Has anyone tried chopping their own straw for bedding with a tractor driven chopper

[irish_only]

As above really. Use wood pellets at the moment, and although great, I have far too many horses to be spending daft money on bedding. It costs me as much on bedding as it does for hay and haylage. We used to chop our own straw but it was with a small bale chopper and was very labour intensive, but the beds were brilliant and really easy to maintain, and much less waste than conventional straw beds as you can really pick out the poo and wet bits, so we are now wondering whether to go for a pto driven chopper that takes big bales.
Anyone tried this, and what pro's and cons?

 

[mon]

use to do this for dairy cows bt dusty to do and chopper sends straw out fast but does do an excellant job, ought to able to pick a chopper up not to dear but need decent tractor to drive it.

 

[irish_only]

We've got a big enough tractor, and I know dust will be an issue, would be perfect if we could dedicate one building for chopping and storing, but then can you imagine trying to barrow it across the yard on a windy day!! We're thinking it would pay for itself within a couple of years

 

[cm2581]

What on earth are you paying for wood pellets that means they are so expensive?!!! Try arbuthnott wood pellets - http://www.hotstovies.com/ or liverpool wood pellets.

Dunno bout the chopped straw apart from I would have thought it would be a very dusty process and as its unreated would you not have a problem with the horses eating it?