Green is in, and for good reason. The outlook for the planet is grim, scientists say, unless we all start taking better care of it. With environmental awareness on the rise, you've probably already taken steps to green up your lifestyle at home. Now, what about the barn?
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Keeping horses, like everything else people do, affects the environment--and the impact can be good or bad, depending on the choices you make. Here, experts and horse owners share some earth-friendly advice. Even if you board your horse at a commercial stable, you can join the effort.
Why Do This?
Going green isn't just about helping the planet. It can help you provide a healthier lifestyle for your horses and be a better steward of your land. Those were important factors for Florida dressage trainer Ellie Scofield and her husband, Ken, who run a private training operation, Galloways Farm, in Parkland.
"Like most places in South Florida, ours is small. It's important to use all the space well," Ellie says. The property has their home, a barn for seven horses on training board, grass paddocks and a ring--all on fewer than three acres. It works partly because of the green features and procedures that the Scofields have incorporated since buying the place in 1998.
Some procedures are extensions of steps people everywhere are taking at home. For example, the old adage "reduce, reuse, recycle" applies at the barn--and not just to baling twine. At Galloways, the goal is to recycle 60 percent of nonorganic waste. There are recycling bins in the barn, and signs in the feed room and aisle list recyclable items--including feed bags. (Ellie gets shavings in bulk from a local mill; if you use bagged shavings, those bags are also recyclable.)
Other steps relate more specifically to horse care. And earth-friendly horsekeeping has extra benefits in these shaky economic times, Ellie notes. "Going green has sometimes added work for us, but it saves money," she says. A prime example is the way she deals with stall wastes.
Manure Management
A horse produces seven to nine tons of manure a year, so with seven horses the Scofields must deal with about 50 to 60 tons. "Most barns here have manure picked up and taken away. We didn't want that because the hauler just takes it to the landfill, so we looked into the best way to compost it," Ellie says. Composting breaks down manure and turns it into useful fertilizer, which horse manure straight from the stall is not.
The composting is done in a bin area that accommodates three separate piles. Waste from the stalls goes onto one pile. A second pile has older material that's breaking down into compost. And the material in the oldest pile, which is usually at least six months old, has decayed into seasoned compost. Ken turns the piles regularly and runs water through the center if they start to dry out.
"We use the compost as mulch for the landscaping, and we spread it on the fields to bolster the soil," says Ellie. "It's hard to grow grass here--we're ten miles from the beach, and the soil is very sandy. We turn compost into the soil when we seed the paddocks, and wherever soil is turned up we immediately add seasoned compost." In aerial photos, she says, the green grass makes their farm stand out from surrounding properties.
Besides turning waste into valuable fertilizer, the heat generated during composting kills parasites and weed seeds, says Jenifer Nadeau, PhD, an animal science professor and Extension specialist at the University of Connecticut. She offers these tips for success:
- Large farms can pile manure in windrows--long, freestanding piles, typically 10 feet wide and 5 feet high. A three-bin system works well on smaller farms. Piles need to be at least 4 feet square and 4 feet deep to reach good composting temperatures.
- Use a soil thermometer (from a garden store) to monitor the internal temperature of the pile. Good things are happening when it reads between 110 F and 140 F.
- Turning the piles (with a pitchfork or a tractor) speeds up the process by introducing air. Turn piles weekly or when the internal temperatures fall below 110 F or above 140 F.
- If you don't want to turn, lay perforated drainage pipes horizontally under the pile. This "passively aerated" composting will take a little longer--maybe six months, compared to four--but is still faster than the two years it takes manure to break down on its own.
- Covering the piles helps keep moisture levels consistent--they should be about as damp as a wrung-out sponge.
