There must be an alternative! (bedding)

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henryhorn

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www.narramorehorses.blogspot.com
This year the price of shavings has shot up time and time again, as they became more difficult to obtain. the majority used to come from manufacturing such as making doors/kitchen cabinets etc, and at one time I bought in bulk, a huge lorry load blown into a stable at a time. Now due to little manufacturing or building being done we are left with a shortage.
That stopped and bales appeared, and now they are anything from £6 to £8 plus.
We have switched to miscanthus, fibre wood chips, and tried everything we could on the market but all of it remains expensive.
There must be something no one has thought of we could use as bedding if shredded, how about cotton fibre chopped up small? How many old clothes must there be lying about?
It would make a multicoloured soft bed but would rot down too.
If you can think of any other materials we could use as bedding do post your idea.
I have just ordered a bulk buy of miscanthus and the wood chips, it's still costing a bomb and I really think there must be something out there no-one has thought of yet.. (I don't want to start manufacturing the stuff, but what a business idea for someone else!)
 
Yes I've moved mine into paper this winter and its working really well and makes a lovely deep bed !- it's a bit like marmite though you either love it or hate it!

been getting them for under £5 a bale too! so much cheaper than shavings.
 
I use shredded newspaper. About 4.50 a bale. Take out wet everyday and still only use one bale a week for two stables. No dust, not even the slightest smell of ammonia and easy to muck out with rubber gloves. only problem is it blows around easily outside.
 
Im moving mine back to peat, we used to use it years ago, its 10 times more absorbent than chippings and i find it easy enough to muck out. Its works out much cheaper than chippings here and you can sell it as enriched peat after it has been used, my neighbours used to queue up for it. If you google it you can read a lot more about it. I get mine from the local garden center and its supposed to be eco friendly.
 
I often think of this...but my idea is to put a false floor into the stables with tiny holes in it, with drainage channels underneath, so that pee leaves the stable, and drains away. Then the bedding would stay almost dry, and you can take out droppings only.

The other thing I thought about is using something like sand, or menage surface in the stables, but not sure how it would work..

We need a Dragon's Den idea!!
 
sand works Ok but gets smelly, its cold when its wet and you have to be careful they dont ingest any as they can get sand colics, we had sand stables in Bahrain. They really are hard to clean so they smell nice!
 
How spooky.....I have been talking to someone today about the possibility of shredded blanket and cotton fabrics.

Ive got one of mine on wood pellets now.....no more Hunters except for the old man, I cant justify the cost for the ID.
 
i think chopped-up fabric would have tiny fibres that the horse would breathe in. most bedding materials get dustier as they break down over time, e.g. shavings etc.
imho cardboard is the best, because it's plentiful, warm, absorbent, no smell, doesn't dry feet out as shavings do, and doesn't break down at all. and cheaper than shavings.
my regular supplier can't deliver a bit load to me for a few weeks so i've got 1 stable on bedmax and the others still on Ecobed cardboard - they take exactly the same amount of time to muck out, absorbency is the same, etc.
 
I am using easy bed as a base to soak up the wee and straw on top, I'm finding it easy to muck out as its just a case of getting the poo out.
Every 2 weeks total muck out, saves time and money.
 
I have tried to persuade my YO to install loos (and ch radiators!). No luck so far! I did a whole year once on torn up newspaper. My OH would grab every unclaimed newspaper off the train on his way home and I'd stand for mindless hours ripping them sideways into long strips and fillling black bags with them. If you had access to a large shredder it would be easier and you could offer to recycle all your neighbours newspapers. It rots down the same as any bedding and is about the same to muck out as straw. I liked to think my ned could stand and read bits from the paper if he ever got bored!
 
i love straw with, saw dust under it, just in the wet patch, however, im now also using paper & last year managed to find a second hand shredder, ( proper horses shredder ) not the domestic or small office type, so now not paying any thing for bedding , Mucking out takes a little getting used to. i also have 2 friends that hand shred there own personaly i think they are mad!
 
I've been using chopped paper on rubber mats this year, have tried most other things and this is the easiest and most economical I can find. Big horse is quite messy and uses about a bale every week-10 days. Pony is clean and uses far less.

It also seems to me to be the most dustfree bedding I've ever used which is great for them and for me as I'm asthmatic!

It rots quickly on the muckheap.

My only problem with it is that it makes a mess if it's windy but that's not really a huge issue!

I pay just over £5 a bale from Mole Avon/Mole Valley.
 
Agree, i love cardboard on mats, is absorbant, warm and springy!!
grin.gif
Wood pellets work really well, and we are getting them for £2.40 a bale....
 
I'd love to be able to use straw, but I think now it'd make him cough, and also when I first had him I was told he eats straw - I tried it as it's so cheap I don't mind him eating a little - he was eating 2/3 of a big bed a night so rapidly changed that! lol
 
we have shred it down here HH they take all their collected redy shreeded paper to the recyling centre, they used to get £50 a ton, but its gone down to something like £25 a ton.

it could be worth contacting them to see if they would sell to you at a simular price. the paper is shredded on the lorries, so would be ready to use.
 
Hi there, I have just started using chopped cardboard on my 3 horses and i am totally converted its great, it took 5 bales to give a good deep bed in a 12x12 stable and only uses 1 bale per week to top up ( 2 on the very wet/ very mucky welsh cob) but at £3.50 per 20 kg bale its great. I did a comparison on the price i was paying £1385 per year now down to £750. it is so easy to skip out as the card does not stick to the droppings and its easy to spot the wet bits. The muck heap is smaller and it rots down in 6 weeks.
 
I think the problem with fabric would be inhaling the fibres, particularly as they would also be treated with dyes - I know that's a danger for people who work in the clothing industry.

There was a company in the US years ago that developed a sort of "kitty litter" bedding system that apparently worked fantastically well for both the horses and the people doing the mucking. BUT it required very specialised care and cleaning and most large barns (the major consumers in North America) don't have the consistency or number of staff to get that done. Also, even with proof it worked, apparently most horse people were put off because it was so different from what they were used to.

Apparently there is a couple in Canada that has patented a "recycled" bedding system, where they clean and then chop and compress used material, I think into a pelletted product. Someone sent me an article which sounded very interesting.

All sorts of odd things - peanut hulls, pressed hops, sugar cane etc - get used for bedding in the areas where they are byproducts from other industries. I guess the trick in the UK (and many other areas) is lack of that sort of option.
 
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