Opinions on What is the most economical bedding?

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poiuytrewq

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I think I've used pretty much everything over the years. Currently on wood pellets for the ridden two as ones incredibly messy so can't afford shavings and the other has a dust allergy. Works for them.
Little pony is on shavings because he's mega clean and I thought he got a bit footy at one point in the frost so got him on on a big deep bed.
The other two, 16.2 very clean and 11.2 very dirty share a big box. They have only recently been actually shut in at night and are on straw because it's away from the allergy horse and I had a big bale left over from last year.
It's just run out and I'm wondering wether to buy straw (not had to pay for straw in years so no idea on cost!)
Use pellets but am a bit worried the amount I'd need to bed down in the first place could use my remaining supply for the other two up too quickly.
Shavings? I can get them at a reasonable price from work as they bulk buy. They are slightly hit and miss quality wise hence I don't use them normally but that's only because allergy horse is severe.

Anyone worked out the most economical way to keep a big, fairly dirty box clean with not too much effort
 
I've tried a few different beds and always end up going back to deep littering with straw. It costs £3.50 for a small bale here, but I believe it can be much cheaper in other parts of the country
 
Most economical I have used was Snowflake Softchip deep littered

This year I'm not deep littering its not as economical but the digging out of the bed in spring by my husband was leading to divorce
 
I always thought pellets was the most economical and it is for tidy horses. However, it's a disaster for very wet or dirty horses. I don't like straw or shavings, but I have found chopped miscanthus to be the best for messy horses. It seems expensive but even the wettest dirtiest horse only needs a bale every 5 days. So it works out cheapest for them.
 
I use straw after using shavings and finding them too messy. I have never used it, but at the vets, everything was on cardboard as it is so absorbent for the horses on drips.
 
WelshD said:
Most economical I have used was Snowflake Softchip deep littered

This year I'm not deep littering its not as economical but the digging out of the bed in spring by my husband was leading to divorce
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Ha! I wish I had a hubby to help me do the annual dig out - this girl can't cycle or do park runs or any of that crap, but when it comes to digging out in spring #thisgirlcan
 
WelshD said:
Most economical I have used was Snowflake Softchip deep littered

This year I'm not deep littering its not as economical but the digging out of the bed in spring by my husband was leading to divorce
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I deep-littered with Softchip and it was economical, and quick but by the end of the winter the bed looked horrible, and the digging out was a foul job. I've stayed with it but my big horse moves around a lot and it takes me forever to muck out, I'm putting in 2-3 bales a week at £6/bale so probably costing me about £15/week.

I've put the new one onto straw and it's so easy and quick, and cheap! It's £3.50 a bale and I'm putting in two a week so less than half the cost.
 
Wood pellets are the best if your horse is fairly clean. I do agree that they are not ideal if you have a very wet horse.
I would try wood pellet base with shavings on top if horse very wet.
 
So far I've found shredded rape and hemp bedding to be the best.

I have deep littered on shavings, pellets and straw and the above is definitely the most economical even for a very wet mare. The dig out isn't that bad either as you don't need to go so "deep" as it stabilises very quickly and doesn't ever seem to get dug up with hooves getting up and down from laying down.
 
Straw is by far the quickest and cheapest but does make a big muck heap if not properly done mind you it is better manure than any of the others if you can sell it
 
I use rape straw for my rabbits and it does a really good job. Think it's quite cheap as well. I pay £7 a bale, but that is on the expensive side for it as well
 
Actually o/h has magicked up a few big bales of straw, it was used for the beaters on a farm shoot to sit on and the last shoot just happened so it's going free. Therefore making it the most economical 😂
Agree it makes a mahoosive muck heap sadly but again that's not really my problem ;)
 
windand rain said:
Straw is by far the quickest and cheapest but does make a big muck heap if not properly done mind you it is better manure than any of the others if you can sell it
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Yes. Shavings cause nitrogen robbery as they take a long time to rot down. We use straw but in France farmers value horse manure. Our huge muck heap is cleared, free of charge, once a month.
 
Another vote for rape straw here - I don't understand why anyone uses anything else :) I semi deep litter so take the muck out daily and the wet out once a week or so, it takes 10 minutes on a week day and 20 mins at the weekend - easy, quick, no smell like with wet ordinary straw, very absorbent, cheap, horses don't eat it..... :)
 
I used to use cross cut shredded paper which I got free and probably the best bedding I've ever used. Unfortunately my current YO doesn't permit it so I use chopped straw which is the only untreated bedding I can get (she won't allow treated bedding) and isn't nearly as good. I'm too stupid to work out how to make a decent bed out of unchopped straw.
 
I use flax on top of rubber mats with two horses and most of the time I only use 1 bale a week shared between the two costing £7.30. Initial bed was made up with 4 or 5 bales. Can sometimes be 2 bales a week depending on who does the mucking out that week (hubby tends to chuck out more clean bedding than I do lol).
 
Britestar said:
Having been a straw person for virtually my whole horsey life, I've converted to shredded cardboard.

So easy to work and really economical.
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Have been using cardboard for several years. Warm economical and dust free. My old horse has copd and even on dust extracted shavings was still coughing. Once we moved onto cardboard she was much better. We use enviro bed based in Shropshire
 
Flax and rape straw is the same product roughly right?
I saw some round bales of rapestraw advertised at £15 a bale which they quoted to be the equivalent to 5 bales of shavings?! It was baled as normal straw so not dust extracted or wrapped but they assured me not dusty at all.
I chose not to risk it after watching my o/h combine rape (incredibly dusty!)
 
I've always found there to be a lot of waste with shavings. Our new yard uses sawdust and im very impressed. Just did the stables there, including poop I removed half a barrow in total for pony, and 3/4 barrow for horse. That's after being in for around 15 hours and leaving the beds behind clean.

I presume you would need to have someone nearby to deliver it, and somewhere to store it as it comes in bulk. But lovely stuff to work with, and can make a nice bed. The sawdustwe use isn't dusty, as ridiculous as that sounds. Its dense like damp sand, but not as heavy ( or damp) sorry I'm rubbish at explaining lol.

I also like a straw bed if no sawdust was available.
 
I have 4 who come into a barn together and get free wood chip from tree surgeons based there. It rots down and occasionally I take out the worst bits and get it topped up. Free and basically deep litter for ages!
 
This is dust extracted, chopped and plus addative to stop it smelling, the ammonia given off it is toxic if not treated, horrible stuff, its only benifit is the speed it rots down.
I trialled some for a short period, for deep litter bedding, muck removed twice daily and re bedded, after just a week the mare refused to lay down, the ammonia it gave off was horrendous, it seems to react VERY badly with urine unless treated. My floors are rubber matted over limestone chips, and nothing else I have ever used has had this effect, you really couldnt spend very long in there at all, I would be very wary of using it on a large scale for cattle bedding.
Unless it is chopped very small and the inner exposed it isnt absorbent either and very spikey.
found the above on another forum about rape straw
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llamedos, Apr 13, 2013
 
pippixox said:
I have 4 who come into a barn together and get free wood chip from tree surgeons based there. It rots down and occasionally I take out the worst bits and get it topped up. Free and basically deep litter for ages!
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Nice work if you can get it :)
 
A good deep bed of straw is cheap and helps keep the horse clean.Look for good quality springy bright golden with long straws .Poor quality soft brownish stuff is far inferior and makes a poor bed.A layer of pellets for the base will help mop up the urine.
 
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