BEDDING:S Cheapest?

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staceyn

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I currently use shavings which is £7 per bale, i can not use straw due to my horses being soft and coughing from it.
Are there any alternatives?
Is there such thing as cardboard mills or paper mills were i could buy in bulk?

Trying to stop spending so much of hay and bedding and feed if anyone knows of any cheap places in lancashire or other ways to go about it to get discount please help me as im spending far too much money!

Thanks
 
Gosh, your shavings are cheap - round here they are £8+ a bale :eek:

I use Bedsoft rape straw which is about £6.50, I love it :)

I think it is a false economy to skimp on hay or haylage, much better to feed more of this and less hard feed tbh, although saying that, with this wet weather I am going through tons of haylage and bedding :(
 
If you buy s pallet at a time the shavings work out about £5 a bale depending on the type, I get free shredded paper from work and mix it wil the shavings, they have so much they have to get it taken away!
There are companies that sell bales of paper but not sure of cost or retailer due to your location.
 
We use wood pellets - £2.30 a bag! We bought a pallet load off Liverpool Wood Pellets. Easy to muck out and only need to top up a bag a week.
 
Unfortunately we are all in the same boat, all hobbies are expensive, and there is no known cure, I suggest you find a sharer who will help out financially.
Rubber mats are useful if you are trying to use less bedding, also lots of turnout.
I pay £4.00 per 15kilo bag of pellets and use two bags per week in the middle of winter, less when out more.
 
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Cardboard - it is amazing and at £3.50 a bag cant go wrong. If you skip out wet everyday I've been told it doesnt work out much cheaper - I think it depends on how you muck out really!

I use mine and mix it with shavings, I only ever take the wet out when it squelches and under foot, but the wet rarely comes to the top of the bed.

Its also dust free and the place I get mine from uses recycled cardboard and also reuses the bags the cardboard comes in so helps keeps the cost of making the bedding down.

:D
 
Thanks guys i already have a sharer but think shes leaving soon cause she cant ride them as they are too young that my problem noone will pay for a horse they cant ride lol! il call up liverpool pellets place thats sounds a good deal to me are pellets just like shavings but bigger chunks?
 
staceyn said:
Thanks guys i already have a sharer but think shes leaving soon cause she cant ride them as they are too young that my problem noone will pay for a horse they cant ride lol! il call up liverpool pellets place thats sounds a good deal to me are pellets just like shavings but bigger chunks?
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Pellets are compressed sawdust, you add a small bucket of water to a barrowful, they swell up in 30 mins then you put them down, they are part wooden worm, part sawdust
If all the pones are young do they have to be stabled, as this is usually done for rider convenience.
 
I deep litter, wood pellets on the bottom with shavings on top. Each stable has 1 x pellets and 2 x shavings per month so £23 each per month to bed.
 
Sawdust! Buy in bulk. We had 10 tonnes delivered end of january which cost about £200. Seems alot but we have bed down six stables and ours spent alot of time in over winter and we still have maybe three tonne left! Works out so much cheaper than paying out for a bale or more of shavings each week per horse!
 
I recently tried Eco ComfyBed a wood fibre bedding, it's £6.30 a bale direct from the manufacturer and I get through a bale a week so pretty cheap and it's quick to muck out. It's dust free which has helped to stop one of my mares from coughing so much.
The dirty stuff also doubles as a great chipping for my gateways which has stopped them getting too muddy what with all of the rain we've been having!
 
the easiest and cheapest bedding is using a good quality wood pellet. the pellet should be virginal pine (never use recycled wood), have a very pale colour (the darker ones contain the bark) and after adding water should smell of pine trees and not of wet wood. I have used and tested around 10 different makes and the Brites pellets are still the best.
 
their economy pellets don't absorb as much fluid as their more expensive ones, which I believe are Brites pellets. Please make sure you pay the normal 20% VAT rate, as the reduced rate of 5% is only for fuel orders. If the VAT man finds out you are using the 5% ones for bedding, you and the supplier could be fined up to £5000.
 
vieshot said:
Sawdust! Buy in bulk. We had 10 tonnes delivered end of january which cost about £200. Seems alot but we have bed down six stables and ours spent alot of time in over winter and we still have maybe three tonne left! Works out so much cheaper than paying out for a bale or more of shavings each week per horse!
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Sawdust may be cheap but it is not a good horse bedding, the clue is in the name - it is dust and if your horse is sensitive at all, his breathing could suffer!
 
Another vote for wood pellets. But I can never believe it when people say top up with just one bag a week. I have five horses on it and they average 2 - 3 a week.
 
Sidney said:
Sorry to hi jack thread but are wood pellets suitable for horses prone to respiratory problems?

Thanks
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I have asthma and I am allergic to dust. Straw sets me off.

Wood pellets can be dampened when first laid down to break them down from the pellet form to the soft sand bed it becomes. Dampening will also reduce any dust.

However I never dampen them any more - I just throw them down. In the NW the air is damp most of the year, so there is only any 'dust' in the heat of summer - and you can dampen then if needed.

In three years, I have never had any reaction to wood pellets.

I trialled straw pellets last winter and I had a reaction to them at first.
 
vieshot said:
Sawdust! Buy in bulk. We had 10 tonnes delivered end of january which cost about £200. Seems alot but we have bed down six stables and ours spent alot of time in over winter and we still have maybe three tonne left! Works out so much cheaper than paying out for a bale or more of shavings each week per horse!
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Where from?

And how much room is needed to store 10 tonne?
 
We get ours from a local saw mill an as for space quite a bit! Our sawdust filled our barn and one of the small stables. We were shovelling it in for hours because it got delivered outside the yard gate. Hundreds of wheelbarrow loads!
 
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