straw bedding

kerrieberry2

kerrieberry2

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Hi guys that use straw as a bedding, can you help me?

How much do you use a week? I am possibly moving to a yard where my horses will be stabled for the first time in 11 years, so just trying to work out how much its going to cost me!

I am not planning on completely clearing the stable every morning, just the muck and wet bits!! then doing a clear out once a week!
 
If your taking the wet and poo bits out of the stable your basically doing a full muck out anyway.

I used about a bale a week with mine £2.50 here. You easily take a barrow out a day of muck and wet.

Im on woodpellets now as much less waste and I dont smell of horse pee after mucking out, the smell of wet straw I do not miss.
 
I deep litter straw, would cost a fortune to do full muck outs with 6 horses.
10 -12 bales (or a full huge bale) down to start with, droppings out daily. Top up with 1 bale a week. Dig out every few months, have good draining stables and never smells.
 
I went back to straw this year (as was given some for free) and have been pleasantly supprised by how easy it has been! I use a lot and take out anything dirty so probably 2 bales a week for my messy 17hh and 1 for the very tidy 14hh.

Previously we'd been on wood pellets and i was using a bag a week for the pony and 1 1/2 bags for the horse - so cost wise pretty similar as i bought wood pellets by the pallet so worked out £3.50 ish a bag
 
kerrieberry2 said:
how much do you pay for the wood pellets? what does it cost a week/month? I used to use straw 13 years ago and I do recall that wee smell haha
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If you search Wood Pellets on here there are many posts.

If you buy in bulk £245 for a tonne and I think its about 3.80 a 15kg bag thats the cheapest way.

I bought half a tone and i think it was about £5 a bag lasted me 6months.

Now buy straight from feed merchant at £5.20 a bag use four bags a month, it is more expensive overall but I just dont really have the cash atm to pay up in bulk. You do need to set up an initial bed first though I think cost me about 80quid with a started pack from white horse bedding.

But have a look on here lots of threads for wood pellets
 
I use straw on top of a base of something a bit more absorbent, because it costs less. I just muck out the straw layer and leave the base unless it is sodden. With 3 stables, a big round bale lasts at least 2 weeks, and a heston (humungous square bale) lasts around 4. Takes up a fair bit of space though. I paid £35 for the heston delivered and £20, then £30 for the round bales (the £30 was just lately wehn it was getting scarce). I love it, it is so much warmer for them, and has saved me loadsamoney
 
I swapped from shavings to straw a few months ago and its the best thing I did. I was paying £18 a week for 2 shavings and am now paying £5.20 a week for 2 straw. He has a lovely thick bed with bankings and its taking me half the time to muck out. Yes it smells but only when you muck out and disturb it but I found a sprinking of shavings seems to stop the smell. I dont bother doing this anymore though as I must have got used to the smell :)
 
I make up large bed twice a week, big banks and deep bed. Muck out full each day, and he's messy.
Was costing me a fortune in small bales, so I now have a large round bale, costs me £30 a month, I use one a month, apart from being more work it means I can put as much straw in that I want pretty much :)
 
Mine's fairly messy but only use 1 bale a week at £4.

Only needed 3 bales to bed it down to start with, which gave him a huge bed in a 14 x 12 stable.

I take all wet and poo out every day. I love it and don't think it smells too bad?
 
How on earth do you guys manage on a bale a week? I was putting in four when my pony was on straw (in 24/7) and she is only 14hh. For comparison she had half a bale of hunter shavings when she was on that and I muck out twice a day.
 
My horse has a straw bed with banks, over a layer of wood pellets as he is fairly wet and I hate wet straw - the pellets are super absorbent and so the straw remains dry. I do a partial muck out every day - take out the droppings and any saturated wood pellets every day and then lift all the straw bed and take out all the damp/saturated pellets at the weekend, I then put another bag of pellets down and bed down with straw. My horse only wees in certain areas of the stable so during the week I replace the saturated pellets I have taken out with pellets from another area of the bed, if that makes sense. I use one bag of pellets and one bale of straw a week; I take out 1/2 a wheelbarrow during the week and then a whole wheelbarrow when I do a full muck out at the weekend.

I find that using pellets under straw makes a much drier bed, hence no stable stains on the horse, and it seems much nicer when it is so wet outside for him to come in to a totally dry and warm bed at night. I don't think it is any cheaper, but I can be more economical with straw and it is quicker. The pellets I have are just under £7 a bag, but then I am the only one on my yard who uses them and so my YO only orders one bag a week, I'm sure it would be cheaper if I was able to order a pallet but I'm not allowed to order things for myself, I don't really mind that though. Straw varies in price, think it's about £4 at the moment.
 
unbalanced said:
How on earth do you guys manage on a bale a week? I was putting in four when my pony was on straw (in 24/7) and she is only 14hh. For comparison she had half a bale of hunter shavings when she was on that and I muck out twice a day.
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Could she be eating it?

Mine used to so i spray it with fly spray (not the most economical but I havnt gotten round to looking for something cheaper), and have gone from using 2 bales to 1.

He always has a huge bed too. Recently I didn't add 1 for 2 weeks as it got so big!
 
I have just bought two yearlings, they are inside the barn at the moment with a straw bed, (Ground is sodden, and getting them handled before we turf them out when the weather is better!) I take out the droppings twice daily, sometimes more whenever i go up there i skip them out, and add straw during the evenings, They eat alot of it though, But i would probably use just about 2 small bales a week, and i take the 'wet' straw out weekly!
 
Pipkin said:
I deep litter straw, would cost a fortune to do full muck outs with 6 horses.
10 -12 bales (or a full huge bale) down to start with, droppings out daily. Top up with 1 bale a week. Dig out every few months, have good draining stables and never smells.
Click to expand...

ditto :) except 1 horse!
 
I do a skip out some days, but usually a full muck out. I use about 3 bales of barley straw a week.

Horse doesn't eat it to speak of, but it's a big stable and a big horse :) I could probably be more frugal, but I hate smelly beds.
 
Not a useful post but...

Don't do it!

There are great reasons for having had 24hr turn out for so long. Mucking out, espec straw is not fun.

And horses being in is not fun.

And horses being in in wet (inc. deep littered beds) is also not fun.

But if you do... good luck :-)
 
One thing - don't empty the box once a week - you'll waste an awful lot of straw. If you're taking out all the wet and muck every day then you shouldn't need to dump the rest once a week as it will still be clean:D
 
I skip out twice daily, if required and muck out twice a week. The bed is deep enough to never smell, neither do I, or my horse:)
 
Thanks guys just been to see the yards he's giving me 4 stables for 2 horses and a mini so can store bales in the other but its a working farm so the hay and straw us stored there. It's 15 quid for the massive bales. He reckons I could get away with 2 a month but might put something down before hand like some of you have suggested. Thanks guys
 
I think is all depends on the quality and type of the straw, and that will depend on last
year's harvest in your area. Three or four years ago I was managing fine on 2 bales
a week. Last winter, 2011-2012, after a really dry summer here in Suffolk, the
straw was awful, because the wheat had hardly grown. I needed 3 bales a week,
per pony, sometimes 4. This winter some of the straw has been much more
robust, and some has been more of the short, powdery stuff. I am managing on
2-3 bales a week per pony, and getting nice deep, warm beds (which is just as well,
given this eternal winter we seem to be stuck with.)
 
My horse is a dirty pig but I changed to straw 4 years ago when shavings prices sky rocketed.
I buy the huge rectangle bales at £45 delivered from a local farmer.
This lasts me approx 12 weeks so roughly £3.25 a week !
I used to use 2 bales of shavings a week which would now cost approx £12

My bed doesn't smell I do a full muck out every day and fund my bedding lasts longer like this as tried deep litter and hated it.
 
I bought a big round at the end of January (£20), have used it to mix 30/70 straw/haynets twice a day for a horse and a pony and to deep litter those two plus another horse. I ran out a week ago!

I don't think I could ever go back now! I just pick the poo out with a poo picker, throw the loose stuff up the banks and bed it all back down at night. They were eating it at first, until I started mixing the fresh stuff with the old. Probably go through the equivalent of a small bale every week per stable, less for the pony.

Oh, I put down a bale of shavings in each first and sprinkled a watering can on top to weigh it down a bit too. Worked a charm!
 
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