Heating with Manure

When Tim Millard purchased Gimcrack Equestrian Centre in 2001 from EMG co-founder Robert Meilsoe, he wanted to make sure the equestrian centre on 40 acres in the rolling hills of King Township, ON, was run efficiently and in an environmentally-friendly manner so as not to negatively impact the challenged water table in the area. “There were lots of issues there,” he admitted. “They used to just throw the manure over the side of the hill. I could see from Google Earth images the plume of effluent coming out of the manure pile, making a black trail toward the pond. It was after the Walkerton water crisis and I thought ‘This is a disaster waiting to happen.’” Millard set about containing the manure that the farm’s population of 35-40 horses were producing. “I decided to build a manure containment box out of concrete blocks. But I couldn’t believe the amount of…