Changing from shavings to wood pellets?

madhector

madhector

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soon to be up north!
www.darlingdressage.co.uk
I am thinking of swapping my lot over from shavings to wood pellets, after my last order of shavings cost me £8.22 a bale!!

I have 3 in at the moment and although one is lovely and clean the other 2 are messy b****rs. Can anyone advise where to buy/how much it will cost and how much I will need to use each week? Plus how to maintain the beds? Have always used shavings or straw or cardboard so is totally new to me, but fed up with the cost of shavings and cannot get rid of straw...



Thanks
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I had a demonstration from Five Star Bedding ( www.fivestarbedding.co.uk ) althougth I only went with them as they are local - the man brought fourteen bags I think, which was enough approximately an average sized stable plus a months supply (at one bag a week) for £60.

I went from using two-three (sometimes four) bales of shavings a week, to using on average one bag a week of wood pellets. My horse was filty on other types of bedding though.

I must admit, I don't buy direct off Five Star - as one of my local feed merchants sells the for £5.60 a bag, which I know is more expensive than buying them direct (I think direct they are about £4.20 a bag), but I find it more convienant.

I wouldn't go back to anything else now!
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I use wood pellets.
I have 4 all 16hh plus.
They are on rubber matting and up to this year used hemp based bedding either equisorb or aubiouse over the rubber matting.
This got REALLY expensive so this year I moved to wood pellets and find they make a nice bed which is dry and there is no smell !. It takes about 6/8 15 kilo bags to set up a bed which are watered when you set it up but then dry pellets are added I use 1 x 15 kilo bag per horse per week after that.(They are out 7:30 until 4:00 every day).They are cheaper to buy and I was using 2 bales per horse per week before so a saving all around
They also seem to rot down well.
I am a convert and wouldn't go back to other bedding
I used five star bedding and had a couple of pallets delivered .
 
Both my stables have very thick Stablelite matting which is a non bed matting - pee will soak through. I like to have a 3 - 4" deep bed over half the stable area which stops smell, wet rugs and pee draining out the stable.

I started with 4 x 15 k bags of LWP. Farra is a clydesdale mare that drinks 5 gallons of water and eats at least half a bale of hay overnight - so you can image the results. She is out most days between 8 and 4 and I use 2 x 15k bags a week and occasion 3 on her as she is so dirty.

Chancer my traditional cob is in 24 x 7 three days a week and out 9 - 4 four days. He is a fairly clean chap, pees in one spot and poos at the back, but again is on ad lib hay, and drinks a fair bit so produces plenty of muck. I use 2 bags max a week with him.

With Farra, I take out most of the wet area mid week as she is such a wet horse, and put 1 bag in and then at the weekend take out all the wet area but do not touch the clean area as it has formed a nice base, and put 1 or 2 bags in. Stinky has the wet out at the weekend and 1 - 2 bags put in. I damp the pellets just enough to have them crumbly but with a solid middle.

I love this bed, mucking out is 5 minutes most days - I just skip out the poo and level the bed and put a little of the dry bedding from the edges over the wet area. The bed is nice and dry and stays put once settled after a day. Do make sure you get any hay out of the bed - I rake mine over with a fine tined metal shavings fork. Cost - I bought 1000 ks of LWP at £213 delivered. I estimate that by changing from shavings for Stinky and megazorb for Farra that I will save at least £250 - £300 over the six months they come in, plus the reduced mucking out time.

Disadvantage - if you like big white fluffy beds then you are not going to be happy. The bedding goes brown as it breaks down and is not as smart looking. Personally this does not bother me, I like the time and financial saving far more than how the bed looks and the horse doesn't give a damm at what it looks like. They are both very happy to lie down on the new bedding.

You can get LWP online and there is a promotion on at the moment. I went for the 1000 in 15 k bags and if you have three and think you will be happy with the bedding, this is what I would go for.

I started using LWP at the beginning of November when mine came in and have used about half of the load on my two so far. I am converted to this bedding for the future.
 
you can also mix the shavings and pellets together so no need to clear your stable of clean shavings before you start

5 star are expensive i get mine fro Corley Biowood at £2.60 for 10kg bags !!! mine have 2 a week and 3 for the really really dirty ones
 
Has anyone tried Ecomax Horse Bedding. I'm lucky because I live near to where they're based in Haywards Heath so can pick up direct but I think they're getting stockists in other places too. I didn't realise that there was so much difference between all the different wood pellets but if you visit them they've got lots of different brads and will do a quick demo to show how much they differ in absorbency, smell and colour. Obviously the Ecomax smells the best, is a lovely pale yellow colour rather than dirty brown and is the most absorbent. I've gone from 4 bags of Liverpool Wood Pellets (LWP) a week to one of Ecomax. Before that I was using 3.5 bales of shavings a week. Shavings used to cost £28 per week (OUCH), LWP £19 a week and Ecomax is costing £6.00 per week on a VERY wet messy mare. Bargain!!
 
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