Since you own horses, you probably already know how much manure they produce every day. Composting is a common way to get rid of it, but some people may be wondering if you can burn horse manure instead.
The short answer is yes, it’s possible to burn horse manure under the right conditions. However, there are important factors to consider before putting manure in your burn pile. Let’s take an in-depth look at the pros and cons of using horse manure as a fuel source.
Why Burn Horse Manure?
For farms generating tons of manure, burning can seem like an easy disposal method. Some potential benefits include:
Reducing large piles quickly. Manure takes up a lot of space when stockpiled. Burning eliminates bulk fast.
Avoiding labor for composting/spreading. Burning removes the work needed for these processes.
Utilizing manure as a heat source. When thoroughly dry, manure can produce energy when burned.
However, significant drawbacks may outweigh these marginal advantages. Burning should not be the first choice for waste management.
Challenges of Burning Manure
Research shows fresh manure is unsuitable for burning. Key reasons include:
High moisture content. Fresh manure can be up to 80% water, slowing combustion.
Low heat value. The high moisture results in very low caloric content for useful heat.
Slow burning. Wet manure doesn’t burn properly and takes a long time to completely go up in flames.
Offensive odors. Smoldering and incomplete burning creates strong ammonia and other foul odors.
Excess ash. More residue remains after burning than with wood fuels.
Best Practices for Burning Manure
Given the drawbacks, burning manure requires careful preparation for worthwhile results:
Allow manure to dry thoroughly first. Manure straight from the stable won’t burn efficiently.
Blend manure with wood shavings/sawdust for better burning. This improves airflow and adds carbon.
Mix in coal or wood chips to support combustion. The extra biomass makes manure burn hotter and faster.
Create small, loose piles for better air circulation while drying. Dense piles resist drying.
Monitor moisture levels and only burn completely dried portions. Use a moisture meter if needed.
Avoid burning in wet/humid weather which re-wets manure.
Site burn piles strategically to direct smoke away from neighbors.
Even with excellent drying techniques, manure still poses risks like pollution and lingering odors. As such, burning should not be the primary manure management system.
Is Burning Manure Legal?
Check local and state laws before setting large amounts of manure on fire. Many areas prohibit or restrict burning manure and agricultural wastes.
Potential legal concerns include:
Air quality violations from smoke, ash, and odors.
Health hazards from nitrogen oxide emissions or uncontrolled fires.
Nuisance regulations against offensive smells or smoke.
Waste codes preferring composting over incineration.
Fines for illegal burning can be substantial. In some cases, the relevant environmental or agricultural department may provide permits for limited manure burning, but the red tape is extensive.
Alternatives to Burning Manure
When burning horse manure is impractical or prohibited, focus on these eco-friendly solutions instead:
Compost in designated bins to create a valuable soil amendment.
Spread manure to fertilize fields, being careful not to over-apply.
Offer manure to gardeners for offsite composting.
Connect with farmers who may take manure for crops.
Sell manure to nurseries, landscapers, and compost companies.
Investigate manure power generation systems to convert waste to electricity.
The challenges often outweigh the benefits when contemplating burning horse manure. While possible under the right dry conditions, it generally offers minimal usefulness. Instead, reuse and recycling methods make better use of manure’s potential as a resource. With some initiative and planning, you can manage manure sustainably, legally, and economically smart for your horse farm.
Key Takeaways:
Horse manure can be burned once thoroughly dried, but comes with drawbacks like pollution.
Allowing manure to dry, blending with sawdust, and monitoring moisture helps combustion.
Local laws may prohibit or restrict burning manure and agricultural waste.
Better options exist for eco-friendly manure management, like composting.
With the right system, horse manure can be a useful farm resource instead of a waste product.
The most effective and environmentally friendly way to get rid of horse manure is through composting. Composting reduces the volume of waste, transforms it into a useful soil amendment, and can be used on-site or sold.
Is burning manure toxic?
THE PRIMARY HAZARDS OF THESE GASES ARE:
Toxic or poisonous reactions in people or animals, oxygen depletion which can result in asphyxiation and explosions that can occur when oxygen mixes with the gases such as methane.
Does burning horse manure smell?
“When the wind is blowing in the right direction, I can lay in bed at night and smell the smell of burning horse manure,” Southern said. Barbara Ballard lives just a few miles down the road from the manure pile.
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Whether they’re oil or biofuels, our sources of power often come from the ground. In this experiment, you’ll test out more goodies from the ground. Is horse manure a good way to get energy? If so, how does burning horse manure compare to burning wood from woody and leafy trees?
To find out, we’re going to use calorimetry. Sound complicated? Calorimetry is really just one way of figuring out how much energy is in an object. You may know the word “calorie” to mean the kilocalorie, which is the unit we use to measure energy in food. But calories can show how much energy is in a lot of different things! We’ll use a calorimeter to find out how many calories something has by measuring how much heat it gives off when it’s lit on fire.
Is horse manure a possible energy source?
Dry horse manure
Wood from a coniferous (evergreen) tree
Birch, beech, maple, cherry, or alder wood that has lost its leaves
Kitchen scale that measures in grams
Safety goggles
Matches
Thermometer
Can opener
Distilled water
Graduated cylinder
Large tin can
Small tin can
1’ of dowel
Cork
Metal wire
Hammer
Nail
Put your safety goggles on.
Get your big can and use a can opener to take the top and bottom off of it.
Put the nail on the side of the coffee can’s bottom, and then use the hammer to make holes all the way around the base. When your samples burn, this will let air into the calorimeter.
Make a hole in the top of the smaller can on two different sides with the hammer and nails. The dowel should be able to fit through these holes. Put the dowel through and make sure the small can fits easily inside the bigger one. The dowel should hang off the edges of the bigger can. Make sure theres lots of space below the smaller can.
Weigh three pieces of each kind of wood and three pieces of dried manure. Record their weights, and set the samples aside.
Place a short length of strong metal wire into the cork’s narrow area. Stand the cork upright with the wire pointing upwards. Make sure the wire is thick enough to go through the wood.
Weigh your small can. Weigh it again after adding distilled water until it weighs 100 grams more. You will have added 100 grams of distilled water.
Measure the water’s starting temperature. Record the temperature in a table like this:
Fuel
Weight Before
Weight After
Temperature Before
Temperature After
Manure
Put everything on a non-flammable surface in a well-ventilated area. Put on your safety goggles. The first piece of manure should be put on the wire at the end of the cork. Light it on fire. Place the calorimeter on top of the cork and manure, making sure that the manure is below the small container. Keep an eye on the flame from the top to make sure it doesn’t go out.
Once the manure is no longer on fire, check the water temperature again and write it down in your table. Put the burned manure on the scale and write down its weight. Let the calorimeter cool, and replace the water.
Do the experiment again with another piece of manure. Each piece of wood should be treated the same way. Always use the same amount of water.
How can you figure out how much energy each piece of manure or wood gave out? There’s an equation that can help. Remember, for each experiment, you used 100 grams of water.
Heat flow = specific heat x mass x change in the temperature OR
q = (specific heat) x m x Δt
In this experiment, you can use the change in temperature to tell you how much energy a piece of fuel contained. Every type of matter changes temperature in a different way. In this experiment, you used 100 grams of water. The specific heat of water is 4. 18 J/(g·°C).
For this test, you’d write the equation like this if the water temperature went from 22 degrees C to 25 degrees C:
Q = 4.18 J/(g·°C) x 100 g x (25-22 C)
Type in your real numbers, and then figure out J (joules). This will tell you how much energy each thing you burned gave off.
Now, compare that energy to the weight of each material. Most likely, your 100-gram fuel piece will give off more power than your 50-gram fuel piece. For each material, figure out how much energy it gives off for every 10 grams of weight.
What burned the longest? What gave off the most heat per gram? Is horse manure a good fuel?
The horse manure burns longer and hotter than the wood from coniferous trees.
When it comes to using manure as fuel, here’s the scoop: it doesn’t stink, at least not as a fuel. In fact, people around the world use manure as a source of fuel. If you’re burning horse manure, it often lasts longer than fuel from coniferous trees, especially when it’s compacted and made into bricks
The manure needs to be dry, because manure that’s fresh from the horse has a lot of water in it and won’t burn. Manure can take a little longer than wood to catch on fire in any case, so it’s important to use manure that is as dry as possible.
While using manure as a way to warm yourself or your home might sound gross, manure has a lot going for it. It takes a long time to grow a tree, but grass can grow in a matter of days. Get a field and a horse, and you can turn grass into fuel quite quickly—as long as you don’t mind a little bit of mess!
Manure is a good fuel source because it’s essentially grass that’s passed through an animal’s digestive tract. Horses digest grass through fermentation inside their stomach. This process helps break down the cellulose in grass, turning it into a usable (albeit crude) biomass fuel.
Results: COMPRESSED HORSE POO FUEL EXPERIMENT – Tested in Hwam Wood Burning Stove at Natural Heating
FAQ
What is the best way to get rid of horse manure?
The most effective and environmentally friendly way to get rid of horse manure is through composting. Composting reduces the amount of trash that needs to be thrown away and turns it into useful soil amendment that can be used on-site or sold.
Is burning manure toxic?
THE PRIMARY HAZARDS OF THESE GASES ARE: Toxic or poisonous reactions in people or animals, oxygen depletion which can result in asphyxiation and explosions that can occur when oxygen mixes with the gases such as methane.
Does burning horse manure smell?
“When the wind is blowing in the right direction, I can lay in bed at night and smell the smell of burning horse manure,” Southern said. Barbara Ballard lives just a few miles down the road from the manure pile.
Can you burn dried horse manure?
While low cost, it does require a bit of labor and maintenance. You can’t burn fresh manure because it has too much water in it, but you can burn dried manure. Horse manure can be dried in ‘bricks’ and then burned for heat. Researchers in Italy actually did a study on burning horse poop.
Can manure be burned?
Given the drawbacks, burning manure requires careful preparation and conditions to be worthwhile as an alternate disposal solution: Allow manure to dry thoroughly first. Manure straight from the stable will not burn efficiently. Blend manure with wood shavings or sawdust for better burning.
Can you put horse manure in a pile?
You must not put temporary piles of horse manure where there is risk of it draining: Solid waste includes things like: You must use a licensed facility to get rid of solid waste – it’s against the law to dump or burn it.
Can horse manure be used as fuel?
Horse manure can be used as fuel by drying it in ‘bricks’ and burning it for heat. Researchers in Italy have studied this method, but it’s important to note that the manure must be dried first, as natural drying can take too long and degrade its heating value.
Can horse manure catch fire?
It is very unlikely that a pile of horse waste will catch fire, but dry horse manure and sawdust can catch fire easily. To properly compost horse manure, the pile should be approximately 130 degrees F to 150 degrees F; over 180 degrees F is not helpful for composting.
Is horse manure a waste?
When you dispose of horse manure, it’s waste unless all of the following apply: You must not spread horse manure as soil fertiliser near water. It can be a health hazard and could harm the environment. You’ll need to follow rules for both: You must not put temporary piles of horse manure where there is risk of it draining:
