I've been humming away over in my corner of the world, unmotivated and unable to do much due to the bi-polar weather, which has left us very cold as of this morning, and with a lot of glaze ice. As I come up on the end of my first month of expense tracking, however, I am, once again, here to cast a question to the universe!
Has anyone used pelleted bedding, particularly in a cold climate? Please tell me your experiences... and how the heck you use it!
I was just taking a look at my local options, as my manure pile is getting rather large, especially this month, due to the sheer amount of moisture the mares have been putting off. It doesn't help that the pile is in a terrible location and the horses futz with it (it's moving this spring, because I know it should not be in my paddock! It's not a good place!). Regardless of the manure pile situation, while I'm not unhappy with my bales of shavings, I know that there is a fair amount of probably unnecessary waste.
Also the freezing pee is kind of obnoxious.
My local options are either various brands of baled shavings, baled straw or pine pellets (Tractor Supply). Shavings I feel I have fully pursued; I've found a good balance of bag size and value with the fact that finer shavings are much easier to pick when you have stall walking horses. While I would love to use EZ-Pick shavings until the end of forever, they are quite expensive for smaller bags and the smaller bags mean that I have to use more to provide, in my mind, enough padding to keep the horses from getting hock sores, as they all lay down. Straw is a nightmare due to weight, and I have a feeling that stall walkers plus straw would actually be the worst idea ever.
I've toyed with the idea of trying pellets before, but as I circle back to look at them... how does one use them when it's below freezing, if they need to be "fluffed" with water? All of the other benefits sound great, especially if they work out with my messier horses, but I can't figure out how to use them, or if they should be used by themselves, or in combination with shavings.
Anyone using pellets?
Has anyone used pelleted bedding, particularly in a cold climate? Please tell me your experiences... and how the heck you use it!
I was just taking a look at my local options, as my manure pile is getting rather large, especially this month, due to the sheer amount of moisture the mares have been putting off. It doesn't help that the pile is in a terrible location and the horses futz with it (it's moving this spring, because I know it should not be in my paddock! It's not a good place!). Regardless of the manure pile situation, while I'm not unhappy with my bales of shavings, I know that there is a fair amount of probably unnecessary waste.
My local options are either various brands of baled shavings, baled straw or pine pellets (Tractor Supply). Shavings I feel I have fully pursued; I've found a good balance of bag size and value with the fact that finer shavings are much easier to pick when you have stall walking horses. While I would love to use EZ-Pick shavings until the end of forever, they are quite expensive for smaller bags and the smaller bags mean that I have to use more to provide, in my mind, enough padding to keep the horses from getting hock sores, as they all lay down. Straw is a nightmare due to weight, and I have a feeling that stall walkers plus straw would actually be the worst idea ever.
I've toyed with the idea of trying pellets before, but as I circle back to look at them... how does one use them when it's below freezing, if they need to be "fluffed" with water? All of the other benefits sound great, especially if they work out with my messier horses, but I can't figure out how to use them, or if they should be used by themselves, or in combination with shavings.
Anyone using pellets?
I didn't find the cost ratio worth it with pelleted bedding when I tried it, but I also buy shavings by yard from a sawmill, which is stupid cheap. I'm not as far north as you, but a friend's barn in Chicago used to just put the pellets down without soaking, and then when the horses peed on it, the pellets would expand to soak it up. Doesn't sound comfortable for the horses in winter to me though, so idk if they changed things up by the season? Could you have shavings delivered in bulk?
ReplyDeleteThe pellets aren't any cheaper per 40 lb bag than my shavings, so I unless I have a lot less waste I don't know if they will change my life. They definitely don't seem too comfy for the horses in winter so maybe I'll have to try them as a mix and just see if they do anything. I haven't been able to find a place that delivers shavings (or one that advertises) locally, though I should probably do another google search as it's been 6 months since I looked. I'd have to figure out how to store it, but it would be my preference, for sure!
DeleteI tend to use shavings and sawdust as interchangeable terms, and they're really not, oops. I have sawdust delivered in bulk, not shavings. Ours comes from a company that also sells bulk mulch for landscaping, if that gives you any leads go start trying to locate one in your area?
DeleteI second the sawdust option if you can get it. Easy to clean, not a lot of waste, and while it sometimes does freeze in the sub zero temps, I am super happy with it. We buy one load a month from a local sawmill for $20 a pop which we use for the two horses and two steers. My $240 yearly bedding bill is the cheapest horse/cattle expense hahaha!
Deletei buy 50lb bags of pine pellets (actually, lol, feline pine kitty litter from amazon #basicallythesamethinganyway) to mix in with charlie's bedding bc some of his mats seem to collect moisture beneath them and he's... messy anyway. since i'm mixing it in with sawdust anyway, i don't bother with "fluffing" them. the folks who clean his stall say they help and use them regularly, but again they're not on their own.
ReplyDeletemy personal favorite bedding is sawdust, vs shavings. just seems easier to clean (in my opinion) and minimize wastage. plus i think it's generally cheaper than shavings - esp if you can find a source for deliveries by the truckload.
if pellets seem like your best option tho, i've heard that the way folks like to prepare them by laying a bag on the floor (maybe if you have a heated room like a shed, tackroom or feed room?), cutting a slice diagonally across the face of a bag, then pouring water in there and letting it sit for a little while. this way you end up with a mixture of "fluffed" stuff, with some full pellets still left in there (since they're more absorbent in pellet form, but not as comfy to lay on for the horses) and can then go and spread it around your stalls when it's a little more dry.
Amazon is the best :)
DeleteI will probably end up trying mixing them like you do, just to see if they do anything for my girls (even if it helps one of my stalls, #worth it). I'd love to use sawdust - the EZ Pick shavings are pretty much sawdust and they're so much easier to get clean - but I haven't found a local resource for it. These gosh darn mares and their gosh darn peeing and stall walking! I can't wait to boot them out into the pasture for the summer already :)
We use pellets, but it doesn't freeze here. They are very easy to clean stalls with because they turn into sawdust and just slip right through the tines. I throw them down then spritz a bit of water on until they fluff up. Fluffing only take a few minutes so I doubt they'd freeze in those few minutes, but again, I don't live where it freezes so I can't promise anything.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to find a sawdust resource to eliminate the water problem, but I am really liking pellets so far!
DeleteWe have used pellets in our barn now exclusively for about four years (we get a semi load from Canada which brings the cost down to $4 something a bag.
ReplyDeleteIn the winter we just put them in dry, they break up quite easily in a day or two. I think for the initial bedding with them you would want to do it on a day above freezing, so they would have enough "fluffed" pellets to have a nice bed, but after that just dump them in.
We clean our stalls with one of the machines, so we have to use something that is a lot smaller then shavings, and sawdust was getting hard to find in our area.
Thanks for the tips! I wish I could get a bulk discount, but I doubt I would use them up fast enough! I am super curious though... stall cleaning machines?! Sounds super cool. I haven't gone so far as to call saw mills (in part because I have nowhere to store loose sawdust) but sawdust seems really hard to find here, too.
Deleteyou took down your post on the new mare struggling with laying down to sleep. have you called your vet about it? there are lots of helpful articles out there on google too (this was literally the first result in a basic search: http://www.thehorse.com/articles/14675/sleep-crashing) but no internet resource can replace an actual in-the-flesh professional who can advise on your horse's well being.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, I wanted the videos to work and discovered they weren't so I pulled it down until I get get them to post... but I did read the article, and that's why I am trying various things to make her more comfortable; the one thing I can't do is put her in a bigger stall, as my 16x10 doesn't have kick boards up. I'm trying to not throw 6 different things at her at once so I can see what helps; so far, the MSM upping seems to have helped, at least a little bit!
DeleteI just switched to pellets myself but I’m in SC so no freezing. Initially it was a lot more expensive. I put 6 bags in each stall and got them for $4 a bag. But....cleaning stall went from 12 wheelbarrow trips to 7 and I used one bag total to top three stalls off instead of 6 new bags of shavings each week. So the intital was more but it was a ton less waste and weekly the price is way down.
ReplyDeleteInitially I just put the bags into the stall, ripped them open and wet them down. By the time I was down setting stall 3, I went back to the first and it was fluffy and I dumped the bags and spread. For the weekly cleaning I dumped a bag into my barrow and wet it in there so I could top off each stall as needed. It reminded me very much of a gigantic kitty litter box
Thank you for this! I am liking the shavings/pellets mix I've been using but I think (especially if I can stock up during a sale) I might make the full switch. The shavings I've been using are hiking up prices this winter, and I've been enjoying a much less overfull wheelbarrow as of late, which is great!
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