Earthworms Converting Milk Processing Industry Sludge into Biomanure

Table 3: Initial and final nutrient content (mean ± S.E.) and percent change over initial nutrient content of different proportions of milk processing industry sludge and cattle dung with and without earthworms.

Nutrients		ME₀	MW₀	ME₂₅	MW₂₅	ME₅₀	MW₅₀	ME₇₅	MW₇₅	ME₁₀₀	MW₁₀₀
pH	Initial	7.86 ±0.26	7.79 ±0.02	7.73 ±0.12	7.66 ±0.04	7.67 ±0.08	7.67 ±0.03	7.91 ±0.06	7.99± 0.04	8.34 ±0.03	8.34 ±0.05
	Final	7.32 ±0.08*	7.61 ±0.02*	7.14 ±0.24**	7.48 ±0.02	7.19 ±0.10	7.43 ±0.03	7.40 ±0.08**	7.68 ±0.03	7.78 ±0.01	7.91 ±0.07
	% Change	-6.87	-2.31	-7.63	-2.34	-6.25	-3.12	-6.44	-3.87	-6.71	-5.15
EC (mS/cm)	Initial	3.68 ±0.04	3.67 ±0.02	3.54 ±0.12	3.56 ±0.02	3.35 ±0.03	3.32 ±0.03	3.16 ±0.01	3.22 ±0.10	3.33 ±0.03	3.14 ±0.03
	Final	2.41 ±0.04**	3.45 ±0.03	2.22 ±0.02**	3.27 ±0.07**	2.27 ±0.03**	3.14 ±0.03	2.38 ±0.01**	3.08 ±0.03	2.25 ±0.05*	3.55 ±0.04
	% Change	-34.51	-5.99	-37.28	-8.14	-32.23	-5.42	-24.68	-5.43	-32.43	-1.91
TKN%	Initial	3.13 ±0.03	3.21 ±0.05	3.29 ±0.02	3.29 ±0.02	3.44 ±0.03	3.43 ±0.03	3.66 ±0.01	3.68 ±0.01	3.79 ±0.03	3.84 ±0.02
	Final	4.57 ±0.03*	3.55 ±0.04	4.69 ±0.05**	3.61 ±0.01*	4.59 ±0.00*	3.76 ±0.02*	4.72 ±0.02**	3.96 ±0.01	4.67 ±0.02**	4.25 ±0.04
	% Change	46.00	10.42	42.52	9.72	33.43	10.49	28.96	7.60	23.21	10.80
TOC%	Initial	41.92 ±1.54	42.64 ±1.16	44.89 ±0.39	45.69 ±0.41	46.92 ±0.22	46.6 ±0.65	48.86 ±0.26	48.06 ±0.54	49.21 ±0.10	50.45 ±0.65
	Final	2.97 ±0.87*	35.84 ±0.64**	27.86 ±0.89**	39.82 ±1.18**	34.17 ±0.88**	38.79 ±0.54	39.03 ±0.17**	43.39 ±0.41	39.31 ±0.41	45.54 ±0.83*
	% Change	-33.27	-15.95	-37.93	-12.84	-27.17	-16.86	-16.86	-9.72	-20.11	-8.94
C/N ratio	Initial	13.27 ±0.59	13.27 ±0.59	16.98 ±0.55	13.89 ±0.08	28.01 ±0.06	13.58 ±0.11	36.79 ±1.84	13.04 ±0.2	42.79 ±1.10	13.14 ±0.23
	Final	10.10 ±0.29*	11.29 ±0.29*	7.23 ±0.07**	11.03 ±0.29*	11.78 ±0.18*	10.29 ±0.21	17.28 ±0.80**	10.94 ±0.06**	24.27 ±0.45*	10.79 ±0.08
	% Change	-23.88	-23.88	-57.42	-20.59	-97.94	-24.23	-53.03	-16.10	-43.28	-17.88
TAP%	Initial	2.81 ±0.07	2.74 ±0.01	2.61 ±0.05	2.66 ±0.01	2.46 ±0.05	2.46 ±0.02	2.01 ±0.04	2.09 ±0.01	1.88 ±0.05	1.89 ±0.01
	Final	3.93 ±0.02*	3.07 ±0.03*	3.91 ±0.02*	3.13 ±0.01*	3.42 ±0.03*	2.77 ±0.03**	2.85 ±0.04*	2.41 ±0.04	2.69 ±0.01**	2.22 ±0.02*
	% Change	39.85	11.84	47.12	17.64	39.02	12.37	41.79	15.31	43.08	17.46
TK%	Initial	0.51 ±0.02	0.55 ±0.01	0.61 ±0.01	0.61 ±0.01	1.68 ±0.02	1.56 ±0.04	1.80 ±0.01	1.69 ±0.03	1.96 ±0.01	1.81 ±0.01
	Final	0.22 ±0.01**	0.39 ±0.00**	0.36 ±0.01**	0.45 ±0.01**	1.12 ±0.02**	1.32 ±0.01	1.32 ±0.02**	1.50 ±0.01**	1.40 ±0.00**	1.61 ±0.01
	% Change	55.88	-28.82	-40.65	-25.41	-33.33	-15.06	-26.66	-10.95	-28.57	-10.77
TNa%	Initial	0.90 ±0.02	0.95 ±0.01	0.94 ±0.00	0.95 ±0.01	1.27 ±0.03	1.20 ±0.01	1.53 ±0.02	1.51 ±0.01	1.91 ±0.01	1.86 ±0.05
	Final	0.42 ±0.02*	0.66 ±0.01**	0.48 ±0.02**	0.74 ±0.01*	0.81 ±0.03**	0.97 ±0.02	1.05 ±0.07**	1.24 ±0.01**	1.30 ±0.03*	1.59 ±0.01
	% Change	-53.03	-30.00	-48.93	-21.99	-35.82	-19.50	-31.31	-18.62	-31.85	-14.52

Significance level by student’s paired t-test.*p≤ 0.05, **p≤ 0.01. Maximum %change is shown in bold letters and minimum in italics, with earthworm waste proportions.