Siting
Where the horses are, and where the mills should go
Darker states have more horses. White circles are racetracks. A larger circle means more stalls. Squares are hemp mills. The gold square is Dakota Hemp in Wakonda, South Dakota — the mill already selling hurd as stall bedding. Click a state or a marker. 58 tracks. 58,470 stalls. 1,820 of those stall counts are published.
Inner Bluegrass Fiber Hub — Lexington, Kentucky
Proposed mill. Highest-value equine density on earth plus Kentucky's 4,800 planted hemp acres (2025, 2nd nationally).
Keeneland (~1,900 stalls, est.), Red Mile harness, Churchill 70 miles west (1,400+ published).
Offtake: Keeneland + Churchill + 320k KY horses (AHC-style). A 2,000-stall conversion at conservative 302 lb/stall is 604,000 lb hurd — about 280 acres of fiber.
Regional decortication + bagging. Decorticator list ~$229k; full 5–10k MT plant is the real ticket (IMARC 15–25% net).
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Named stalls: about $597,960 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.
Saratoga Backstretch Plant — Saratoga Springs, New York
Proposed mill. Saratoga 1,820 published stalls (90 barns). One meet's bedding is a plant-scale offtake contract.
Saratoga 1,820 published stalls (90 barns). Finger Lakes 1,000 est. to the west.
1,820 × 302 lb = 550,000 lb hurd/year (~253 acres). NY hemp program is mature; Hudson/Mohawk farmland in range.
Seasonal TB pulse (Jul–Sep) plus 12-month harness and surrounding sport-horse barns flatten the curve.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Named stalls: about $510,984 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.
Marion County Training Hub — Ocala, Florida
Proposed mill. Ocala is the training capital — thousands of stalls that never appear in racetrack backside counts.
Florida ~387k horses (widely cited). Gulfstream 1,400 est. and Tampa Bay 1,100 est. are the race-day nodes.
Training farms stall year-round. Fiber acres in FL are smaller; this hub is demand-led, pulling stalk from GA/AL or dual-cropping on horse-farm margins.
Pair with composting; Florida waste-haul costs make the spent-bedding loop especially valuable.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Named stalls: about $453,000 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.
Parker County Equine Mill — Weatherford, Texas
Proposed mill. Texas planted 6,700 hemp acres in 2025 (1st nationally) and holds the largest horse herd.
Parker County alone is cited near 20k horses. Lone Star Park 1,200 est. / Sam Houston 1,000 est.
Fiber supply is not the bottleneck — Texas already leads planted acres. The mill prices hurd to local barns instead of shipping stalk out.
Largest single-state TAM. Start with a 10k MT line; bag for DFW sport-horse and QH racing.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Named stalls: about $398,640 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.
Dakota Hemp — Wakonda, South Dakota
Existing mill. Sells cleaned hurd as bedding on a published bag ladder. Operating mill at 45304 302nd St, Wakonda, SD 57073. Canadian Greenfield hemp train.
Regional: Canterbury Park MN 800 est., Fonner Park NE 600 est., plus Dakota ranch/work horses.
SD was 11.3% of US harvested hemp acres in 2024. Existing mill is the proof that hurd bedding can be priced from a US field.
Benchmark, not a greenfield. Use their $0.60/lb hurd and 30 lb bag ladder as the domestic price floor.
Already running. Named stalls: about $253,680 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.
Oklahoma City Remington Hub — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Proposed mill. 326k horses (widely cited 4th nationally) + 3,000 planted hemp acres (2025) + Remington Park.
Remington 1,200 est., Will Rogers Downs 700 est., plus QH breeding.
OK was 6.7% of 2024 harvested acres. Dual fiber/grain on wheat rotations.
Mid-scale mill. Strong QH bedding specs (dust, absorbency) are a product design constraint, not a market risk.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Named stalls: about $344,280 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.
Lancaster Workhorse Mill — Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Proposed mill. Amish/workhorse density plus Parx and Penn National. PA wrote early industrial-hemp statute.
Parx 1,400 est., Penn National 1,000, Presque Isle 700, Pocono harness 600.
Workhorses stall more days than pasture-ornament herds. Fiber can ride existing grain logistics.
Community-scale mill. Sell hurd in 30 lb and tote; compost back onto the same farms.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Named stalls: about $670,440 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.
Mahoning / Southern Ohio — Youngstown, Ohio
Proposed mill. Ohio ~306k horses (widely cited 6th) and a dense harness + TB circuit.
Mahoning Valley 800, Thistledown 900, Northfield 700, Scioto 600 (all est.).
Midwest stalk, Midwest stalls. Short haul is the whole model.
Could be a satellite bagging line fed by a KY or PA decorticator if capex is staged.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Named stalls: about $543,600 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.
Front Range Horse & Hemp — Wellington, Colorado
Proposed mill. Colorado planted 3,000 acres (2025). Front Range sport-horse and mountain-town boarding is high-value, high-haul-cost.
CO ~237k (widely cited). No major TB backside; this is boarding, show, and ranch.
Altitude boarding pays for dust-free bedding. Mill also serves hempcrete demand along the Front Range.
Smaller mill, higher bag price. Dual product: stall hurd + hempcrete hurd.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Hurd sales if the line sells out: $1,344,000 a year.
Sandhills Sport Horse — Southern Pines, North Carolina
Proposed mill. One of the densest sport-horse corridors in the East. NC ~256k horses (widely cited).
No major TB track in town; year-round eventing/hunter stalls. Colonial Downs VA 1,200 est. in range.
Demand-led. Pull fiber from KY/SC or plant on Sandhills farms.
Boutique mill. Spec for arena-horse respiratory health (low dust is the sale).
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Hurd sales if the line sells out: $1,344,000 a year.
Magic Valley Fiber — Twin Falls, Idaho
Proposed mill. Idaho was 6.4% of 2024 harvested acres. Irrigation, rotation, and a western horse herd.
ID ~86k modeled. Turf Paradise AZ and Emerald Downs WA are the race nodes; local demand is ranch and dairy-adjacent.
Supply-led mill. Hurd to PNW and Intermountain barns; bast to export or domestic textile.
Co-locate with existing agricultural processing (potato/sugarbeet logistics).
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Hurd sales if the line sells out: $1,344,000 a year.
Virginia Piedmont — New Kent, Virginia
Proposed mill. Colonial Downs 1,200 est. plus Middleburg/Orange hunt country.
VA ~191k modeled. Laurel and Charles Town within a day's haul.
East-coast fiber gap. A VA mill shortens KY→NY hurd miles.
Pair with Charles Town / Laurel offtake letters before capex.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Named stalls: about $217,440 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.
Nebraska Platte Fiber — Grand Island, Nebraska
Proposed mill. Nebraska planted 3,300 acres in 2025 (4th nationally). Fonner Park is the local track.
Fonner 600 est. Regional ranch horses. Feed into SD existing mill or stand alone.
Supply-led on former corn/soy. Hurd to CO, KS, IA barns.
Could be a grower co-op feeding the existing mill in Wakonda, SD rather than a second full mill — run both models in the brief.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Named stalls: about $108,720 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.
Flint Hills Mill — Marion, Kansas
Proposed mill. Kansas planted 3,200 acres (2025). Flint Hills horse and cattle country.
KS ~115k modeled. Remington OK and prairie tracks in range.
Grain+fiber dual crop on wheat. Hurd as bedding and as cattle-pack.
Multi-species bedding mill. Horses pay; cattle add volume.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Hurd sales if the line sells out: $1,344,000 a year.
Tennessee Walking Horse Belt — Shelbyville, Tennessee
Proposed mill. Walking horse and sport-horse barns, plus KY fiber to the north.
TN ~175k modeled. No major TB backside; stall demand is private barns.
Private-barn conversion is slower than a racetrack offtake letter — price the mill on KY overflow.
Stage after Lexington. Use as a bagging/distribution node.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Hurd sales if the line sells out: $1,344,000 a year.
Puget / Emerald Downs — Auburn, Washington
Proposed mill. Emerald Downs 900 est. plus a large sport-horse population and PNW fiber experiments.
WA ~155k modeled.
Import stalk from ID Magic Valley if local acres stay thin; mill is a port and a barn cluster.
High land cost. Consider a lighter bagging facility fed by Idaho decortication.
Startup $5,192,000–$6,692,000. Named stalls: about $163,080 of hurd a year. Full line: $1,344,000.