It all began with me wondering how much horse manure I shovel each day. So armed with a fish scale (a scale with a handle and a hook used for weighing fish), I filled a few buckets with manure tonight, subtracted the weight of the bucket and discovered that I shovel around 30 pounds of horse manure daily for my 1,000 pound horse, Moonshine. Tomorrow I’ll measure our 1,200 pound horse, Valentine. So just for fun, here are some other measurements to help put things into perspective. Remember, this is for my horse Moonshine only:
Output (manure only)
30 lbs. daily
900 lbs. monthly (almost half a ton)
10,950 lbs. annually (almost 5.5 tons)
*note: this is manure that’s about half a day old. As it dries, I’d guess the weight drops dramatically. Also note this only covers manure inside her stall, where she spends 8-10 hours a day.
Input (food and water)
80 lbs. water daily (10 gallons) or 29,200 lbs. annually (3,650 gallons/14.6 tons)
10 lbs. hay daily or 3,650 lbs. annually (almost 2 tons)
1.5 lbs. oats daily or 548 lbs. annually
*note: hay figure does not include hay fed in pasture. Grazing on grass not included. Does include water consumed in pasture.
Wow, so I’m shoveling about 5.5 tons a year in manure. Horse chores provide good exercise! As my biceps grow I’m looking forward to answering the question “wow, what’s your secret?” with “horse manure!”.
Bill,
I’ve shoveled horse manure for a good 20 years. Have biceps that my 9-year-old boy is impressed by!
This is why we bought a tractor this year.
Kimberly
haha, it’s not just us then! Kimberly, I SO want a tractor but I’m not even sure Santa can swing that this year. But I definitely see the need for a small one even on a small “farm” like ours. I have some posts about that very subject coming up soon. What tractor did you end up buying?
20 years – wow. Who needs a gym, huh?
Gosh, thanks for bringing all this into perspective. With my Boys at a full-board barn I’m missing all the fun stuff. On the other hand – maybe not ……
I do enjoy reading your blog and check it often.
You are SO missing out. There’s nothing I like better than heading out to the barn at 10:37 p.m. when it’s 43 degrees out and all I want to do is watch Jericho and go to bed…say, where do you board your horses?
Just kidding. I wouldn’t say I LOVE doing it, but it has a certain therapeutic value and yes, it does work those biceps!
Now off I go at 10:39 p.m., it’s 43 degrees out and we recorded Jericho earlier…