Thoughts About Stall-Bedding Choices
If you keep any horses in stalls, what's your preference on choice of bedding? How do you obtain and store it? Have you ever calculated what it costs you to bed a stall per month?
I just happened to be thinking about this while catching up on stall cleaning after the long holiday "weekend"
--when I admit, I wasn't as punctilious about it as I usually am, and thus had more time than usual to dwell on such a thing. Our primary bedding material is pine sawdust, obtained in bulk from a local mill. At times, we've also used baled pine shavings, bagged, pelleted bedding made from wood byproducts, and baled or chopped, bagged straw. Like wood-product bedding, byproduct of proximity to the forests north and west of here, straw is easy to come by, as we live at the eastern edge of a fast grain-growing area.
In other areas, I've also bedded horses on fir sawdust, cedar shavings, and sunflower hulls. I've been in barns that used shredded newspaper, and just this morning learned that it's possible to get animal bedding made from corn cobs.
I can't say that I've done a per-stall cost analysis lately, though I probably should. For us, and for many others, the issue isn't choosing on the basis of cost so much as it is availability--a lot of times, it seems you just have to suck it up and use what you can find at the time you need it.
For instance, during times when the local mill's not cutting pine, or when winter road conditions are really bad, we can't get our hands on a large truckload of delivered pine sawdust. Those are the instances when we're likely to switch over to bagged pelleted wood pellets. One nice thing about those is that they come in 40-lb. bags, making them easy to bring onto our property and easy to stack and store as well. But sometimes, when supplies are short or just not carried by local retailers, we can't get those, either. That's when we have to fall back on bagged shavings--EXPENSIVE to use on a regular basis--or that old horsekeeper's standby, baled straw.
Stall bedding--not the most exciting topic of conversation, unless you happen to be a horse person. For those of us who are, it's a fact of everyday life and regular expenditure. So I'm guessing you'll have something to say about it!
posted by Juli Thorson @ 10:57 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
My husband works for a sawmill so I am lucky to get him to bring home a pick-up truck load of shaving almost whenever I need it. Since its scrap its usually damp so I allow it to dry before using it, turning it over every so often to help it along.
We are also lucky to be surrounded by wheat farmers - and keep a handy supply of straw on hand, we get it directly from the fields at a really low cost - just a couple of bucks a bale.
Have used wood pellets in the past - great for soaking things up, but just doesn't look all that comfortable to bed down on. We have used it at rainy shows to soak up water on the tack room floor and between barns to help keep the water down.
I have heard that moss can be used as bedding? Anyone used that?
I have seen people use shredded paper before and it was really gross when it got real wet. All soggy...
Steph--
I didn't care for the shredded paper bedding, either, when I saw it being used. When soaked, it really stuck to the horses' bodies where they'd lain on it. And it just wasn't very....barnlike, if you know what I mean!
I haven't used peat moss--it doesn't come from around here (Pacific Northwest), so the resulting trucking costs make it costly in this area.
That's the thing about bedding: Traditionally, it's whatever byproduct/refuse you can find from industries in your area. We used to get chopped straw for nothing from a small plant that produced it as a byproduct of making straw erosion mats.
Juli: Saw your comment and I had to laugh...paper shavings...I remember when a certain fairgrounds arena got "such a deal" on shredded paper for their arena floor. They mixed it in with their tanbark and lo and behold it smelled just like mold or cat urine. Can you imagine showing in that area...couldn't stay to watch or show as the area smelled so bad.
We're fortunate as we have a baled shavings manufacturer right here where we live. We get our shavings at a discount from the plant.
I've used the following:
Straw - pretty to look at but no absorption capabilities.
Peatmoss - yuk, not easy to work with or pick manure from, didn't smell nice.
Bagged Clean pine shavings with no dust - pretty, sounds nice when horses move thru it but little absorption.
Bagged Pine shavings from TSC with dust - 2nd favorite because they're dry, pretty, and absorb urine well, but I go thru lots of it as I'm manic about picking out wetspots and manure.
Pine shavings/dust from pallet plant - cost effective as it's free but not available in my new location - also not for heave-prone horses as it's real dusty.
Wood pellets - My favorite! Easy to pick wet and manure from it, easy to handle, cost effective. Only downside is my farrier swears that the inherent dampness in it causes hoof quality issues in some horses.
I have a small 6-stall barn on a little over 6 acres. I have found that the bagged wood pellets with cedar work the best. Clean, absorbant, smell good and are bio-degradable. I can easily pick out the manure first and then spread the dirty bedding on my property, where it just gets absorbed.
I have been experimenting! One of my horses will cough a lot when I have him on straw although it is my personal favorite for both looks and cleaning ease although it is not very absorbent. Went to shavings from a local mill but they went out of business. Tryed bagged shavings - too hard to pick through and expensive. Bagged pellets - easy to pick through but expensive, damp all the time and packs really bad. Nexted I tryed combinations. Wow did I ever find a good one. Sawdust from a pallet making factory (free) mixed with pellets makes it cost efective, eliminates the packing and wet issues and makes the price more reasonable. The manure pile is a lot smaller as well. I have recently tryed peatmoss in the mix. It is dark but the horses don't seem to mind and that is what counts with me. I heard that it cut down on the amonia smell and it really does. I use it when my horses have to stay indoors during the day as well as night because of bad weather. It does smell earthy but the smell of the urine was completely gone. Just a half inch on the bottom is better than stall dry any day. It will cost me about $25.00 a month now for bedding per horse.
I am currently using bagged shavings I get from a local wood shop and while they are cheaper than buy from feed stores or TSC they are not cheap and a pain in the butt!
This is my first time using them as the previous 2 barns I boarded at had stalls with runs and a dirt floor, but my mares are currently in box stalls at night and I HATE IT!
Picking shavings is no fun but luckily my arab mare is a neat freak and does all her "business" in one corner. My TB mare on the other hand is a PIG and goes EVERYWHERE!
My barn owner is doing some re-arranging after selling a couple of her horses though so very soon I'll be moving them into a large double stall with turn out so my time with shavings is limted!
In the stall/turnout environment I just used baled straw in the cold months as bedding as when give the option to be in or out at their discretion neither mare goes potty inside.
I have two large geldings and found our regular barn shavings weren't keeping up with them so every Saturday I strip their stalls and put in two bags each of pelleted and two bags of pine shavings on top of the pellets in each stall. They are good for the week with just picking them out daily. It's expensive but they like laying down in the shavings and the pellets keep up with urine.
We use Dry Stall. Its like cleaning a litter box. All you haul away is the manure. The material is so absorbent! Works Great.
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