Chopped rape straw bedding

I use nedz pro after a recommendation from @TPO
I'd used wood pellets before and love them apart from in summer when everything gets coated in a thick layer of dust.
She seemed to be allergic to miscanthus (mallenders went seriously nasty, her coat got very thick with grease and scabs- coincided to changing to that bedding and cleared up when I moved off it) and I found it not very absorbent and horrid to muck out.
Horses for courses!
That said, aubiouse is £13 something a bag round here, I do find it a touch nicer than nedz and slightly more absorbent but I refuse to spend that much on a bale of bedding!
 
TPO said:
Thanks TFF, I dont know anyone personally that has used it and I've never used miscanthus before.

I placed a bulk order via efeed and it was £8.40 with bulk discount. Still £1.11 cheaper per bale than Nedz so hopefully it works as well if it better ??
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I used miscanthus for a while last winter. Another who can’t get rid of shavings but had a horse with a dust allergy.
I *think I used Fennington fibres.
It was so easy to muck out, I only stopped because it’s darker in colour and my stable lighting wasn’t great, I’d muck out first thing, think it was clean then have to find the bits in daylight ?
With decent lighting I’d have loved it! The horse didn’t cough once either
 
spacefaer said:
I use crs - wouldn't use anything else now - it's a lot better than shavings - less dusty, more absorbent and rots down very quickly. The farmer where I dump my muck wouldn't take shavings either.

The trick is to have a deep bed, then the wet stays underneath and doesn't mix in with the dry. And at £4.50 a bag, I love it too ?
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spacefaer said:
Mine is unbranded but he delivers nationwide (and the bonus is that he's only a couple of villages away so I can get it pretty quickly too!)
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I live in Shropshire too.
Who is your supplier please?
 
poiuytrewq said:
I used miscanthus for a while last winter. Another who can’t get rid of shavings but had a horse with a dust allergy.
I *think I used Fennington fibres.
It was so easy to muck out, I only stopped because it’s darker in colour and my stable lighting wasn’t great, I’d muck out first thing, think it was clean then have to find the bits in daylight ?
With decent lighting I’d have loved it! The horse didn’t cough once either
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I checked before buying that the miscanthus was dust extracted. The packaging and website all say yes but it the dirtiest bedding I've used, even more so than non branded shavings.

The top priority with bedding is that it has to be as dust free as possible. This stuff has me coughing up a lung. SuperDad helped with mucking out and he was coughing really badly too and "helpfully" pointing out all of the dust particles floating in the light

I've got to muck out at least an hour before they come in to give it time to settle and at least 2hrs if I've added fresh bales.

It's nowhere near as absorbent as Nedz Pro either.

The lesson is you get what you pay for ? that was me trying to be clever and save 40 quid ??‍♀️

Its properly branded stuff and I tried to research it properly before buying it (unseen from online merchant). I just cannot believe how dusty it is and I am really disappointed in it.

Just another 20 odd bags to go until I can order Nedz Pro again ?
 
awelshandawarmblood said:
I've not got on with wood pellets & like flax too but difficult to get a hold of regularly here. Was the chopped rape you used scented? My youngster chews everything so won't take much for him to try it I'm sure!
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My 2 horses both ate 20kg bale of it overnight and subsequently got laminitis and very dodgy guts. All the sellers of it say ’its unpalatable’ but mine went crazy for it....even when i mixed it in with shaving and miscanthus they were digging through it to sift through and eat it. Theyve never eaten any other bedding before....miscanthus is very similar but they dont eat that ever....but with rapeseed they devoured it.

It happened twice too...laminitis sudden eruption, as i ordered miscanthus and the manufacturer supplier had run out and bagged up rapeseed in miscanthus printed bags and sold it as miscanthus to farm stores...as he didnt think there was much difference. He was extremely argumentative on the phone...horrid guy. No respect for labelling laws or anything!
I had a whole pallet of the stuff with miscanthus written on the bag, containing chopped rapeseed. Never got a refund from the major irish farm store who sold it, or the manufacturer....despite telling them the friggin’ law!

So just buy a bag and try a bit at first before committing to a pallet load.

If you horse uses it as bedding instead of food its a good thing as its cheaper than most bedding because its considered a ‘animal food’ so contains no VAT on it.
It smells nice, very spongey for laying on....its quite fluffy and lightweight and moves on concrete floor, best used as a semi-deepbed so it can compact and not slide around on concrete. On mats i imagine it’ll be more ideal.
It rots down fast, is absorbant as shavings, maybe a bit more...

My ideal bedding would be flax, hemp or ground up miscanthus ...either stupidly expensive or impossible to find in ireland. one irish hemp bed supplier wants 18 euro per bag!!

im back on shavings....
 
LilyB92 said:
Hello! Please could you send me the details? I am in the same area-ish and am so interested! Thank you :)
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Meredith said:
I live in Shropshire too.
Who is your supplier please?
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He's called Andy Morris - based near Bridgnorth but delivers nationwide.
Just put the price up to £4.70 (!) plus delivery.
07902 860091
 
Myloubylou said:
My two eat the chopped rape and I didn’t like burleybed as didn’t find it absorbed the wet. Currently on wood pellets which is dead quick to skip out but super heavy to remove wet which sets like concrete. I like flax but mice get in. Only bedding I actually rate is aubiose but is so expensive.
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Hi sorry to reopen and thread! I was wondering if your horses ate auboise as well? I’m looking at non wood options for a piggy mare!
 
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