Bringing your farm pet's ashes home in Northglenn
Your goat, sheep or pig is family, but the law usually files it under livestock. Here's what that means locally, who will take an animal this size and what it costs to bring the ashes home.
- Honest prices by body weight
- Farm collection, winch and trailer tips
- Fallen-stock and communal options too
Northglenn, Colorado
Where farm species go after a death near Northglenn
On the farmland north of Northglenn, winter can freeze pastures like concrete and spring melt can turn access roads into mud. A large animal lost in either season may take some effort to reach. Owners here often keep a simple plan with the animal's weight, the gate width and a neighbor with a tractor, and add their cremation or removal preference so no one has to guess later.
For Northglenn families, a horse or small herd kept on land farther out often represents a hobby built up over years of weekend drives. When that animal dies, the drive back can feel very long. It may help to stay a while in the pasture, to trim a little mane or keep the halter, and to ask the barn staff, who knew the animal too, to be present.
Burial is still common around Northglenn, and on your own land it's often allowed for many species, with conditions. Those conditions matter: a minimum depth, distances from wells and streams, and in many places a time limit after death. A 150 lb goat needs a much bigger hole than a dog, usually dug by machine. If your animal was euthanized, go deeper than the minimum or choose cremation to protect scavenging wildlife.
Northglenn's population is around 38,893, the 24th-largest of the 36 Colorado communities we cover. Some of the providers who serve Northglenn are based about 12 miles away in Denver, the nearest larger centre, so collection times reflect that drive.
Northglenn sits within easy reach of Thornton (3 miles, a larger centre), Broomfield (5 miles, a larger centre) and Westminster (6 miles, a larger centre). A provider based in any of them will usually collect from Northglenn; ask what the mileage adds to the bill.
77.4%[1]
The NFDA projected Colorado's cremation rate at 77.4% for 2024.
$600-$1,000[2]
Cremating a 1,000-pound horse was reported to cost about $600-$1,000, depending on location and the price of propane.
3-5% of body weight[3]
Embrace notes cremated remains typically weigh about 3-5% of the pet's original body weight.
Where these figures come from: Extension Horses (eXtension national Cooperative Extension) and Embrace Pet Insurance.
Local customs, and where a farm pet fits
With cremation chosen for about 77.4%[1] of people in Colorado, local families tend to expect it for their animals too. On a smallholding, that expectation meets livestock law: the options for a goat, sheep or pig are set by rules written for farms, not for pets. Cremation fits comfortably inside those rules almost everywhere, which is one more reason it's the common choice here.
That Colorado rate is a human one, published by NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024). We quote it for Northglenn only as a pointer to how families here already think about cremation.
What the seasons mean for farm animal aftercare in Northglenn
Some keepers in cold places cremate first and scatter or bury the ashes in spring. It's a gentle compromise. Your goat comes home now in a simple container, and when the ground thaws you can put the ashes under the tree it stripped every year or along the fence line it leaned on. Ashes don't need to be dealt with quickly, so there's no harm in waiting.
With 5 months of freezing lows in a typical Northglenn year, winter losses are part of keeping stock here. Older goats and sheep, young kids and lambs, and hens with large combs all struggle in hard cold. If an animal dies in a snowbound paddock, the difficult part is often access: can a van reach it, or will you need to sled the body to a plowed drive first?
Prices by weight for goats, sheep, pigs and birds
Weight drives the price, and farm species cover an enormous range: a bantam hen weighs a couple of pounds, a mature kunekune can top 200. Private cremation for pets over 90 lb is listed at about $350 to $450[4], and heavier animals are usually quoted individually. As a yardstick for anything very large, horse cremation works out to roughly $0.80/lb[5].
The Colorado price table breaks costs down by size; our services page explains what sits behind each line.
Free tool
Cremation cost calculator
Estimate a realistic price range for your pet's size, location and the type of cremation.
Livestock and pet rules in Colorado
In most places a pet goat or pig is still a goat or pig in the eyes of the law, so the rules written for farms apply to it. Those rules exist for water safety and disease control, and they tend to favor collection, rendering or cremation over burial. The notes below cover Colorado in general; ask your vet or animal health office about your species.
To find your county or city office in Colorado, start with the official Colorado local government directory.
The rules that apply across Colorado (home burial, scattering and who oversees pet cremation) are summarized on our Colorado page. Northglenn may add its own conditions, so check with the city or county before digging.
What to do when a farm animal dies in Northglenn
- Stop and count. When two or more animals or birds have died inside a day or so and nothing obvious like a predator explains it, don't move anything yet.
- Put on gloves and keep the bodies away from the living stock. Birds go in two bags; bigger animals get covered where they've fallen.
- Ring the vet, or your national animal health agency, and describe exactly what you've seen. Bird flu, swine fevers and several sheep and goat diseases are notifiable in many countries.
- Wait for the all-clear before you cremate, bury or compost anything. You may be offered testing, and one of the bodies might have to go off to a lab first.
- Keep visitors and borrowed equipment off the property while you wait for answers, and clean boots and feeders whenever you move between pens.
- Once you're cleared, decide animal by animal. It's common to choose communal cremation for the bulk of a flock while giving one special bird a private cremation of its own.
Ashes, fleece and memories on the farm
Northglenn is fully suburban, and horses or livestock inside the city are rare. Within a short drive north, though, Adams and Weld counties open into farmland with boarding barns, small cattle herds and 4-H goats and sheep. If your horse or goats live out there, the barn or landowner is usually the first contact when one dies, and you can then ask for private cremation if you want the ashes returned.
or see what other families chose in the poll results, run the numbers with the free planning tools, the guides answer the longer questions and the blog the newer ones, The services page is the place to compare what is included. More local pages: Fort Collins, Thornton, Lakewood and Denver, the Colorado overview and every city in the United States.
Reader polls
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Free tools to help you plan
Cremation cost calculator
Estimate a realistic price range for your pet's size, location and the type of cremation.
Livestock mortality planner
Plan disposal capacity and costs for farm losses, from one animal to a herd.
Urn size calculator
Find the urn volume you need from your pet's weight, plus keepsake and sharing options.
Questions people ask
When is the hardest time of year to arrange a burial in Northglenn?
January, February, March, November and December: average lows are below freezing then, and frozen ground makes a home grave slow or impossible until it thaws. The other pressure point is July, when highs around 88°F mean a body needs cooling and collecting quickly.
Can a provider from a neighbouring town collect from Northglenn?
Usually yes. Thornton is about 3 miles away, Broomfield is about 5 miles away and Westminster is about 6 miles away, all inside a normal collection radius. Get the mileage written into the quote so there is no surprise on the day.
How do Colorado attitudes to cremation compare?
NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024) puts the Colorado human cremation rate at about 77.4%[1]. We show it on the Northglenn page because pet aftercare choices tend to track it: where cremation is normal for people, communal and private pet cremation are both easy to find.
Will I have to travel to Denver to arrange things?
Not usually. Providers based in Denver (roughly 12 miles from Northglenn) collect from here as a matter of routine, and the paperwork is done by email or phone. If you want to be present for a witnessed cremation, that is when the drive matters.
How much ash will I get back from a goat, sheep or hen?
Cremated remains are about 3-5% of body weight[3]. A 70 lb pygmy goat returns roughly two to three and a half pounds of ash; a 160 lb alpaca returns five to eight. A hen returns only a spoonful or two, so ask for a small container rather than a standard urn. The urn size calculator on our tools page can help.
Is it normal to lose goats or sheep every year?
Sadly, yes. The USDA counted about 500,000 head[7] of adult goats and kids dying in the US in 2015, and sheep producers lost 6.8% of their flocks in 2019[8]. Losses come with keeping stock, which is why many smallholders plan aftercare early. Our livestock mortality planner helps you think it through.
Sources and our estimates
- [1] The NFDA projected Colorado's cremation rate at 77.4% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [2] Cremating a 1,000-pound horse was reported to cost about $600-$1,000, depending on location and the price of propane. Extension Horses (eXtension national Cooperative Extension) - Horse Disposal Options, 2019, 2019.
- [3] Embrace notes cremated remains typically weigh about 3-5% of the pet's original body weight. Embrace Pet Insurance - Bury or Cremate Your Dog? Costs, Pros & Cons, 2025.
- [4] CareCredit lists US communal cremation at $150-$200 and private at $350-$450 for pets over 90 lb. CareCredit (Synchrony) - How Much Does Pet Cremation Cost? (Sept 2023), 2023.
- [5] Midpoint horse cremation cost works out to about $0.80 per pound of body weight, versus about $0.14 per pound for rendering pickup and $0.23 per pound for on-farm composting. Our estimate: cremation $800 / 1,000 lb; rendering $137.50 / 1,000 lb; composting $275 / 1,200 lb. How we calculate.
- [6] Each HPAI-infected premises averaged about 102,814 affected birds (Feb 2022-Sep 2025). Our estimate: 179,000,000 / 1,741. How we calculate.
- [7] About 500,000 U.S. adult goats and kids died in 2015, equal to 9.8% of the adult goat inventory and 19.4% of kids born; losses were valued at $69.6 million. USDA APHIS NAHMS - Goat and Kid Predator and Nonpredator Death Loss in the United States, 2015, 2015.
- [8] In 2019, 6.8% of U.S. sheep inventory and 12.0% of the lamb crop were lost to death; predators caused 32.6% of sheep losses and 40.1% of lamb losses. USDA APHIS NAHMS - Death Loss Trends in the U.S. Sheep Industry: 1994-2019 (Sheep Death Loss 2020, published June 2022), 2019.
Find who takes farm species near you
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