We incorporate raw litter within 24 hours............that would especially be pertinent for chicken litter since as I recall it usually has more ammonium N.

The backfill ditcher should work--------we looked at doing that.  My concern was whether or not the auger would merely push the piles ahead of it, resulting in a "wad" so to speak, as compared to actually fluffing and grinding..............the fluffing is really important, otherwise there is little way to get O2 mixed thoroughly through the pile...........which is why I don't say much when the boys use the loader, since lifting and dumping does a decent job.

If that ditcher is only going to be used for composting, consider welding some "teeth" onto the auger...............we were going to try that............but then this compost turner came up for sale in Texas, so we bot that.