Nimble
New User
Hi. I've just joined the forum and I have a virtually toothless 16.2 warmblood, roughly 39 years old who I have had for 10 years - he had what was thought was a tumour on his frog so his owner didn't want him anymore. I took him on and luckily had his foot problem fixed with cryosurgery.
So, that;s my back-story but I am asking Forum members to give me some insight into their experiences with wood pellet bedding. I am setting up a UK-wide wood pellet bedding company and would dearly love your feedback - good and bad - about products you have used to date. We already supply some of the established companies in the pellet bedding market but I figured we could sell direct thus driving down the cost to the end-user. How do you evaluate quality? Is a quality control system important to you? What do you deduce from differences in pellet colour between suppliers? Has wood pellet bedding helped your laminitic horse (greater foot support than, say, straw)? Any general comments or observations welcome.
We are a pellet supplier and not a pellet producer but I hope some of the general information below is useful to you when looking at pellet bedding for the first time...
A limited number of UK producers provide product for the bulk of UK suppliers. There are a whole host of overseas producers whose product is also entering the country (e..g Canada, USA, Europe). In the UK pellet bedding market the majority of the producers, with a few exceptions, are separate entities from the suppliers. Frequently it is the packaging that differentiates one from another, not the content of the bag. Product performance is often affected by how you manage your bed and the composition of the pellet: what it's made from, how it was manufactured and how it was stored, transported and handled post-production eg was it kept dry, was is screened for dust before bagging, etc.
It seems there is some general confusion about wood pellets with some people suggesting that wood pellets for bedding and wood pellets for fuel are not one and the same, which they often are. For many producers equine bedding is a sideline with their main business being the production of fuel for pellets. Fuel users order tonnes of the stuff at one go whereas horse owners are taking a pallet or two at a time. Large scale producers would not have enough of a market to justify production for bedding alone. It is convenient for some to suggest that wood pellet fuel is inferior but this argument doesn't fit with our vast experience of the whole UK pellet market and the knowledge that most pellets are produced for fuel, not bedding. However, there can be a good deal of difference in quality and/or content, irrespective of the end market it is destined for. For instance, there are several producers who use recovered wood (wood that has already been used to make something else) to make their pellets. These pellets can contain contaminants such as plastic chips, paint residues, etc. Poor quality pellets, and not just those made from recovered wood, may also just crumble to dust - and a dusty environment is the very thing you are trying to avoid, especially if you are trying to reduce the causes of respiratory ailments, COPD, etc.
Also, darker coloured pellets should not be viewed as inferior just because they are darker than the blond shavings we are all so used too. Often, it is the production of pellets at high temperatures that darkens the colour and high temperatures ensure the product is sterile.
Finally, some of the amateur absorbency test videos online are unscientific and do not portray each product equally. Every supplier has a suggested pellet bedding bag to water ratio and they often differ from each other - but in the videos the same amount of water is applied to each product. No wonder it can be suggested that some are wetter or drier/more dusty than others. If we all made a Victoria sponge but ignored the recommended ratio of solids to liquids we would not be winning any cake awards! Some products naturally make a crumble whilst others retain some of the pellet shape. This does not mean one is better than the other.
I hope this is some of the basics explained without an agenda. There is space in the market for a range of suppliers (big and small), the key is quality - that the product is safe for your horse - and the price fits with what you want to pay.
So, that;s my back-story but I am asking Forum members to give me some insight into their experiences with wood pellet bedding. I am setting up a UK-wide wood pellet bedding company and would dearly love your feedback - good and bad - about products you have used to date. We already supply some of the established companies in the pellet bedding market but I figured we could sell direct thus driving down the cost to the end-user. How do you evaluate quality? Is a quality control system important to you? What do you deduce from differences in pellet colour between suppliers? Has wood pellet bedding helped your laminitic horse (greater foot support than, say, straw)? Any general comments or observations welcome.
We are a pellet supplier and not a pellet producer but I hope some of the general information below is useful to you when looking at pellet bedding for the first time...
A limited number of UK producers provide product for the bulk of UK suppliers. There are a whole host of overseas producers whose product is also entering the country (e..g Canada, USA, Europe). In the UK pellet bedding market the majority of the producers, with a few exceptions, are separate entities from the suppliers. Frequently it is the packaging that differentiates one from another, not the content of the bag. Product performance is often affected by how you manage your bed and the composition of the pellet: what it's made from, how it was manufactured and how it was stored, transported and handled post-production eg was it kept dry, was is screened for dust before bagging, etc.
It seems there is some general confusion about wood pellets with some people suggesting that wood pellets for bedding and wood pellets for fuel are not one and the same, which they often are. For many producers equine bedding is a sideline with their main business being the production of fuel for pellets. Fuel users order tonnes of the stuff at one go whereas horse owners are taking a pallet or two at a time. Large scale producers would not have enough of a market to justify production for bedding alone. It is convenient for some to suggest that wood pellet fuel is inferior but this argument doesn't fit with our vast experience of the whole UK pellet market and the knowledge that most pellets are produced for fuel, not bedding. However, there can be a good deal of difference in quality and/or content, irrespective of the end market it is destined for. For instance, there are several producers who use recovered wood (wood that has already been used to make something else) to make their pellets. These pellets can contain contaminants such as plastic chips, paint residues, etc. Poor quality pellets, and not just those made from recovered wood, may also just crumble to dust - and a dusty environment is the very thing you are trying to avoid, especially if you are trying to reduce the causes of respiratory ailments, COPD, etc.
Also, darker coloured pellets should not be viewed as inferior just because they are darker than the blond shavings we are all so used too. Often, it is the production of pellets at high temperatures that darkens the colour and high temperatures ensure the product is sterile.
Finally, some of the amateur absorbency test videos online are unscientific and do not portray each product equally. Every supplier has a suggested pellet bedding bag to water ratio and they often differ from each other - but in the videos the same amount of water is applied to each product. No wonder it can be suggested that some are wetter or drier/more dusty than others. If we all made a Victoria sponge but ignored the recommended ratio of solids to liquids we would not be winning any cake awards! Some products naturally make a crumble whilst others retain some of the pellet shape. This does not mean one is better than the other.
I hope this is some of the basics explained without an agenda. There is space in the market for a range of suppliers (big and small), the key is quality - that the product is safe for your horse - and the price fits with what you want to pay.
