Equestrian Facility Management
http://www.livestockandland.org/Peer_Leaders/index.html - A great resource for responsible BMPs and land use.
Best Management Practices (BMPs)
BMPs are
techniques used to prevent or reduce the discharge of
pollutants, such as manure, into the stormwater drainage system.
Along with Storm Water Management, equestrian facilities are currently required to deal with Manure Management, Vector Control (flies, mosquitoes, rodents), Air Quality (Dust & odors), Noise (farriers, tractors and other vehicles, harrows, amplified equipment, etc.), Traffic (trip count and sight distance), Agricultural Impacts (was the property used for agriculture prior to horses?), Fire planning, Environmental Site Assessment, Landscaping, Visual Impacts, Community Character, and Archaeological Impacts.
The County has sample plans available for the public to use. Email us your facility management practices and we will include them on this website for others to glean from.
See this website with more BMP information and supportive educational links: http://www.livestockandland.org/Publications_and_Links/index.html
Vector Control Plan Guidelines are available from the DEH (Department of Environmental Health). The Vector Surveillance & Control Program must review the Vector Control Plan prior to submittal to DPLU.
For more information about vectors contact: (858) 694-2888
vector@sdcounty.ca.gov
The Vector Control Plan should include the following information:
1) Project Description
2) Description of the Facilities
3) Water and/or Manure Management Plan
a) Best Management Practices
b) Education
c) Sanitary Methods
d) Mosquito Control
e) Feed Storage
f) Rodent Control
g) Pesticides and Larvicides
h) Stormwater Management
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Stormwater Management for Equestrians - Horse wastes are among the many common stormwater pollutants that can degrade water quality. Stormwater runoff from horse wastes has been found to contain high concentrations of pathogens such as bacteria, parasites, and viruses. When they wash into our recreational waters they can make people sick with sore throats, intestinal problems, rashes, nausea, and eye and ear infections. Manure also contains nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, that fertilize aquatic algae which can degrade water quality.
vector@sdcounty.ca.gov
The Vector Control Plan should include the following information:
1) Project Description
2) Description of the Facilities
3) Water and/or Manure Management Plan
a) Best Management Practices
b) Education
c) Sanitary Methods
d) Mosquito Control
e) Feed Storage
f) Rodent Control
g) Pesticides and Larvicides
h) Stormwater Management
************************************************************************************************
Stormwater Management for Equestrians - Horse wastes are among the many common stormwater pollutants that can degrade water quality. Stormwater runoff from horse wastes has been found to contain high concentrations of pathogens such as bacteria, parasites, and viruses. When they wash into our recreational waters they can make people sick with sore throats, intestinal problems, rashes, nausea, and eye and ear infections. Manure also contains nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, that fertilize aquatic algae which can degrade water quality.
(from: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dpw/watersheds/business/equestrian.html)
Equestrian-Related Water Quality BMPs - A Cooperative Effort among Private and Public Entities in Orange and San Diego Counties, California in response to NPDES permits issued by the Santa Ana and San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Boards. It is the hope of the Task Force that the equestrian community will embrace and implement the BMPs contained within this document as reasonable requests to help curtail pollution into local water bodies including San Diego and Orange County creeks, bays, and the Pacific Ocean. June 2004
http://www.ci.encinitas.ca.us/NR/rdonlyres/142CAFE7-A74D-421B-8A1C-990309B50BBA/0/Equestrian_BMPs_June_2004.pdf
***********************************************************************************************
Hope Goodwin of Valley Center has contributed the instructions below. For the past twenty years, she has used her horses' manure to create wonderful soil.
First you will need to compost your manure for at least two months before you start. The amount isn't important; the time it has aged is.
Choose an area that is shaded and at least 16' wide.
Buy some shade cloth or any other type of virtually non-destructible material that would be almost impossible for a worm to crawl through. Wet the area down, lay down your cloth in at least that 16' width and preferably 20' long, the length determining just how much work you want to do.
Now here's the most important part: a minimum of 3' from the outer edge of the cloth, lay down a 3' wide row of newspaper topped by clean pine shavings. Keep this row's height to a maximum of 4 inches tall. Then wet that row down.
Bring your aged compost to the row and put 2" to 3" of compost on top of the row and wet it down again. Now you are ready to add the worms to the row. The number of worms is not all that important because they procreate so fast you will not believe it.
Start a second row three feet in from the opposite side and lay it out exactly the same as the first one. Make sure the worms are planted (which consists of simply tossing a handful into the middle of the row all the way down it's length). Wet down the row again after the worms have been added.
Don't over water. If the weather is really hot and dry, wet the rows down twice a day, mid-morning and late afternoon. Make sure to keep your rows in the shade and know that the worms actually live in the top 8" of compost/shavings/newspaper. The pile will begin to get lower and when it looks almost down to square one, add another 3 to 4 inches of aged compost.
When your rows are about 3' high, start another row midway between the two.
With this row you are going to take the top 4 inches off of each of the old rows and put that onto the new row. Now you've successfully transferred most of your worms onto the new row where they will be working twice as fast since there are twice as many. Do not add any more aged compost to your tall rows.
Any worms you left behind will migrate to the new row because they crave organic matter and that will be the only fresh organic matter available. When moving your worms, use a pitch fork. It works best at lifting 3" to 4" layers with worms intact.
Now comes the fun part. You will need some empty A&M or Oatmo sacks (I found that these work best) and after about a month or two, dampen the dry worm castings (otherwise the wind will blow it away while you are working) and start shoveling the outside rows of worm castings into these bags. Use a round needle and some heavy monofilament to sew them closed. Done.
I would suggest storing the closed bags in a high and dry place. I filled my first Oatmo sack and didn't try picking it up until I was finished sewing it closed. BIG MISTAKE. It actually weighed a little over 300 lbs!
Once everything on the two outside rows is bagged, and your middle row has reached that magical height of 3' and when it doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, you can start two new outside rows and do the worm transfer thing again. Only now you are going to find that the 3' height comes faster than it did before because your little worm friends are reproducing so quickly!
Important things to keep in mind:
(1) Only use aged compost.
(2) Keep the rows moist but not soaked, or else the worms will migrate away.
(3) Keep the rows in the shade.
(4) Store your aged compost far away from your worm farm.
(5) After six months you will have more worms than you need!
The wonderful thing about worm castings is that they look like the darkest top soil you have ever seen. They are absolutely the best fertilizer there is, and they have no odor!
One last thing - no manure from horses that have been de-wormed with chemicals, as the chemical wormers will not only kill worms in your horse, but they will also kill your composting worms!
Equestrian-Related Water Quality BMPs - A Cooperative Effort among Private and Public Entities in Orange and San Diego Counties, California in response to NPDES permits issued by the Santa Ana and San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Boards. It is the hope of the Task Force that the equestrian community will embrace and implement the BMPs contained within this document as reasonable requests to help curtail pollution into local water bodies including San Diego and Orange County creeks, bays, and the Pacific Ocean. June 2004
http://www.ci.encinitas.ca.us/NR/rdonlyres/142CAFE7-A74D-421B-8A1C-990309B50BBA/0/Equestrian_BMPs_June_2004.pdf
Hope Goodwin of Valley Center has contributed the instructions below. For the past twenty years, she has used her horses' manure to create wonderful soil.
Vermicomposting Instructions for Horse Ranches
First you will need to compost your manure for at least two months before you start. The amount isn't important; the time it has aged is.
Choose an area that is shaded and at least 16' wide.
Buy some shade cloth or any other type of virtually non-destructible material that would be almost impossible for a worm to crawl through. Wet the area down, lay down your cloth in at least that 16' width and preferably 20' long, the length determining just how much work you want to do.
Now here's the most important part: a minimum of 3' from the outer edge of the cloth, lay down a 3' wide row of newspaper topped by clean pine shavings. Keep this row's height to a maximum of 4 inches tall. Then wet that row down.
Bring your aged compost to the row and put 2" to 3" of compost on top of the row and wet it down again. Now you are ready to add the worms to the row. The number of worms is not all that important because they procreate so fast you will not believe it.
Start a second row three feet in from the opposite side and lay it out exactly the same as the first one. Make sure the worms are planted (which consists of simply tossing a handful into the middle of the row all the way down it's length). Wet down the row again after the worms have been added.
Don't over water. If the weather is really hot and dry, wet the rows down twice a day, mid-morning and late afternoon. Make sure to keep your rows in the shade and know that the worms actually live in the top 8" of compost/shavings/newspaper. The pile will begin to get lower and when it looks almost down to square one, add another 3 to 4 inches of aged compost.
When your rows are about 3' high, start another row midway between the two.
With this row you are going to take the top 4 inches off of each of the old rows and put that onto the new row. Now you've successfully transferred most of your worms onto the new row where they will be working twice as fast since there are twice as many. Do not add any more aged compost to your tall rows.
Any worms you left behind will migrate to the new row because they crave organic matter and that will be the only fresh organic matter available. When moving your worms, use a pitch fork. It works best at lifting 3" to 4" layers with worms intact.
Now comes the fun part. You will need some empty A&M or Oatmo sacks (I found that these work best) and after about a month or two, dampen the dry worm castings (otherwise the wind will blow it away while you are working) and start shoveling the outside rows of worm castings into these bags. Use a round needle and some heavy monofilament to sew them closed. Done.
I would suggest storing the closed bags in a high and dry place. I filled my first Oatmo sack and didn't try picking it up until I was finished sewing it closed. BIG MISTAKE. It actually weighed a little over 300 lbs!
Once everything on the two outside rows is bagged, and your middle row has reached that magical height of 3' and when it doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, you can start two new outside rows and do the worm transfer thing again. Only now you are going to find that the 3' height comes faster than it did before because your little worm friends are reproducing so quickly!
Important things to keep in mind:
(1) Only use aged compost.
(2) Keep the rows moist but not soaked, or else the worms will migrate away.
(3) Keep the rows in the shade.
(4) Store your aged compost far away from your worm farm.
(5) After six months you will have more worms than you need!
The wonderful thing about worm castings is that they look like the darkest top soil you have ever seen. They are absolutely the best fertilizer there is, and they have no odor!
One last thing - no manure from horses that have been de-wormed with chemicals, as the chemical wormers will not only kill worms in your horse, but they will also kill your composting worms!
Worm composting (vermiculture) windrows at a large farm
Red Wiggler worms for worm castings
Worm Castings - the finished product
