Talk to me about wood pellets

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Ahrena

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I am considering changing from straw to pellets.

I use straw currently as it costs me £4 per horse a week and they have massive lovely beds.

However I have bought a new horse and I am thinking of changing for time saving.

But i don't want to spend a massive amount more on bedding. Both horses are 'average' cleanliness. Both have rubber matting btw.

So questions really -

What is your cost per week and how many bags do you use?
Do you build banks?
How often do you take wet out?
Have heard of some pellets getting dusty in dry weather and freezing in cold - do yours and how do you minimise/prevent this?

Thank you!
 
IMHO you won't beat that price

If you like having large beds you will hate wood pellets. I mix mine with shavings to keep it fluffy

Probably because I mix it I've not had any problems with weather affecting it
 
I'm not very keen on wood pellets - tried them for a while, but switched to miscanthus, which is much more my cup of tea, and not much more expensive. I used 6 bales to start the bed off, then topped up with a bale a week. No more freeing/dustiness/dull, mean looking bed.
 
I find them quick, cheap and easy (like some people round here!!!) :eek:
My big one is better if he has his rubber matting and some pellets in the middle of his stable so he can position himself over them when he has a wee. I don't use loads as he is messier the more i use. The little one is so neat he just poos in one corner and wee's in the other so i again just put it down where he wee's. I use a full bag in each stable every 7-10 days in winter.
 
i tried my horses on wood pellets - wasnt too impressed so iv switched to rapeseed bedding and have it delivered to us, i pay £4.80 per bale
 
Thanks :)

I know I will have to spend more if I change bedding, don't mind spending a bit more but if it's more like £12/15 per week per horse it'd be a bit much as it adds up.
 
In terms of of cost the are very cheap
In terms of absorbancy they are very good
Smaller muck heap, less storage room needed.

However
- the wet is heavy
- they do get dusty
- the bed isn't visually appealing
- if you have a horse that does poo-football they can take a lot of sifting through

I use WP very effectively in a semi-deep litter system in the wee spots, with a full bed of shavings over the top (although have used straw in the past and actually think it works better in combo with straw)

So I skip out all week, lift the bed at weekend, shovel out the wet and put down a 10kg bag of wood pellets.
 
I'm a massive convert, I take the wet out every other day and muck out using a shavings fork with a curve to the prongs, it takes me ten minutes and I add a bag every seven to ten days.

I've not had any issues with it freezing and my geldings bed is never dusty even in really hot, dry weather. You can build banks then mix into the bed as needed if you want, I chose not to as mine both have very large stables.

I have one on mats with pellets, she box walks and box trots, so the bed is very churned up but this is without a doubt the easiest bedding to keep looking nice and it doesn't take me long to sift through it. I do find her bed gets dusty (this is only due to the box walking, she grinds shavings to dust too) and so I use a watering can with a rose on to dampen it down as needed.

My other boy is very wet and stands in his poo, his bed is on concrete and I'm amazed at the difference, it sucks the moisture out of the poo so it doesnt get stuck in his feet, is really absorbant and he happily lays down.

I do not smell like horse wee even when I've taken the wet out if I've left it in for a week or so which is great :D
 
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I used pellets last year with one of mine. The others are on straw as I get it free.
He is reasonably clean but is in a smaller stable than is ideal so on shavings needs 2 bales a week.
I never found them too freeze- I think if that happened they are too wet. Correctly kept the bed isn't wet so shouldn't freeze. With one of my other horses it did get dusty but he was so dry and I don't think I gave it enough water- Ive also changed brand.
My main stable problem is that in very wet weather my stable floods or at least gets very wet and with shavings or straw id be removing the whole bed- very expensive and time consuming. Pellets seem to soak up and contain the majority of the water coming in. I bank them a lot along the problem wall and just don't touch it, it was minging when I finally dug that side out but saved me an absolute fortune and my horse always had a clean dry bed.
It is bankable but not very well so for this particular horse he never touches his banks so I used bedmax banks with a pellet base and it worked perfectly. I also quite liked pellets mixed with shavings for a fluffier looking bed but it is less absorbent.
 
Ooh this is sounding more positive ha!

What pellets do you guys use? The people i spoke to before are adding 3+ bags a week :o
 
Hated them. Bed was horrible looking. I tested on my rather dirty girl, who rolls a lot and needs a really deep bed and I got through half a pallet in a couple of months so not cheap!
I think on rubber they may be more practical having said that.
 
Love them. Super speedy to muck out. Muck heap is smaller. They can be stored outside and I order by the tonne.

Would never go back to shavings now
 
I started off using straw pellets, I found them extremely absorbent, however my old horse was very messy in the stable so it did take quite a bit of sifting through to get all the poop out. The bed was also a very dark colour, which didnt bother me, but i know some people dont like it.

I then switched to wood pellets as they worked out cheaper. For my old messy horse they werent as good.

However.....

My new horse is very clean and for him they are superb. I just lift the few poops he does off the top of the bed, dig out the small pacth of wee (the wet doesnt spread in pellets beds like it does in shavings and straw) and brush it all back into place.

I can have my stable mucked out in 5 minutes.

What i also found was that with pellets my horses had far fewer stable stains. Before I switched to pellets my mainly white skewbald used to be covered in stains and I simply couldnt get the yellow out of his hocks. However after I switched that was never the case again. The wet disappears down to the bottom and any poop gets coated in the pellet dust. I used to get loads of comments on how I kept my extremely white horse so clean!

I would never go back to shavings now!
 
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