Earthen Manure Storage Volume Calculator

A properly sized earthen manure storage (EMS) is an important consideration for a confined feeding operation (CFO). Protecting water quality by managing liquid manure production is a legislative requirement in the Agricultural Operation Practices Act. A CFO is required to meet the following design aspects for earthen liquid manure storage:

  1. Must construct storage capacity sufficient to store all manure produced by the operation over a period of at least 9 months,
  2. Must have horizontal to vertical ratio for the slope of the inside wall not less than 3:1,
  3. Must have additional freeboard capacity of not less than 0.5 metres when full.

For more information on design aspects for an earthen manure storage including liner options and protection, check out the Earthen Manure Storage Design and Management factsheet.

The following calculator may be used to design an earthen manure storage based on livestock liquid manure production (annual averages in cubic meters), plus associated freeboard.

Name
Land Location

Estimated Liquid Manure Production Enter the number of animals for each livestock category that will contribute to liquid manure production.
  • For swine only count the breeding herd as the liquid manure production value has been prorated to include the manure production from gilts and offspring.
  • For dairy only count the lactating cows as the liquid manure production value have been prorated to include dries and replacements.
Category Type m3 per year per Number   9 Months Prod (m3)
 
 
Nine Month Storage Requirement		        
 
  


Calculating Earthen Manure Storage Volume Enter the dimensions of the proposed earthen manure storage including length, width and total depth (0.5 m will be subtracted for freeboard level). Side and end slopes are set to 3 to 1 (run:rise).
Construction Dimensions
Storage Dimensions
 
Units to be used for calculation:
 
Length of dugout (m):
 
Width of dugout (m):
 
Depth of dugout (m):
 


Earthen Manure Storage volume based on design input:
     m3
     ft3
     Imp. Gal
Nine Month Storage Requirement:
     m3
     ft3
     Imp. Gal
 

For more information about the content of this document, contact Cody Metheral
This document is maintained by Nicole Huggins-Rawlins
This information published to the web on February 26, 2014
Last Reviewed/Revised on February 26, 2014

To view the formula used to calculate the volume of the earthen manure storage, click here.