Deep Littering Stables

ABG1103

ABG1103

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Hi,
I have decided to deep litter this year to save time and costs. I’m aiming on doing a full muck out once a week.
I’m currently using straw bedding, but i’m not sure whether i’d be better off using straw pellets for the bottom and straw on top.
How many bags of Pellets does everyone use a week? and what pellets work best?
 
I use straw with a base underneath, currently miscanthus but I have used wood/straw pellets before. I think I was 1-1.5 bags per week. I don’t ever go ‘true’ deep litter though as I find my gelding normally pees in the one spot so it ends up being a bit bumpy!
 
I just deep litter on straw but i put a deep bed down and keep it well topped up during the week. I muck all the wet out once a week. My horse buries his poo and is ‘busy’ in his stable but the wet never comes to the top. It’s certainly the cleanest way i have kept a horse, I found all other bedding too expensive to keep as clean as i can with straw.

When i had a full wood pellet bed i put in 1-2 bags per week
 
Over the years I’ve broken my back x2, keep my 3 horses at home & they come in at night. First time I decided to deep litter until I was back in action. Removed droppings every day, tidied beds & fresh shavings down. Planned on a full muck out when I could manage it. Never again! It was such hard work. Second time I decided to muck out, slowly & carefully, 1 stable every day so a 3 day rolling programme. Much better & now years later I still do this, works well for me.
 
Nemo19 said:
I didn't realise people still did deep litter. I've not seen a deep litter bed in so many years.
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Not only do they deep litter… I do proper deep litter. Poo is skipped out every day but I don’t muck the whole bed out til spring with the tractor!

The bed is pure straw split into large pens in a byre, so nice and airy and plenty of ventilation. There is always enough clean straw on top that I will happily lie in the bed myself - it’s only the base that is wet and you’d need to dig down for it.

It wouldn’t work if she was a bed digger, and she always wees and poos in the same place so is an easy one to maintain. But when you have a big pen and need a thick bed (she does love a lie down), deep litter is just so much easier.
 
khalswitz said:
Not only do they deep litter… I do proper deep litter. Poo is skipped out every day but I don’t muck the whole bed out til spring with the tractor!

The bed is pure straw split into large pens in a byre, so nice and airy and plenty of ventilation. There is always enough clean straw on top that I will happily lie in the bed myself - it’s only the base that is wet and you’d need to dig down for it.

It wouldn’t work if she was a bed digger, and she always wees and poos in the same place so is an easy one to maintain. But when you have a big pen and need a thick bed (she does love a lie down), deep litter is just so much easier.
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Sounds lovely and you know what they say. If it's not broke then don't fix it.
 
Identityincrisis said:
I just deep litter on straw but i put a deep bed down and keep it well topped up during the week. I muck all the wet out once a week. My horse buries his poo and is ‘busy’ in his stable but the wet never comes to the top. It’s certainly the cleanest way i have kept a horse, I found all other bedding too expensive to keep as clean as i can with straw.
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I've been doing the same with the barn my two access, but (it's a big barn) I only muck out the wet once a month. Sounds disgusting but I've been amazed at how clean the top stays just with chucking clean straw on every other day. It doesn't smell and their feet are in great shape. I poo pick every day, then every few weeks I throw all the clean top layer to the sides and haul out the entirety of the soggy horrible underlayer. I think it works well partly because the barn is an ancient rammed earth and cobble floor so any excess liquid soaks away. Anyway I've been surprised by how effective it is.

ETA actually very similar to @khalswitz ....except that I don't have a tractor so leaving it until spring might kill me!
 
I've just switched from a full straw muck out every day to a deep woodchips base and straw topping.
Thought it would be an unholy mess but it is standing up well.
I will see how it goes - either take wet out once a week or do a proper deep litter.
 
I’ve deep littered wood pellets really successfully. Only removing any surface wet, and all droppings. Forms a firm base & can muck out down to this, every month or so.
 
Widgeon said:
I've been doing the same with the barn my two access, but (it's a big barn) I only muck out the wet once a month. Sounds disgusting but I've been amazed at how clean the top stays just with chucking clean straw on every other day. It doesn't smell and their feet are in great shape. I poo pick every day, then every few weeks I throw all the clean top layer to the sides and haul out the entirety of the soggy horrible underlayer. I think it works well partly because the barn is an ancient rammed earth and cobble floor so any excess liquid soaks away. Anyway I've been surprised by how effective it is.

ETA actually very similar to @khalswitz ....except that I don't have a tractor so leaving it until spring might kill me!
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Yeah I would not be leaving it til spring if the tractor wasn’t doing the work 😂
 
Archangel said:
I've just switched from a full straw muck out every day to a deep woodchips base and straw topping.
Thought it would be an unholy mess but it is standing up well.
I will see how it goes - either take wet out once a week or do a proper deep litter.
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Interesting, just bog standard wood chippings? Might look into this
 
I put one bag of wood pellets down and it lasts 10 days. Straw on top. You have to be quite careful mucking out the first couple of days whilst the pellets get a bit more solid but then it's pretty easy. I do scrape any wet straw off each day.
 
I use straw pellets and shavings - I try and keep the straw pellets underneath but they do miss with the shavings but they do work well together. I skip out until i see the wet come to the top and then remove it. I would say each horse has 2 bags of straw pellets and a bale of shavings on average per week - 10 days so not the cheapest but it’s the best system I’ve found so far and it’s easy to maintain. I guess it’s sort of semi deep litter.
 
I've never found deep littering to save costs tbh (maybe a bit on shavings but they start out more expensive so there's no point making the switch) - I think using sawdust or pellets and doing a full muck out every day is more likely to do that.

When I deep littered on straw I had big banks to use as fresh bedding once I'd skipped out and they got a big slice of new straw every day to keep their footing dry. So the new straw would become the banks and yesterday's banks became that night's bedding. That saved time because I could not put new straw in if i didn't have the time one night. I didn't use pellets or sawdust because I found straw's quite good at keeping the moisture in if there's enough fresh on top but I know others have and found it helped with costs.

It will save you so much time! I used to love it when I was still at school because it cut at least half an hour out of my evening routine which meant I had more time to ride. Don't do what I did though and fully deep litter (digging it out after winter) - it was hell 😂
 
holeymoley said:
I use straw with a base underneath, currently miscanthus but I have used wood/straw pellets before. I think I was 1-1.5 bags per week. I don’t ever go ‘true’ deep litter though as I find my gelding normally pees in the one spot so it ends up being a bit bumpy!
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Mine builds a wee hill too! He always wees right in the middle, and then walks slow circles around the edge of his stable forming a sunken track around the outside and a big wet hill in the middle - really annoying! He's on a mix of pellets to soak up the wet, and Aubiose to form a dry layer on top, but if I use too many pellets his hill ends up a mountain.
 
Proper deep littering to me is leaving the bed alone all winter, apart from removing droppings and topping bed up. I find if the bed is mucked out properly every 3/4 days it disturbs the stability of the bottom of the bed and can actually smell more. I've properly deep littered over the years with no issues. I currently fully muck out both everyday but if I needed to I would deep litter again, on straw.
 
Thank you everyone, it seems like everyone does it so differently, i will work my way thru everyone’s advice and see what works for me and my horse! hopefully we can come up with a good deep litter system.
Keep commenting your experiences, it’s really helpful!
 
I did a proper deep litter, wood pellet bed for a TB mare that I had a few years ago. It stayed in all winter! It all became semi solid (like a firmish mattress), I'd take the poo out and if any wet came to the surface I'd dig out that particular bit but otherwise I left it well alone and chucked a bag of pellets in once a week - it was brilliant! But the mare wasn't a digger and was calm in the stable, would not work for my current horse!
 
I have a sloped semi-deep litter bed.
Its 2 sharing an large open front wide double stable size.
1 metre rubber mats at the very front, bed behind mats, full width.
The sloping bed prevents casting. Its deep and packed at the back, shallower at the front.

I prefer a wood pellet base, with shavings topping. Although if i could get it, i’d have chopped miscanthus topping, instead of shaving as miscanthus rots down very quickly on the muck heap, compared to shavings. Its better for field spreading too as fertiliser, when fully rotted down.

Because of cost and supply issues im struggling with shavings only. Pellets became 800 per tonne compared to 350.

I’d use 12 bags x 10kg pellets spread evenly as base layer, slightly soaked to get them to break up and be fluffy (my mare freaked out with pure dry pellets rolling under her feet!)
Then i’d top over that with about 5 bags of 20kg shavings. Packing it more at the back, than the front.

The pee, with 2 horses using the space randomly would spread evenly underneath, soaked up brilliantly by the pellets. No smell.
I’d add more shavings weekly (1 bale average) as their weight would pack it down.
When pellets become soaked through, i’d scrape off dry topping to the side, and shovel-out the wet pellets underneath. Replace with 12 more pellet bags, start again.

But if i wanted to go extra deep litter, or the tractor/trailer was unavailable, i’d scrape back shavings and add even more pellets ontop of wet, replace dry shavings as topper. Keep replacing shavings on top as a nice dry warm layer.

Poo-picking is the only job to do.
If i had to do it by barrow, which i used to - it was a 15+ wheelbarrow loads and hard work. But still hour for hour - timewise, 4 hours mucking out pee base layer after 3 months of just poo-picking was better than digging out pee daily for 2 horses, which was more time-consuming and used FAR more bedding as it was never fully soaked.
With just shavings, pee removal daily had me adding half bale of shavings daily + 1 barrow extra daily of soggy+partial wet shavings.

Shaving are rubbish for soaking up pee - but make a nice topping.

Wood pellets underneath really do soak up pee well and it doesnt smell. The best bedding type ive used for pee never smelling.
A Miscanthus only bed smelt of pee underneath. Miscanthus chopped doesnt soak up pee well.
 
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I tried deep litter on miscanthus one winter for a fairly messy pony. Didn’t smell but was ‘dirty’ looking other than top up day. Clearing stable was a time consuming job come spring. Not sure saved any cost or time mucking out. I didn’t have mats in the stable. I was used to semi deep litter as the yard skipped out during the week. Was smelly though satisfying job at the weekend to take the wet out. Now on full livery and they fully muck out on shavings. This results in
Cleanest bed all week long
 
I deep litter through winter and then clear it all out in the spring - no tractor, yes it breaks me every time 🤣

BUT because I have concerns about having wet straw against wooden panels all winter, as AA mentioned, I clear out 6-8 inches at the edge each week/two weeks. YO isnt bothered but as she's so easygoing about a lot of things, I'd rather minimise damage.
 
I deep litter. Big open barn with concrete floor. Wood pellets with straw on top. Lovely big bed as 3-4 share the barn and it is run in/run out.

Never smells and it gets topped up with fresh straw whenever needed. We muck out with the tractor 1-2 times per winter.
 
I have deep shavings beds with wood pellets on the base where they wee and although they don't come in that much I do a proper muck out every week or so, it never comes through and I just put clean on top in between and the beds stay lovely and white it saves on shavings so much.
 
I have a wet and dirty mare ( coloured to make matters worse😳). I’ve found the best solution is a semi deep litter bed with straw pellets underneath and sawdust on top as they mix together well and both are absorbent. I dampen the pellets in a wheelbarrow and fill up the wet patches that come up during the week. Maybe not a true semi deep litter bed, but definitely deep and I don’t remove the full base at once. It would most likely work as a full deep litter bed, but I can’t face the heavy slog of taking out the bed after winter!!
 
I sort of deep litter with aubiose. Mine are pretty much out all year round now but when they were in overnight on livery I'd remove the poo daily, take out any wet bits that rose to the surface and top up with 1-2 bales a week. Breeze block stables.

I'd pay a 14yo to dig it out over the summer.

I now have wooden stables and keep a shallow bed down all year, adding extra if they need to start coming in overnight. Same process - poo out, any obvious wet bits and top up. Smallest pony is very neat so her bed stays down (did 2.5 years then stables flash flooded). Big mare filthy so she's an annual dig out and gelding builds a mound in the middle which gets dug out annually. Sadly no 14yo now I have my own place so its all me.
 
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