Bedding Options?

Baydale

Baydale

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I'm looking into bedding options and wondered what you could recommend for: value, ease of use, ideally dust-free, labour-saving and not too difficult to dispose of. So, is there a product like this or is it kept in a secret place along with unicorns, mud-free gateways and self-cleaning tack? ;-)
 
Miscanthus all the way, have been using it for years. I occassionally try something else, but nothing beats it.

I buy it in bulk which makes it extremely cost effective. Only do a proper muck out once a week and it rots down quickly :)
 
Laysoft (or something similar). Hardly take any bedding out daily and do the wet patches every few days.

I did buy another make in bulk and found as the packaging had a few holes, the bedding went mouldy so now I won't buy in bulk (our storage facilities aren't good)
 
another miscanthus preferer here.

Though really I am only here to see if it is the actual real baydale or some usurper ;)
 
Nikkimariet, where do you get your safemix from in bulk? I'm reasonably local to you, and use safemix (sorry for the hijack)
 
It all depends on whether you use rubber mats and how you dispose of it.
Wood products are relatively slow to biodegrade and because they are soft wood are acid, so not a great idea to spread on your land. But they are cheap.
Miscanthus is more absorbent than rape straw but both degrade well and are fine to spread once you have. On rubber mats they work well as does card or paper although they do tend to sop up the wet IME (can you tell I have tried most??)
And wheat straw is warm, looks good, very biodegradable and easy to get hold of (and most times cheap if you can get hold of it locally) and easy to skip out. It does tend to stink though unless you just use it as a top layer - I like using it like that, doesn't get wet and you can easily lift the droppings off.
What's Safemix?
 
asmp said:
Laysoft (or something similar). Hardly take any bedding out daily and do the wet patches every few days.

I did buy another make in bulk and found as the packaging had a few holes, the bedding went mouldy so now I won't buy in bulk (our storage facilities aren't good)
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How much is Lay-Soft and are you always able to get hold of it? I know with some products whilst they may be great, they're not always reliable when it comes to availability and/or delivery?
 
JennBags said:
Snowflake Softchip pretty much fits the bill!
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How many do you use a week, aren't shavings expensive now (can you tell I've been out of it for a while?!)

I couldn't stand having everything covered in shavings: rugs, socks, tails, drove me mad with my levels of OCD!
 
PorkChop said:
Miscanthus all the way, have been using it for years. I occassionally try something else, but nothing beats it.

I buy it in bulk which makes it extremely cost effective. Only do a proper muck out once a week and it rots down quickly :)
Click to expand...

So how much time do you think you spend mucking out, per stable? And how do you get rid of it?
 
Baydale said:
How many do you use a week, aren't shavings expensive now (can you tell I've been out of it for a while?!)

I couldn't stand having everything covered in shavings: rugs, socks, tails, drove me mad with my levels of OCD!
Click to expand...

I've changed to straw now, but in the depths of winter I would put 2- 3 bales a week in as my horse was disgusting. They were less than £6/bale. When he was out longer (spring/autumn) it was 1-2 bales a week.

Because they're woodchip rather than shavings, they never really got stuck to everything like shavings do.
 
Baydale having used miscanthus and rape straw products I prefer the miscanthus as I think it is is more absorbent and it moves around less. The rape (bliss) you'd brush it back neatly and then it would creep forwards quickly, the miscanthus is chunkier and knits together better.
and yes dust extracted.

I use one bale of either a week, 14.2 out 8 hours a day in the rest, wet taken out once a week. I have on occasion also used a small bag of soaked wood pellets in the pee spot underneath.
 
I've just started using Megazorb for my allergy prone horse. It is dust-free and should be fairly economical once there is a deep enough bed down. I have rubber matting underneath the bed to make it a bit thicker. Best of all it takes 5 minutes to muck out! Just skip out the droppings and then remove the wet area once a day. It is made of wood pulp so degrades really well and can go on a normal muck heap the same as straw and is a nice white colour Apparently I should only need two add 1 bag or at the most 2 per week once he is in at night in the winter. :) The only downside is that it balls up in the feet and so goes everywhere but I can live with that! I'm contemplating putting my other very messy horse on it for the winter. Will cost a bit more than straw but should safe me lots of time which can be better spent doing other things ... like riding! :)
 
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