Manure management is about more than just cleaning stalls daily. One 1,000-pound horse can produce up to 50 pounds of manure per day. A year’s worth of manure from one horse can equal more than 8 tons. That’s a lot!
If you’re caring for your horse at home, you might not have enough acreage to store that 8 tons of manure. (And, because horses are herd animals, you most likely have more than one horse on your property.) Plus, when you’re cleaning stalls, you’re picking out more than just excrement. You’re also scooping up wet bedding and leftover forage, causing total waste to top out around 60 to 70 pounds per horse, per day.
Fortunately, there are many ways to handle your horse’s waste. It’s just a matter of finding what works best for you, your farm, and your lifestyle.
How Other Horse Owners Make it Work
We spoke with three farm owners who have figured out how to effectively manage their horses’ manure. The common thread? Composting.
Example No. 1
Maddie Hofmeister keeps five horses on 3 ½ acres in the suburbs of Indianapolis, Indiana. She trains horses and gives riding lessons on her farm and is very aware of what to do to keep the neighbors happy while not overstressing about manure management.
“In the past, we used to use a small dumpster. We filled it every week, and it was picked up every week by trash pickup,” she says. “Until it got too expensive.”
In an effort to save money and be more eco-friendly, Hoffmeister created an area for composting the manure. “We use a ramp to get the wheelbarrow higher up the pile to keep it tight and tall and encourage the composting process to heat up, rather than letting the manure spread out into a large, thin, loose pile,” she says. “Whatever we don’t use in the gardens still has to be hauled away to the local gravel yard every couple of months or so to keep it from getting completely out of control.”
As a good neighbor, Hofmeister understands those living adjacent to her small farm won’t appreciate the flies and odor a growing muck pile can create. She removes all the manure from her barn’s four stalls as well as the five turnout paddocks several times weekly.
Example No. 2
Another horse owner with small acreage, Anne Cornett keeps two horses and one Mini on 3 of her 5 acres in Georgetown, Kentucky. She composts their manure in five bins built on the property. Each bin measures about 8 by 4 by 6 feet. She stores the manure in each bin for six to eight months.
“I add about one wheelbarrow a day from my stalls, and each bin takes about one-and-a-half months to fill, give or take,” Cornett says.
The bins are built on dirt, allowing Cornett to easily scoop them out with a small tractor without hitting anything and to ensure any excess water can drain through. Wood between the bins creates sides, so each bin is a self-contained cube. They’re built so the wood planks on the fronts slide into slots and are easily removed and reused each time. The sides and backs are screwed in place.
Once each bin is full, Cornett and her husband move the manure to a pile at the back of the property, where it sits for another six months or so. The family also adds other garden waste from around the farm to the bins/piles. “We find that it all decomposes well together,” she says.
The Cornetts then distribute the compost in three ways: They use it in the gardens, give it away to neighbors, or spread it on the pasture.
“We have only had to spread one time in the two years we’ve been here so far,” she says. “Neighbors will often pull from our aged pile in the back at the end of fall (we tend to spread then before transferring the bin contents to the back). Then we let it sit over the winter another good three to four months before planting beds in the spring.”
Example No. 3
Nicole Fradette, in Weare, New Hampshire, has more land than Cornett and Hoffmeister at 26 acres, but her strategy is the same. “We have a main manure pile at the back of our property, where we’ll use our Gator to haul each day’s cleaning and dump,” she explains.
Currently, Fradette has only three horses on the farm, but her system can be used for as few as one and as many as seven horses. Throughout the warmer months, Fradette adds to the large pile, using a tractor to turn it frequently. This encourages breakdown by adding oxygen. She then spreads the resulting product as fertilizer on the property and gives it away to friends and family members.
Preferred Types of Bedding
With her very small farm, Hofmeister says she’s cautious about what bedding she uses. “Personally, I prefer (using) pellets as they break down the fastest in the compost pile,” she says. “I am also careful about discouraging hay waste because it causes too much volume in the manure pile and does not break down as quickly.”
She says she minimizes hay waste by using slow-feed hay feeders in her stalls and dry lots. She also feeds quality hay that her horses love.
After trying a few different bedding options, the Cornett family settled on using a fine pine shaving in their stalls. “We tried the recycled cardboard bedding but found that it didn’t absorb urine in the stalls the way I needed it to. My stalls are concrete topped with rubber mats. So any urine not absorbed seeps underneath, which requires regular cleaning,” says Cornett. “I’ve also done pelleted bedding, but it was slightly more expensive (than buying shavings by the pallet with a discount) and didn’t give me any significant benefit over the shavings.”
Related Reading: What Type of Horse Stall Bedding Should You Use?
Proper Practices for Manure Management
When planning the layout of your farm, reach out to your county extension program and research local restrictions for manure storage and removal. PennState Extension recommends creating a storage pad. This can be as simple as a well-packed dirt surface with a pressure-treated wood or concrete backstop. Or, it could be as elaborate as a structure with concrete flooring and the ability to cover the manure to prevent fly infestations, odors, and seepage from rainwater. The backstop is used as a screen to hide the visual of the manure pile from neighbors. It also helps when scooping for compost or removal.
Ideally, the manure pile should be surrounded by a grassy area away from waterways to prevent wastewater from seeping into the water. Other tips for choosing a location for manure storage include:
- High ground.
- Separate from turnout locations.
- Easily accessible from the barn.
- Downwind of residences.
- Preferably out of neighbors’ visual lines.
A Shovelful of Advice
Cornett shares this bit of advice for small farm owners: “Do your research on all your options and consider the pros and cons—cost, time, space available, equipment, neighbors, etc. Don’t be afraid to experiment,” she says. “Our system continues to evolve, and I experiment with things like adding water to the bins and covering them to see what helps the contents break down. Our system isn’t for everyone, but it’s working to keep my costs low and limit the amount of spreading we have to do on our pastures on a regular basis.”
Related Reading:
Megan Arszman, a lifelong horsewoman, loves sharing her passion for horses with others, especially her daughter. Together, they enjoy riding their Quarter Horses around their Central Indiana farm and spend weekends showing Miniature Horses and dogs.
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