From Michael Bryan-Brown, President of Green Mountain Technologies:

“Horse manure is an excellent feedstock for composting. Horses are not ruminants and therefore do not extract as much nutrient from the grasses they eat. This leaves more energy available for the compost process. Typically horse manure is collected with bedding material which is saturated in urine which has available urea and ammonia.

The wood shavings are also an excellent bulking agent and carbon source for the compost process. The bedded horse manure has a high C:N ratio of 30:1 or higher. However, much of the N is in the form of ammonia which is readily available. The net effect is that if the horse manure balls are blended with the shavings before the ammonia dissipates, it will create an ideal compost matrix.

The Earth Flow auger shreds the horse manure and blends it with the bedding bringing the nitrogen in contact with the grass fibers. The blended material with readily generate heat, driving off moisture as vapor. The heat also sterilizes the compost with temperatures rising to 135-150F. The auger moves the compost mix steadily toward the rear of the vessel as new manure is added.

10-14 days, the Earth Flow discharges a compost product that is inoffensive to touch and devoid of any manure or ammonia smell. The lab testing shows that the compost is stable and free of pathogens according to EPA regulations. The result is a salable compost product in as little as 3 weeks!”

Our first step with you will be collection of your data to construct the analysis. We will need the cost of bedding, quantity and frequency of deliveries, cost of disposal; quantity and frequency of pick up, and of course, the number of horses you serve. The same data can be collected for food waste. How much waste, cost of disposal (frequency, volume and cost). Also to be considered is the cost of current landscape material for gardens, lawns, pastures or open space. Financial analysis of your information will show exactly what the savings each investment will provide, your return on investment over the 15 year life span of the vessel and your breakeven point. From this information, we can begin to construct the best possible system for you.

GMT is here to guide you through your operation of the system that is designed for you. While the process operates systematically, the input of the compost can be ever-changing. Analysis of the material will help you produce the best possible by products, re-use bedding and soil amendment from agricultural waste or premium compost from food waste, agricultural waste and landscape waste.

Site preparation includes leveling, gravel or paving, power and water hook up, and possible cover for the output material. GMT will walk you through this process and ensure that you maximize the transformation of your waste management.

The In-Vessel Earth Flow is self-contained, has a loading end and a discharge end and is built to handle whatever quantity of waste your barn produces. The vessels come in a variety of sizes and service the small to mid-range of equine facilities. Please also see our In-Vessel Earth Flow Equine cut sheet for equine specific Earth Flow information.

If you are serving over 40-50 horses, or run a commercial sized equine facility such as a show park or race track, you can run multiple vessels or consider on of our Aerated Static Pile system (1-10 tons of material per day) or the Turned Aerated Pile system (75-600 tons of material per day). Results are the same but very large quantities of waste can be composted at any one time.

Benefits Of Bedding Reuse For The Equine Industry   Stable waste, consisting of manure, urine and wood shavings, is a readily compostable feedstock that generates heat and can be transformed into finished homogenous compost, which can be used as bedding for horses and other livestock.

This transformation can be completed in as little as 2 weeks with in-vessel technologies (Earth Flow), 15-25 days in aerated site-built systems and 20-30 days in aerated static pile (ASP) systems. If composting is done in a biologically active, aerobic environment such as the systems mentioned above, the process destroys weed seed, parasites and harmful pathogens.

These benefits are the result of system controls such as a correct ratio of C:N, moisture, porosity of the pile, and temperature. The in-vessel composting system offers the most comprehensive control of these factors ensuring the most favorable results.

Laboratory testing has been done on results of our composting system and these results are posted below. The laboratories used were Udder Health Systems and Soiltest Farm Consultants and tested moisture content, pH, carbon and nitrogen levels, ammonium, bulk density and other elements. Consistently the GMT products produced compost that passed all the health and safety standards.

There are four tests listed here. The first is the complete Soiltest results of composted bedding re-use material. The second is a Total Fecal Coliform Test from Udder Health Systems showing the results of compost material to be well within EPA standards. The third test is from the Fort Meyer facility. The fourth test, another from Soiltest, is the result of precomposted stall waste (manure and shavings) and is an excellent contrast from the first test illustrating the results of the composting process.

If you would like more explanation of these test results please send us an email.

1. IOS Ranch Soil test

2. IOS Udder Fecal Coliform Test

3. Ft Meyer Curing Pile Mix

4. IOS Ranch Sawdust Bedding Report