Deep Litter "Never Again"

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Carajack

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I have never been a fan of deep litter, but what with the freezing conditions, then me having woman flu, then OH having man flu I did it this year. Have just spent the last 4 hours mucking out, Oh my god, I am shattered, have a muck pile like mount Everest, a bent fork, bad back and have now got to go for more straw which will cost me a fortune, £3.00 a bale.
Never, Never, Never again.
 
i sort of deep litter, i take it all out every 6 weeks, takes about half hour, stinks to high heaven though :(
Suits my guys but not when one is on box rest and digs the entire bed up ...fresh straw on the bottom, dirty straw on top :mad:

Nice hot bath with lots of radox salts will sort you out...oh and wine and chocs :D
 
I have never been a fan either for the sake of a twenty minute muck out its not worth the bother, not good for the horses airways either, hope your back gets better.
 
I used to deep litter, as when I was on full livery the whole yard was deep littered. I hated it, and within 6 months of going DIY I'd ripped the whole stinking mess out!
 
Ayla84 said:
i sort of deep litter, i take it all out every 6 weeks, takes about half hour, stinks to high heaven though :(
Suits my guys but not when one is on box rest and digs the entire bed up ...fresh straw on the bottom, dirty straw on top :mad:

Nice hot bath with lots of radox salts will sort you out...oh and wine and chocs :D
Click to expand...

Like the wine and chocs suggestion, will call at the offie on way to get straw.
 
We use deep litter and it works a treat - but we do it with shavings, not straw. It saves a lot of time, money and back stress, the horses love it and lie down far more than they ever did on straw/mucked out shavings, and they have deep, warm beds. Yes, in the spring it's real hard work. But the farmer brings his trailer down and leaves it in the yard for 2/3 days, and we all buckle to.

The other great advantage is that the bottom is already part-rotted, which is great for the manure heap.

I haven't found anything bad about it - this is our third year - so am staying a happy convert.
 
Having deep littered with both straw and shavings I have to admit that it is much better with shavings than straw. I found the straw to be quite unpleasant at times, especially if you have a horse that digs or moves around a lot over it's bed. I think also that when we were deep littering with shavings we had such huge stables that even the bigger horses had loads of space and that helped a lot to keep the beds in order.
 
My dad deep litters his horses, and he does it big style!! They only get skipped out every day from late september til early April, and believe me, that is alot of muck to stay in the stable! He drives his muckspreader into the yard to muck out straight into, and as I did last year, I mucked out both boxes! Took 2 loads of the muckspreader and it was a killer. He has one horse now, but has done the same this winter, I tell ya, Iam on holiday when that muckspreader gets moved!! lol
 
Being honest I have never deep littered the smell alone makes me feel sick and to be honest my horses are really clean so 25 minutes to muck out both to the floor and no rubber matting either wont have it in my stables would rather have a nice clean smell free bed of straw for my guys far more healthy for them and us keep the flies and midges down in summer too then Ive not got tones to dig out at a later date. Dont mind mucking out to be honest.:D
 
I've never deep littered until a few months ago. I changed from straw to shavings last year and put mats down but the stable is huge and has a slight slope so all the wee was going underneath and it stunk. I started to put more shavings down but I was going through a bale a day. Now I take the poos out and any wet thats visible, then every month I have a good muck out.
 
I hate deep litter, smelly horrid and takes ages to eventually remove. I once had a neighbour on DIY as a favour who insisted deep litter was fine and that she would have no trouble clearing it all at the end of the winter...she was right, she took her horse and pissed off, leaving me having to pay 3 men a day's work to fork it all out!!!!!!!
 
I tried it once - never again - the boy pee's in the same place - so ended up with one side of the bed normal height and the other about 2ft high!
 
I took out about 6 months worth of deep litter at the weekend and it wasn't too bad - took about 20 minutes max with OH taking wheelbarrow to muck heap as I filled another. He couldn't believe the smell though - I think I've become immune over the years :D

I've tried full muck out every day with shavings and straw but much prefer deep litter on shavings to anything else - it's really good for saving time if you work full time.

However my old boy has become a bit wetter as he has got older and always wees in the same place so it was getting quite high in the middle so I'm going to try taking the wet at weekends.
 
Having helped someone dig out a deep littered stable with 6 months worth in it, I would NEVER do it myself. It was easily a foot thick and it would have been quicker and easier to dismantle the stable and rebuild it next door. The stink as we broke through to the lower layers quite literally took my breath away and the other person nearly passed out. I dread to think how bad we both smelled by the end. It was hours and hours of bone crunching hard work and I cannot understand why anyone chooses to do it to be honest. I use hemp bedding, poo pick every morning and tidy the bed - takes about 6 minutes. At the weekend I haul out the wet patch which is usually one full barrow and it takes no longer than a daily muck out of say shavings. Hemp is very light to handle, even when it is sodden and it deodorizes very efficiently so no nasty niffs. My old girl lies down comfortably every night and gets up without striking through to the concrete floor as she does so. As far as we are both concerned it is the perfect bedding and system for us - warmth and comfort for her, time and money saving (and better for my bad back) for me. :)
 
We used to deep litter, but with shavings - much easier to separate the poo and wet patches out! About a year or so ago we got some rubber matting put down. Cleaning out messy Bruces stable takes 10 mins tops (from 7pm to 6am the next day).... Only have to use a sprinkling (literally) of clean fresh shavings once a week. xoxo
 
Deep litter on shavings is great, saves time and bedding, and keeps them warm as well. As to digging it out in spring, I wouldn't know how hard or smelly it is, I get OH to do it - I would do it myself, but somehow I'm always very busy with some other important stuff, like hiding ;)
 
I hate Deep litter, may work for some but not for any of mine. Ive got Mats now however i still have the same huge shavings beds.
It doesnt take long to muck out though managed it in 30 mins the other day & that was doing 4 stables. I will admit i do a late night skip out night before so i never have massively dirty stables.
 
I love deep litter! Managed properly, you get a really good bed. I have rubber mats in the front half of my stable and a deep litter bed in the back half. My horse is incredibly wet so I'd need to put in a fresh bale of shavings every 2-3 days if I fully mucked out every day whereas on deep litter, he just needs a bale every 6-7 days. He is also a big horse and digs down to the concrete straight away (even with a deep fresh bed) so deep litter stays put. I take the muck out every day and any wet that is on top (rare). At the weekends, I level the base so usually take a fair amount of wet out but I never remove it fully. I actually think it makes a nice cushioned base for my creaky arthritic horse. As long as there is enough depth of clean bedding on top of the litter, it's a lovely clean bed.

However... I did really struggle with it this winter (and a bit last) because of the cold. It froze, which was fine, but then it defrosted suddenly and was a horrid soggy mess. Ended up taking out the majority of the base out, down to about 2in total left, because it was soaking the fresh bedding on top. Took me ages to sort it out but it's nice again now.
 
Deep litter done correctly doesn't smell and always has a lovely clean top bit to it, then a slighlty dirty but dry bit underthat then the wet 'slabs' at the bottom.
My stables can go for years at a time without the bottom layer being taken out, never had a horse with associated problems.. They have dry and clean on top, and never smell.. In saying that I do take out some of the base (not from under the banks) on an occasional basis so it probably on average is renewed every year or so without me diong a complete yearly removal
 
Used to have my pony on deep litter shavingsnand it worked well provided its well managed like the base not getting to thick and the top not getting to soggy but then im always very anal when it comes to mucking out i even rotate the banks and the bed so it has time to dry etc. have also had horses not on deep litter and on mats and i don't think in the long run it is any more or less work although my mare was very tidy and some of the other horse have not been personally ive found that rubber matting can get more wet and smelly as people have a tendency not to put down enough bed down
 
I deep litter using bliss on rubber mats. I have used shavings but bliss is better and cheaper and rots down quicker. I only deep litter the back. The stable is 14' x 12' for a 14.2hh pony.

I clear the whole lot out twice a year. OH takes wheelbarrows to the muck heap, I dig. Doesn't take long and no really bad smell.

Pony always on dry deep bed.
 
I find semi deep littering on straw works well, I have mats under a compacted bed ... the *really* wet bits & poo come out and a slab of new straw goes in ..... easy, comfy and not too much hard work :)

A large (£10) bale of straw will last me a month for two big horses :)
 
I think those who have hours and hours of mucking out to do when they clear a full bed out need to change their methods!
When I clear out a stable, top to bottom, it takes about ohh...forty mins if I was doing it fast and didnt' have to move the tractor so far to take the muck away to rot down.
Maybe an hour, 2 tops including tractor moving time? Unless your giong slowly about it, approach it in a work manlike fashion and it really doesn't take that long. and as i sid before, mine are only mucked out fully on a v. rare occasion. And there tend to be 2/3 stables being cleared. Of course that's easier with more than one person, but a solid hour working at one stable should get the vast majority if not all of it cleared unless your bed is 6 foot deep!
 
Deep litter depends on your base - fundamentally if you are on concrete you are going to build up ammonia

Mine are on earth beds, with straw and deep littered. Takes 10 mins to skip out and around twice a week I'll dig out the wet. The bed is not that thick, but this system works due to the base
 
Andalusianlover said:
I have a large stable and do deep litter with straw on a weekly basis. Works brilliantly for me.
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I might not be reading this correctly but do you mean you skip out during the week and do a full muck out once a week? If that's the case, then that's not deep litter.

Deep litter, done properly, isn't smelly or wet - it's warm, dry and super cosy. And when you take it out, whether that be annually or 6 monthly (or never!), then a bit of concerted effort (and a bloke helping!) and it doesn't take that long.
 
If you do it properly, it's dry, doesn't smell and lets the wee drain through rather than soaking the bed if you have a wet horse. It's a bit of a lost art though and many people try it, don't quite do it correctly and it stinks!

Have to say though, you're brave taking it all out - my plan this summer is to remove sufficient from the top that the height goes down, but I'm not taking it out completely. Took us long enough to establish a decent base and she's got the nicest bed she's EVER had now, not brave enough either to ruin that or to shovel the whole lot in a day! Used to get that job on 'work experience' as a teenager lol!
 
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