The barn
If a stall converts, the barn is about $1,081 / year better versus pine on the conservative ledger. Saratoga’s published 1,820 stalls × $1,081 = $1,967,420 in barn-side savings IF converted. Not our check.
Phase 1
Sell the hurd that already exists
We buy cleaned hurd from mills that already run. We sell it to barns. The mill comes later.
Peter Iovino’s letter is a bedding rule. It is not an order for hemp hurd.
The letter is at Saratoga Casino Hotel, the harness track. The 1,820 published stalls are New York Racing Association (NYRA) Saratoga Race Course, a separate thoroughbred facility. The rule shows a track already rejects sawdust. The 1,820 is the published count this site uses for barn-side math.
No stall purchase contracts exist today. Figures are estimates if a barn bought the bag.
Three prices, three jobs. Do not add them.
- $16 / 30 lb ($0.533/lb) — Dakota multi-pallet bag. What a converted barn pays. Saratoga 1,820 = $293,536.
- $0.60/lb — Dakota listed 1/4-inch cut. Plant cards also show a second price — the mill’s listed cut of hurd, sixty cents a pound. That is not the sixteen-dollar bag the barn pays. Do not add the two prices.
- $176 / stall — 11 bags × $16. The hemp material line in the pine-versus-hemp table.
Estimate if converted.
Saratoga 1,820 published · 550,368 lb · 18,346 bags · track pays $293,536 · agent spread $18,346 assumption · barn-side $1,967,420
Churchill 1,400 published · 422,800 lb · 14,093 bags · track pays $225,493 · agent spread $14,093 assumption · barn-side $1,513,400
Combined published 3,220 · 972,440 lb · track pays $518,635 · agent spread $32,439 assumption · barn-side $3,480,820
The barn-side figure is stalls times $1,081 versus pine. It is not added to track pay or to the agent spread. Buy at $0.50/lb is a planning assumption, not a Dakota quote.
LTL from Wakonda can erase the $1/bag spread. Match the barn to the nearest existing processor before treating spread as cash.
Horses are bedded every day. That demand does not stop.
Processors already make cleaned hurd.
The first business is the spread between what the mill charges in bulk and what the barn pays for a bag, after freight.
No new plant is required to start.
The barn’s number
A cubic yard is a box three feet on each side.
| Pine | Hemp hurd | |
|---|---|---|
| Material | $697 | $176 |
| Labor | $1,643 | $1,232 |
| Waste hauled | 10 cubic yards | 6 cubic yards |
| Compost time | 2–3 years | 6–9 months |
| Net versus pine | — | $1,081 |
Pine material $697 · hemp material $176 · material saved $521. Pine labor $1,643 · hemp labor $1,232 · labor saved $411. Material + labor saved $932. Haul saved $74 — the 4 cubic yards the hemp column does not haul. This is the remainder already inside the locked $1,081. It is not a published hauler invoice. Compost credit inside the $1,081: 6 cubic yards × $25 = $150. The ledger books half of that, $75, as the barn’s credit. The other half stays with whoever runs the pad. $521 material + $411 labor + $74 haul + $75 compost credit = $1,081.
The $1,081 is the barn versus pine. Material, less stall labor, less haul, and a compost credit.
In Phase 1 the mill does not run the pad. The barn or the subcontracted hauler takes that pile. The stall can still beat pine. The mill is paid when it sells the bag.
That $1,081 is the barn’s number versus pine. It is not the sales agent’s profit.
Price stack — every line is an estimate
Buy (planning): $0.50 / lb. ESTIMATE. This is the assumed Dakota best bulk / tier-one wholesale. It is not a signed quote. A real Dakota quote replaces it when it exists.
Cost per 30 lb bag at $0.50 = $15.00. ESTIMATE.
Dakota published sell ladder, already on this site: $20 / $19 / $18 single · $17 pallet · $16 multi-pallet per 30 lb bag. Published cleaned hurd retail: $0.60 / lb.
Agent spread per 30 lb bag before freight. ESTIMATE.
$20 bag − $15 cost = $5.00
$17 bag − $15 cost = $2.00
$16 bag − $15 cost = $1.00
Live ledger, one conservative 12×12: 144 sq ft × 2.1 lb/sq ft = 302.4 lb / stall / year. Bags = ceil(302.4 ÷ 30) = 11. That is not 430 lb. Material to the barn at a $0.50 buy is $151.20 / stall / year. Pine material on the live ledger is $697.
Spread to the agent before freight, one stall, 11 bags: at $20 = $55; at $17 = $22; at $16 = $11.
| Barn size | lb / year | bags / year | Agent $ at $20 | Agent $ at $17 | Agent $ at $16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 stalls | 1,210 | 41 | $205 | $82 | $41 |
| 20 stalls | 6,048 | 202 | $1,010 | $404 | $202 |
| 44 stalls (Oklahoma demo) | 13,306 | 444 | $2,220 | $888 | $444 |
| 100 stalls | 30,240 | 1,008 | $5,040 | $2,016 | $1,008 |
| 1,820 Saratoga published | 550,368 | 18,346 | $91,730 | $36,692 | $18,346 |
These are agent margins before freight. They are not mill profit and not barn savings.
Freight — this is what kills small barns
Planning freight. ESTIMATE, not a carrier quote.
- ~100 miles → about $0.04 / lb
- ~300 miles → about $0.12 / lb
- ~500 miles → about $0.20 / lb
Under about 100 miles the $0.50-to-$0.60 spread can survive. At about 500 miles freight can erase the spread. A 4-stall barn moves too little weight for a clean LTL. Consolidate nearby barns into one shipment or do not take the order at the $16 rung.
Worked example, live ledger, not a 430 lb guess. 20 stalls × 302.4 lb = 6,048 lb / year.
At 100 miles, freight ≈ $241.92 / year. Agent spread on that barn before freight: $1,010 at $20, $404 at $17, $202 at $16.
At 500 miles, freight ≈ $1,209.60 / year. That freight is larger than the agent spread at every rung on this barn.
Processors that already exist
The sales job is routing. Each barn buys from the closest mill that can bag cleaned hurd so freight does not eat the spread.
| Processor | Town | What they sell | Nearest mapped tracks | Rough miles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dakota Hemp | Wakonda, SD | HempTrain. Published bag ladder and $0.60 / lb cleaned hurd. 45304 302nd St, Wakonda, SD 57073. | Fonner Park — Grand Island, NEPrairie Meadows — Altoona, IACanterbury Park — Shakopee, MN | 159 straight-line207 straight-line219 straight-line |
| Complete Hemp Processing | Winfred, SD | FiberTrack 660. Sells hurd, bast, fines. 530 Main St, Winfred, SD. | Same southeast South Dakota map. Winfred is not a pin on this map. | see map |
Dakota miles are straight-line from the Wakonda coordinates already on the map. Not a truck route. No other decorticator on this site is listed as a live seller. Proposed mill cities are not processors.
The sales layer
Buy bulk at an assumed $0.50 / lb. Sell on the Dakota bag ladder. Keep the spread only when the mill is close. No new plant. No 10-person yard crew.
Later
When enough barns are actually buying, the demand is what justifies a mill copy on Plant build out. The plant is Phase 2. It is not the opener.