It takes a lot of dirt to RODEO
Come midnight Sunday, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo will end much as it began: With 80 to 100 dump trucks rumbling through gate 10 or 11 at NRG Stadium. This time, instead of bringing the rodeo dirt, they’ll be there to haul it away.
It’s a lot of dirt. Dirt is spread across more than 2 million square feet between the stadium, center and arena.
Inside the stadium, the dirt is a foot deep; there’s 5,500 cubic yards of it there — which is an astounding amount, once you realize that each cubic yard measures close to 200 gallons. Another 2,600 cubic yards of dirt lies between the rodeo’s livestock area and horse arena.
For seven hours Sunday, the dump trucks, leased from the North Houston Trucking Co., will line the stadium’s exterior. Inside, a ten-man crew will operate excavators and wheel loaders. Only specks will be left behind when they’re done — leaving the stadium ready for crews to clean and prep it to host the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four on April 2.
“People don’t realize what all goes into it,” said Greg Golightly, the rodeo’s managing director for buildings and grounds, and its dirt expert. “We try to put out a good surface for contestants here. You got to have dirt to have a rodeo.”
Golightly began supervising rodeo dirt operations around the same time most of the current dirt used was first purchased: in 1984.
In its 30-plus years at the rodeo, that dirt has witnessed hundreds of competitions, grand champions and concerts. It’s supported icons such as Selena; it was present for the rodeo’s first live broadcast in 1994. Until 2002, it blanketed the Astrodome every year. Nowit goes to NRG Stadium.
Most of the dirt inside NRG Park’s stadium, center and arena is a clay-like substance, according to Joe Bruce Hancock, the rodeo’s general manager. At the stadium and arena, the clay is topped off with a 2-inch topsoil named “loamy sand,” which is also mostly recycled from year to year.
At the center, 220 cubic yards of green shavings, purchased from a Louisiana company, mask the floor for livestock shows. Another 440 cubic yards of plain wood shavings, bought locally, cover areas such as the petting zoo, birthing center, and rabbit exhibit. And 1,100 pre-packaged bags of softer shavings, imported from Champion Shavings Corporation in Canada, are used by animal exhibitors.
The shavings are the only dirt mixture that aren’t reused year to year. Instead, they’re given to Living Earth Recycling.
After each rodeo, a motor grader separates the top soil and clay into two heaps. Some soil stays assorted into the clay. Animal feces are cleaned daily, but Golightly admits that, since the same clay has been used for 30-plus years, a minute amount of feces almost certainly remains.
“For everything, mostly including the trucks and labor,” Golightly said, “it costs about $70,000 to get the dirt in and out.”
In 30-plus years at the Houston event, the clay, topsoil and shavings have been on the ground floor to greatness