composition consisting partly of combusted manure and partly of non- combusted manure. This could be done by passing a stream of manure, e.g. chicken manure, through a furnace and adjusting the throughput and combustion conditions so that a predetermined proportion of said manure is combusted and the remainder thereof is at least partially dried, thereby providing a mixture of combusted and non-combusted manure

Whilst the invention has been described above, it extends to any invention combination of the features set out above or in the following example.

By way of example only, a specific embodiment of the invention will now be described.

After preliminary composting, to remove or reduce the amount of ammonia compounds a stream of chicken manure having an average analysis when dried of:

Nitrogen (N) 4.0-5.0% Phosphate (P ₂ 0 ₅ ) 3.0-4.0%

Potash (K ₂ 0) 2.7-3.0%

is supplied to a drying oven where it is dried to about 30% moisture content. About a third of the dried stream is combusted to provide heat for the oven, and the combusted manure residue is mixed with the remaining two-thirds of the dried manure, to give an enriched composition of:

Nitrogen (N) 4.0-5.0% (unchanged) Phosphate (P ₂ 0 ₅ ) 4.5-6.0% Potash (K ₂ 0) 4.0-4.5%

which gives a far better balance of Nitrogen: Phosphate: Potash.