Clean, green recycling on the farm, not in the landfill
From Alaska Equestrian News, March ’11:
HORSE MANURE DISPOSAL OR… ROCKET SCIENCE?
Bill Longbrake
I can remember the day several years back that a consultant called to tell me that picking up horse manure in Anchorage was going to be complicated. I replied that it was a simple problem with a simple solution: Horse owners needed to get rid of the manure, and I could bring it back to the farm with the truck I drove to Anchorage to deliver sod. Not rocket science, right? I have spent countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars working on a solution.
I also thought that it would be easy to sell our premium local hay to the horse owners in Anchorage, and that would give me another backhaul to keep freight costs to a minimum. All they wanted was consistent quality and quantity of hay, another not so easy task, I found. There isn’t an easy solution. There is a reason that ten companies are not knocking at your door competing for your horse poop!
Some numbers: Estimates put the Anchorage Hillside horse population as high as six thousand. An average horse produces about fifty pounds of manure, urine, and bedding a day. Is that right? Look at the inputs: Approximately 20-25 pounds of hay, bedding, supplements, and 12 gallons of water (96 pounds) would make input about 120 pounds a day. Fifty pounds of manure sounds reasonable to me.
The total output: 6,000 horses at 50 pounds a day would produce 300,000 pounds or 7.5 twenty ton semi truckloads a day 365 days a year. That’s a lot of poop.
Where does it go now? All of the manure produces carbon dioxide. Some manure is used by the horse owners and their neighbors for garden compost. A small amount is being hauled to the valley farms for use in agriculture. That’s good. Some is washing into neighbors’ properties and eventually into the streams. The rest is going into the landfill. It is costly to get it there and it uses up extremely valuable real estate. It creates methane gas which is expensive to deal with, and pollutes the air as well. That’s bad.
Collection: Dumpsters are a popular choice, and can work well in the summer for collection. In winter, anything with moisture sticks to the metal or plastic, and requires either warming up or scraping out. Plastic bins tend to break in extreme cold. Metal and plastic are both very expensive. Manure sticks to large trucks in winter, even with special linings. If you let the manure build up in the paddock, spring melt will likely wash the nitrates down the hill over frozen ground toward the streams. We need a way to collect and hold the manure until we can use it. Bulk bags are the only inexpensive solution I found. But horse owners are reluctant to spend the five hundred dollars or so to set up this system until they are confident that the service will be available in the future. The service provider is reluctant to spend money if no one is willing to buy in.
Processing: One proposed plan would build a composting building with a greenhouse on top. This could use the heat and carbon dioxide to warm the greenhouse and feed the plants. Not so simple. Aerobic digestion produces carbon dioxide, but if the system fails and it turns to anaerobic digestion, it produces methane. That requires that the building have special systems and the design and construction become very expensive. Special systems are needed to filter out the toxic gases that ride along with the carbon dioxide and kill the plants. Simple composting is better than the landfill, but also produces carbon dioxide and requires expensive land and buildings for the large volume of manure.
Invasive Species: Another issue revolves around invasive species of grass and other pests that may come into Alaska with outside hay. Obviously, the issue all but goes away if local hay is used
One Solution: I have explored many other options, but horse owners and valley farmers working together seems the best. Valley farmers need to produce a consistent quality and quantity of hay, and horse owners need to support the farms by buying the hay and sending their horse manure back to the farm for use there. Grass pulls carbon from the atmosphere and if that carbon is fed, pooped, and then sequestered in the farm soil, this can actually be a carbon negative process, provide needed organic matter, raise the pH and save runoff from chemical fertilizer as well. The Plagerman Farm in Delta now has irrigation, a hay dryer, and bale compressor to provide that consistent quality and quantity of hay at a competitive price. We are working to complete that system in the valley as well. Freight costs for hay and for fertilizer are high now and likely to go much higher. With high grain prices, less hay is likely to be produced in the lower 48. Valley farm land is being covered up at an increasing rate. We will need that land eventually to grow food for people. Why not help keep that land in hay production until that time. The Alaska Farmland Trust ( akfarmland.com ) is working hard to preserve our farmland, but we need support from the horse community. It is in everyone’s best interest.
Ag Economics: Many people suggest that growing hay is a waste of land that could be growing houses instead. Remember that 20 pounds of hay, bedding and supplements , not to mention other supplies, veterinarians, buildings, and tack for those 6,000 horses. Alaska horse population is estimated as high as 20,000. 20 pounds of hay a day (73,000 tons) at $400 a ton creates possible annual sales of $29.2 million.
Bedding, supplements, and manure removal from just the hillside, at $60 per horse per month could produce another $4.3 million a year. This doesn’t count the market for cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and rabbits. It doesn’t count the environmental benefits or costs.
It also does not include the multimillion dollar market for mulch, compost, trees and shrubs grown outside now. Rumor has it that an outside firm sells up to 5,000 boxes of consigned produce a week in Alaska at an average of over $40 a box. $200,000 a week makes another $10.4 million in annual sales that could stay in Alaska.
So the agricultural market in Alaska is huge. If we just call it $30 million a year, I would say closer to $60 million. And if $200,000 of labor and building materials, mostly from outside Alaska, go into the small house subdivisions that cover up farmland, this would be the equivalent of building 150 new houses not once, but every year.
Cooperation: Let’s find a solution together. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
Looking for a better way to dispose of manure? Need to save space around your stable? Concerned about water quality in your area? Consider Country Garden Farms’ unique manure bagging program.
Country Gardens’ manure exchange saves you time and money by eliminating extra handling and transport costs. Because we compost your manure, waste stays out of the landfill, provides much-needed compost to local farmers, landscapers, and gardeners, and reduces the import of outside products and invasive weeds.
In addition, when you have hay delivered with manure pick-up, you save shipping and handling costs and receive choice feed for your horses:: large and small square bales are available.
Moveable, lightweight racks made of aluminum are installed in a convenient location. A sturdy, 36” by 36” by 36” nylon bag is hung from the rack and is ready to fill. When manure bags are full, a pick up date and time are scheduled, and filled bags of manure are picked up with a forklift, stacked on a truck, and taken to Palmer to be composted. In winter when manure transport would ordinarily be difficult, even frozen bags can be transported, avoiding messy spring thawing.
Manure exchange prices
Bag pick-up available for $40 per bag. Minimum 2 bags per pick up.
Bag holder setup with bags and pallets is $250.
Contact us for a customized quote or for more information about our program and services.
Because Country Gardens is a locally-owned family business, we look forward to developing systems and equipment for the unique conditions at your home or facility in Anchorage or the Mat-Su Valley.