Help me cut down on bedding cost!

I

IsabelleJ

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 June 2007
Messages
844
Location
Hampshire
Visit site
As with everyone, shavings costs have gone up considerably, to the point that I'm now paying £6.95 from my yard. I was wondering if anyone had any cheaper/more efficient alternatives.

I like shavings, so anything kind of like that would be ideal. Absolutely no straw, as I hate it with a passion! I am on rubber matting, and the back 1/4 of the stable has a bed of a decent thickness, with banks. It gets taken up every day, and I'm not a fan of deep littering. I use 4 bales of shavings a week, although my boy is not particularly messy.

With that in mind, what do other people use? I know that all your prices will be different, but hopefully they will be similar to what I can get stuff for around here. Does anyone use paper/cardboard, and what do you think of it? (I do laugh when the horses on it come out of the box with their hooves all colourful and covered in it
smile.gif


Thanks in advance.

Isabelle
 
4 bales a week seems quiet alot, esp as you say your boy is not messy, could you just use less, and be ultra carefull over the ammount you throw away everyday?
i use one bale a week, am on mats with a decent bed, yes its not the cleanest bed, but its serviceable, and saves me a fortune on bedding costs. and i odont think the horses care if they have a spotless bed
my feedstore gave me bedmax the other day, as they had run out of shavings. around the same price per bale i think
the flakes are alot larger and looked nice at first, but after a week, the bed is dirtier than usual, and i dont think they are that good
frown.gif

used paper when i worked for mary king
personally i hated it, and unless you took out every single bit of wet and dirt, the bed was soggy and horrible. she was able to put in multiple bales per day as she was sponsored by them, but i think it might be an expensive option when paying for the bedding
frown.gif
 
4 bales a week is an awful lot. I use 1 bale per week (very occasionally 2 for the two huge horses). I use a mix of shavings and dust-extracted chopped straw which costs £5.40 per bale for 100litres. They have thick beds on top of rubber matting - I take the droppings out each morning and then last thing at night and the wet out once a week. The bedding is very absorbent and there is never any smell. I have tried aquamax which I hated, paper which just went into a soggy mess and megazorb but tend to come back to the shavings and chopped straw mix - although one is on Bedmax shavings as he has a real dust allergy and they are more dust-free than shavings.
 
4 Bales a week seems alot to me
shocked.gif


I have always thought I use much too much, as I use 2 bales a week and my old boy is ultra clean and his bed is always nice a white(ish) looking and passes the 'fork' test on that amount
ooo.gif


I now have a complete rubber matting flooring, but continue with the same amount of shavings as before, as the matting is to allow him to lay down and roll with ease, as he was starting to struggle
confused.gif


I never fiddle with the walls or any other dry areas and only take out the wet patch once or twice a week at the most. Then once a year I remove the walls and any musty bits and pressure wash the stable.

The area covered by shavings is about 9' 6" x 9' 6".

I pay £6.35 at the mo ....

PS There's my little chap in my Avatar surrounded by his nice clean white(ish) bed
grin.gif
grin.gif
 
I too got fed up with the price of shavings, and have moved mine onto ecobale bedding (cardboard)

It works out about £4 per bale delivered, brilliant stuff, no dust at all, very easy to muck out. I have rubber mats and put a half bed on top, use about 1 bale a week per horse. I have terrible OCD about my beds, but using ecobale has made me much better, as it doesnt really look much different after a few days, so not tempted to keep it too clean
smile.gif
 
I use aubiose, and i do deep litter and take out all wet at the weekend. I add one bale a week and its costs me around £6.50. My mare isnt filthy, and 1 bale seems to be fine. I dont think it would be much different if i took the wet out daily

I have to say 4 bales a week seems tons, esp as you dont have a massive bed and have mats
 
That is a lot of shavings to get through a week. I'm fussy too, and muck out very thoroughly every day, but get through a maximum of 2 bales a week. That's a full bed with no mats in a 12 x 12 stable. Nice and deep too.
 
I was using 2-3 shavings a week so i swapped to equisorb which i use 1 1/2 of a week,

I treat it exactly the same way as my old bed and skip out daily and take the bed up and the wet out once a week.

Its very warm and absorbant and very easy to muck out ( i have a poo dancing horse! ).

Im very fussy about my bed and it always look lovely.

I do have pictures that i took to show someone else if you want to see it.

I pay 6.89 for a bale which isnt any dearer than you are paying for your shavings. I had to muck out a shaving bed last week and my god i hated it after changing the equisorb.
 
Eek, looks like I am using tonnes!

I am on part livery, so will either have to have a word with the girls or put him onto DIY. Have been contemplating going DIY anyway to cut costs, and so that I can do things the way I want to. Of course, I am probably even more wasteful when mucking out than anyone, but when it's your money you're throwing on to the muck heaps, it seems like a good incentive to get better
wink.gif


Thanks everyone! Will stick with shavings for now, and have a nose around the people who have other types of bedding.

Isabelle
 
[ QUOTE ]
I too got fed up with the price of shavings, and have moved mine onto ecobale bedding (cardboard)

It works out about £4 per bale delivered, brilliant stuff, no dust at all, very easy to muck out. I have rubber mats and put a half bed on top, use about 1 bale a week per horse. I have terrible OCD about my beds, but using ecobale has made me much better, as it doesnt really look much different after a few days, so not tempted to keep it too clean
smile.gif


[/ QUOTE ]
Do you get that from the place I pm'd you?
 
i bought 6 bales of shavings on feb 1st, and still have 1 1/2 left thats for 2 ponies on mats all i do is give them enough to pee on, i was spending more on bedding than i was on food for them. so decided to make full use of the mats, that was what i bought them for
smile.gif
 
hehehe your all going to hate me now... last time i brought shavings (about a month ago) i paid £2.80 per bale
smile.gif
 
Blimey you might hate straw, but I only use 1-2 bales per week for my stables... so that'll be £2 per week then....

I don't do banks anymore as they won't help a cast horse unless they are MASSIVE

Looks like if you cut out your banks you'd probably save a bale.
 
I use aubiose which works best if you deep liitter but you can obviously muck out fully if you want to but it isn't quite as efficient. I love it and I doubt I'll ever go back to straw... I'm just getting a bet going at the moment and am using one or two bales a week... I hope to cut that down to maximum a bale a week if not less...
 
Gees.. I must be horrible to my neddy, I put in 1 bale of shaving a week her bankings are fairly large but i only put a sprinkle of shaving down ie to soak up the wet (she has matting) this keeps her clean and costs down to a minimum as on DIY she hasnt complained yet!.
 
That's why I would never use shavings again for my mare as she is soooo messy & dirty I got through so many bales & her bed was still thin & horrible & it was so expensive. I do use straw but @ £2 a bale it means she can have a lovely deep luxurious bed, the more cleaner straw there is the easier the bed is to muck out and it's not breaking the bank! But if you hate straw that much then I would suggest cutting down on the shavings!
grin.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top