Wood Pellets-Who uses them & why?

grandmaweloveyou

grandmaweloveyou

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 May 2007
Messages
2,004
Location
Sussex
Visit site
I am looking into alternate bedding and am now considering matting with wood pellets. Do you / have you used them and if so what are the advantages / disadvantages? Who's do you recommend? Thanks.
 
We are just moving on to Wood Pellets from shavings, the reason because they are cheaper and easier to use and are dust free(we have to be very careful with dust at the moment). From the others at the yard who use them i would recomend them even though we havn't used them ourself yet.
 
I switched at the end of last year.

Advantages

- cheaper
- Use less as you don't remove so much when you muck out.
- Really adsorbant, keeping the bed & feet dry.
- Dust free.
- Smaller muckheap, and they seam to rot down quickly too.
- make less mess on the yard than shavings or straw.

Disadvantages

- Generally have to order in bulk, so its difficult to get a couple of bags to try.
- Have to be soaked\watered before use to fluff up. Not a real problem but it was in the ice last year.
 
I used them and liked them. Cheap and dead easy to muck out, very absorbant with a wet horse. Didnt like them being wet next to the horses and in the dry months they became VERY dusty so had to keep being watered. I stopped using in the end
 
I use them because I have to. The whole yard is on it, as it reduces the cost of muckheap disposal.

In my experiences. Some horses get on with it really well, and other horses are totally disgusting on it.

One of my horses is not good - I'm currently on summer turnout, so it isn't an issue right now, but in the winter.. I put 4 bags a week in. He wees for england, will then box walk, and once he's stolched it all up, he then lays down. The result is a stinky mess every morning, and urine stained white tummy and legs every day.

On the other hand, my Tb is very clean and he has 2 bags to top up per week.

General downsides, applicable to all horses is that their coats will seem dustier. The good points are that woodpellets are cheap. If you have a tidy horse, mucking out is very quick to do, and the muck heap size is reduced. Also more farmers are willing to take it away, because it rots and degrades much faster than shavings and straw.

Regarding the dust. Woodpellet bedding is free of fungal spoors, but it is dusty, and in hot, dry weather watering the beds to keep the dust down is important.
 
thanks everyone. looking at the whitehorsebedding value now. my poor garden, the shed is already surrounded (discreetly) with haylage packs ready for the winter now gotta store the bedding. my OH is not going to be amused!!!
 
TChamp said:
now gotta store the bedding. my OH is not going to be amused!!!
Click to expand...

but one of the very good things about pellets it that you don't need much storage space :D

I use them because they are cheap, quick to muck out, reduced muck heap size and very quick to compost.

I started off with a higher end pellet and decided to try an ecomony version, but ended up using twice as much and it really didn't absorb as much wet so went back to the slightly more expensive version per bag which over all worked out cheaper!

Good companies will send you (at a cheaper price) enough bags for a trial, or a sample so you can see which product is best for your horse.
 
I switched some years ago, I changed primarily for time, it takes me far less time as I muck out multiple stables.
I was impressed by the lack of horrible smells, word of caution though, some wood pellets are inferior to others, I have used several different comapnies and have always gone back to using the same one.
 
I switched to them a couple of years ago purely to keep muck heap removal cost down, wouldn't use out of choice but does the job, ish!! One of our mares is soooo messy tho, I end up having to take nearly whole lot out every day so end up using alot more than would for an 'average' horse!! Agree with the buying in bulk, works out half the price than if you buy a few bags from tack shop :)
 
Tried them, didn't like them, and now back on shavings. I'd heard good things about pellets so I tried them for 3 months along with 3 others on our yard. I followed the instructions for laying and managing the bed but ended up with a smelly sodden bed, that was not inviting for my horse to lie on. I really wanted it to work, as had heard such great things about pellets and shavings prices rocketed last year, I persevered for much longer than the others and tried different methods of managing the bed (taking out all the wee each day, semi-deep littering, dampening the new pellets when topping up, adding the pellets dry when topping up) but it was just a smelly wet mess, or a dry hard mess that quickly turned wet and smelly! My horse is pretty clean, he poos in one place, wees in another spot and I only need to use 1 bale of shavings a week sometimes less and he always has a clean dry full bed to come in to. Although the cost per pellet bag was less than a bale of shavings, and theoretically should have been cheaper per week, I found I was having to put in more bags a week than the instructions said to keep a dry bed, and it was ending up more expensive than shavings.

Maybe it was the brand we used, it was the cheapest we found and not from a specific horse bed retailer, but if we'd gone for the horse-bedding specific ones, the cost of a bag was equivalent to shavings and I (and my horse) just prefer the look and feel of shavings. Also, I find shavings easier to muck out although maybe with more practice I'd have got better with the pellets. They do make great cat litter though!
 
You may find that you will have to experiment with the type of pellets and the method of mucking out. Not all types will suit your stable's microclimate and your management regime.

I started by using the wood crumb style of pellets after being impressed by a neighbours' bedding - that works well in my particular circumstances. We changed to pellets and found that we couldn't manage them - couldn't get the consistency right; they were either pellets or dust not a fluffy bed and we were getting through a massive amount of pellets. Now we are back on the wood crumb - although they are more expensive per bag we use less bags per week and the beds are deeper and a better consistency. It's also taken a while to work out the best way to use them.
 
I use them along with rubber matting, the main reason was due to my horses recurrent thrush.

He was previously on straw bedding which was constantly wet (stable does not have the best drainage) and his feet were forever wet and thrush forever present.

He has been on this bedding for 4 weeks now and thrush has cleared.

Standing on the rubber matting keeps him off the wet which drains underneath and the actual bedding remains dry on the top so he is not stood on wet bedding as he used to be.

:)
 
Just to add to my previous comment I started off with a horse specific pellet and found it to be really very good, highly absorbant and non-smelly. I followed the directions, i.e. only taking out the droppings and only needed to add 1 bag per week in a 14' * 14' stable, no rubber matting with a 17h mid-range messy horse - deep litter.

I had problems when i went to a non-horse (very cheap) specific pellet, ended up using at least 3 bags per week and it was always a bit smelly.

From speaking with friends who have tried pellets thoses that used non-horse specific and low quality hated the stuff whilst those using a better quality horse-specific pellet stayed with it.
 
I use them. Swapped from shavings a few months ago.

Advantages

- cheaper then most other bedding
- far more absorbent
- softer and creates a thicker bed
- easier to muck out and removes less clean bedding
- good for deep littering

Disadvantages -

- mainly have to buy in bulk
- can be quite dusty in stable/ on horses coat

Overall I like them and won't be changing anytime soon :) literally takes me 10 mins to muck out now and my horse is quite messy at times.

Have a nosy at Liverpool wood pellets. If you phone I think they offer trials.
 
ive just ordered the 15 bag trial of whitehorsebedding for £75 so lets see and if anyone is interested, watch this space! any other recommendations gratefully received with thanks and again thanks for taking the time to advise......
 
The way I use mine - when I initially put the bed down I used about 6 bags. Open the bag an pour water (1/2 bucket, maybe more) into the bag. Allow it to soak for 5-10 mins. Then speed across bed. You can mix with shavings.

I bed down 1 bag per week and keep the wet in. I used the same method when bedding down. I'll lift the wet up about once a week and remove the worst part then use the rest as the base.

Good luck :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top