Enter your horses, bedding and how often you want pickup. The calculator estimates your manure and bedding volume in cubic yards, its approximate weight, and whether 96-gallon bins or a 30/40-yard dump-trailer load is cheaper at our published prices.
Your estimate for 7 days between pickups
- Manure + bedding per pickup
- 2.5 yd³
- Approximate weight*
- 1,511 lb
- Per month
- 11 yd³
Suggested service
6 × 96-gallon bins per pickup: $85
About $370 a month at 4.3 pickups a month.
Compare: 6 bins would be $85 per pickup; 1 × 30-yard load would be $300. Bins from us carry a one-time $100 drop-off fee; none if you use your own.
*Weight uses 600 lb per cubic yard (0.3 tons/yd³) for stall waste: provisional, pending measurement of our own loads. Wet or straw-bedded waste can weigh more. This is an estimate, not a quote; your real volume depends on your horses, feed, bedding habits and how you muck out.
How much manure does a horse produce?
A 1,000-lb horse produces about 51 lb of raw manure a day, according to Penn State Extension. In a stall, the bedding you strip out with it adds about twice that volume again, so a stalled horse on shavings fills roughly 2.4 cubic feet a day, or about 2.7 cubic yards a month. Straw makes more waste and pellets less.
How much does a yard of horse manure weigh?
Raw manure on its own is heavy, about 63 lb per cubic foot. What leaves a barn is mostly bedding, which is far lighter, so a cubic yard of stall waste weighs a fraction of that.
Rule of thumb: shavings-bedded stall waste weighs about 600 lb per cubic yard (0.3 tons). At that rate a 40-yard load is roughly 12 tons and a 30-yard load roughly 9 tons.
Provisional, pending measurement. This figure comes from published references for shavings-bedded stall waste, not from weighing our own loads yet. Wet or straw-bedded waste weighs more.
The assumptions behind the numbers
| Input | Value used | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Raw manure (feces + urine), 1,000-lb horse | 51 lb/day ≈ 0.81 ft³ at 63 lb/ft³ | Penn State |
| Shavings / sawdust: manure + soiled bedding | 2.43 ft³/day (bedding ≈ 2× manure volume) · ≈ 2.7 yd³/month | Penn State |
| Straw: manure + soiled bedding | 3.24 ft³/day (bedding 3× manure volume, top of the 2–3× range) · ≈ 3.7 yd³/month | Rutgers |
| Pellets: manure + soiled bedding | 1.56 ft³/day (64% of the wood-bedding volume) · ≈ 1.8 yd³/month | UMaine |
| Time in the stall | Most of the day 100%, half the day 50%, mostly turned out 25% of daily manure collected | Our simplification |
| 96-gallon bin | ≈ 0.48 yd³ when full | 96 gal ÷ 202 gal/yd³ |
| Weight | 600 lb/yd³ (0.3 t/yd³), provisional | Pending our own load measurements |
| Prices | $15/bin first 5, $10 after; $300 per 30-yd load; $350 per 40-yd load | Our price list |
The suggested service is the cheaper of bins or the cheapest mix of 30- and 40-yard loads for one pickup's volume. It is an estimate, not a quote.
Sources
- Penn State Extension, “Horse Stable Manure Management” (updated 2019): A 1,000-lb horse produces about 51 lb of raw manure a day (about 0.81 ft³ at 63 lb/ft³); soiled bedding adds about twice that volume, so stall waste is about 2.4 ft³ per stall per day, or 60–70 lb.
- Rutgers NJAES Fact Sheet FS537, “Horse Manure Management: Bedding Use”: Manure plus bedding runs 2 to 3 ft³ per day; soiled bedding may equal 2 to 3 times the manure volume; pine shavings or sawdust leave less disposable material than straw, and pelleted bedding lowers the volume of waste.
- University of Maine Cooperative Extension, wood pellet bedding study: “Amount of Manure Removed From Stalls”: Stalls bedded with pellets yielded an average of 0.72 ft³ a day removed, against 1.12 ft³ for sawdust-bedded stalls.
Frequently asked questions
How much manure does a horse produce?
Penn State Extension puts it at about 51 lb of raw manure (feces and urine) a day for a 1,000-lb horse, or roughly 9 to 10 tons a year. A stalled horse also sends soiled bedding out with it: about 60 to 70 lb of stall waste a day in total, or about 2.4 cubic feet. That is roughly 2.7 cubic yards a month per stall on shavings.
How much does a yard of horse manure weigh?
It depends on the bedding and how wet it is. Raw manure without bedding is dense, about 63 lb per cubic foot (about 1,701 lb per cubic yard). Stall waste mixed with bedding is much lighter: Penn State's daily figures work out to roughly 675 to 790 lb per cubic yard, and we use 600 lb per cubic yard (0.3 tons) for shavings-bedded stall waste. That figure is provisional, pending measurement of our own loads.
Does bedding type change how much waste I have?
Yes. Rutgers notes that soiled bedding can be 2 to 3 times the volume of the manure itself, that shavings or sawdust leave less disposable material than straw, and that pelleted bedding lowers waste volume. A University of Maine study measured about 36% less volume removed from pellet-bedded stalls than from sawdust-bedded stalls.
How many 96-gallon bins does one horse fill?
A 96-gallon bin holds about 0.48 cubic yards when full. One full-time stalled horse on shavings makes about 0.63 cubic yards a week, so plan on 2 bins a week per horse; less with pellets, more with straw.
How accurate is this calculator?
It is an estimate built on published averages for a 1,000-lb horse, not a measurement of your barn. Horse size, feed, how long horses are stalled, and how much bedding you strip all change the real number. Use it to size the service, then get an exact price.
What does pickup cost?
Our published prices: $15 per 96-gallon bin for the first 5 bins and $10 for each bin after that, per pickup; $300 for a 30-yard load; $350 for a 40-yard load. The calculator uses these same prices.
Next: manure removal cost, manure dumpster rental: bins and trailer loads, manure removal, get a quote or call (561) 576-7667.