The Stall Shi*fter is just one tool a stable owner can use to reduce operation cost and make life a bit more enjoyable. The Stall Shi*fter does an excellent job of separating manure from bedding so the bedding can be recycled but eventually you run out of bedding and have to buy more because you keep throwing away the wet spot. 

Keeping horses in stalls requires the use of absorbent bedding usually made of wood shavings, green saw chips from logging mills or processed pelletized bedding. The stalls must be cleaned daily and urine soaked bedding is thrown away and replenished with fresh dry bedding.  After a time the bedding breaks down and the stall is stripped of all bedding and replenished with fresh bedding.

Would you put fresh linens on your bed and throw them away when they became soiled then replace them with new fresh linens?  Of course not! You would remove them, wash and dry them and re-use them. It would be ludicrous to do otherwise.

There are thousands of equestrian facilities around the country producing millions of tons of used soiled bedding waste every year because there is not a way to wash, dry  and re-use it.

This practice is not only wasteful but harmful to the environment. Some communities require the soiled bedding and manure to be put into a covered dumpster and taken to approved landfills or composting locations. The cost associated with disposal is growing due to the rising cost of energy and comes right off of the bottom line  sometimes making the difference between profit and loss.

Disposal of  wood product bedding is a major problem because it accumulates and does not decompose quickly. When it is mixed with manure and composted it adds time to the process and it reduces available nitrogen in the finished compost

There are three main issues to be dealt with when composting horse manure:

1.      Separation of the manure from the bedding

2.      The effect of urine soaked bedding on the process

3.      Cost of waste removal and re-supply of wood based bedding material

Millions of dollars per year could be saved if these three issues could be dealt with “on site”. As a solution I propose the following 4 step process:

1.      Use bedding  that can be re-used  requiring no environmentally un-friendly disposal. Dry Stall bedding

2.      Use a Stall Shi*fter to separate manure from the bedding .

3.      Use an approved on site aerobic composting system such as O2 Compost systems or B W Organics, Inc. in vessel compost system.

4.      Sterilize the soiled Dry Stall bedding for re-use.

The 4^th step is accomplished with a hot drying process. Passing the soiled urine soaked bedding through a hot dryer kills pathogens sterilizing the bedding while drying it. The bedding is then re-cycled.

I have designed the final piece of equipment required to sterilize and dry the soiled bedding and will begin building a prototype in April. I will construct a prototype capable of handling the daily urine soaked bedding from a 10 stall barn, about 320 lb. per day.

The gasses driven off in the drying process will be passed through an organic filter to eliminate odor. The dried bedding will be put in temporary storage for cooling and re-use.

Composted horse manure is a highly desirable soil enriching product for  lawn and garden. It has proven to be quite profitable. There is already small niche industry devoted to composting.