I confess I'm not an expert on conventional composting, which is accelerated and bacteria dominant. I do know that adding biochar will improve the process and adsorb nitrogen, among other things, to be made available over the longer term. Such compost is generally considered to be a nutrient input to soils.

The Johnson-Su reactor is a static pile device that allows the compost to mature for a year, which allows it to become fungal dominant, and the extended period fully breaks everything down. The end product is soil health improving, microbially rich inoculant, and is not considered so much as a nutrient input.

That said, our chicken litter is probably less than 10% poop and 90% hay and straw. I'd guess that ratio, especially when mixed with other biomass and composted, sufficiently dilutes the potency of the manure to make it easily usable without concern.


You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.
R. Buckminster Fuller