Manure sales..

she sold six bags yesterday evening- One guy in a Z-3 BMW ragtop stopped, bought a bag and put it in the passenger seat!

When it's raw, or not fully composted and used in a garden, it can rob nitrogen to continue the composting process, plants may reflect this. If properly composted, it's excellent material. You can add sand or organics to the mix, depends on what you want. It's also important to consider what you feed, if the hay quality is less than desirable and they pick through it, mash the rest in, that adds to the compost time, hay grasses/stalks is just more carbon to break down, it chokes up the material, might make it less desirable.

Our neighor has their compost analyzed at Cornell, seemingly a very intelligent fellow, I've discussed this manure compost with him and learned a few things. Had I the equipment, when our place was full, it was producing a solid 1000 + cubic yards per year, you can't ignore that revenue potential, it would be profitable and I have another high profile lot on a main road where I could sell all of it, might take 2 years to pay off the equipment and show substantial profits, but that's really not too long.

I've posted this photo before, but this material shown was some really nice stuff, the bedding at that time was actually oak sawdust, so it took time to break down. I'm not so sure what the deal was with the oak, never saw it, worried me about resiratory or other issues with the horses, but was no problem. When I was a kid it was always some type of pine sawdust, that breaks down finer and quicker. Bedding, and hay have a lot to do with it, coordinate by using the best materials/feed you can there, it helps a lot on the other end. I firmly believe a good quality compost can be made to offset operation costs, it sells around here no problem. Once made, it does not go bad either, we had a lot of manure '03-'05, had I the equipment to do it right, could have made a lot of compost

By spring, you can't hardly tell it from dirt. I screen it through 1/4" hardware cloth into a 5 gallon bucket and then bag it in sandbags. I stack the bags on a pallet in the front yard with a sign and a coffee can. So far this year, I've sold 100 bags @ $2.50/bag.

Not bad for something I'd have to get rid of somehow anyway...

Compost it right, keep the hay out of it as much as possible, check the temp and let it cook to kill the weed seed, it's a great way to generate revenue. I calculated based on the manure production, best case scenario was $50,000 in gross revenue, and hey it's positive cash flow to offset bedding, feed, hay and operating costs. I had to stop, I really need a 920, 930 Cat or equivalent size loader, and a newer dump to deliver small loads, our neighbor used to get all of ours and pay his land taxes, on their place, think it was 80-100 acres or so. Tribal elders think differently than I at our place, but that small business experience will last a lifetime for your daughter at yours.