shavings/wood pellet question.. advice pls

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LMR

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I am currently on part livery (5 daysfull, 2 days diy) which includes one bale of shavings a week.

I am having to add 1/2 to a full bale of shavings every week to both of my horses which at 7£ a day is fortune! I was thinking of either changing to wood pellets (if YO will discount the bale a weekoff my bill) or putting wood pellets as thebase and putting the shavings in the bankings and mixing the rest through.

they are on rubber mats and I like quite deep beds, does anyone else do this or find that it is cheaper. I don't really mind if it takes longer/ less time to muck out it is more the expense.
 
wood pellets where i am (not sure about you) are £3 for a 10kg bag. i have wood pellets down but did mix a bale of shavings in to make it look cleaner. I think the pellets are more absorbant than shavings so hopefully you should use less :)
 
I am having to add 1/2 to a full bale of shavings every week to both of my horses which at 7£ a day is fortune!
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Pardon me for being confused, but how is this £7 a day? Surely a bale of shavings isn't costing you £35...? If you're putting a bale in a day, then maybe consider deep littering?

For horses who are in a lot (I assumed from your post), this is a normal amount to be putting in to top up the bed.

Pellets are good though and if you use the forum search bar there are loads of posts about them.
 
HI,

I use wood pellets and can buy in bulk (tonne pallet) which is cheaper if you can do that as outset. This works out around £4.00 a bag and depending on how messy they are half or 1 bag every week to ten days (depends how long they in ). I started with the shavings as banks and use the pellets a s a base and eventually got to a pellet based full bed.
Only take wet out once a week (scrape back the dry with fork )and try not disturb rest of bed to much , takes less that 10 mins to do in morning.

Pallet is around 66 bags @ £260 ish - and I have found one company that does do 1/4 ton pallets

let me know if more info needed xx
 
Sorry meant a bale I've lost the plot completely. They are going through 1.5to 2 bags of shavings a week. They are out during the day and in at night. What brands do you use?
 
I swapped to wood pellets (lwp or whb) & have saved a fortune in money & time oh & they suit my horse v well.

Paid about £3 a bag, last order i went halves on a pallet with another livery.

U must dampen them tho as they get dusty. I bank them up
 
I use EVA mats with pellets under shavings for Big lad. I have been doing for a couple of years and it’s been *working really well. *I semi deep litter on a good depth of bed. *I skip out daily, turn banks at weekends, remove *any wet that’s coming to the surface and top up with pellets/shavings as required.

However I am now thinking about going just to pellets. *Due to running out of pellets I had cob on mats with just shavings initially but he’s so wet that I ended up chucking out his entire bed, except the banks, after a 2 weeks and 5 fresh bales of shavings! *So I’ve gone on to just pellets with him and it's working fab. *I treat it the same as Big lads bed (except no banks to turn). *It’s so much easier to muck out, Big lads not hard to muck out cos he’s very clean and tidy, but cob is way quicker because the pellets dry the poo out a bit so it doesn’t scatter at all so can be forked out very very easily and the pellets don’t stick so all I get out of his stable is poo – 1/3 of a barrow per day and a full barrow when I take the wet. *With Big lad I waste a reasonable amount of shavings that are stuck to poo. *I’m adding 2 x 10 kg bags of pellets to cobs bed per week – with Big lad I’ll probably get away with 1 – so it’s quite a bit cheaper than shavings too. *For me there are no downsides to pellets.
 
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