Wood, straw or micanthus pellets?

F

Fat_Pony

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 November 2011
Messages
443
Visit site
I currently use wood pellets and am due to order a new pallet after Xmas.

I am wondering whether straw or micanthus pellets are better? At the end of the day price is the most important thing to me, but both of mine are quite wet and one of them is a hideous dirty beast! So are straw or micanthus better in terms of cleanliness?
 
hi, we started with wood, switched to straw and are now using miscanthus. we have found them both more absorbent than wood pellets especially the miscanthus and they definitely rot down much quicker in the muck heap.
 
I use wood pellets underneath and miscanthus on top, seems to draw moisture through to the wood pellets leaving miscanthus dry for longer.
 
I have used all 3 & much prefer straw or miscanthus pellets to wood. Used miscanthus last year as my cob will eat anything (including cat litter soaked in engine oil!) & the guy I spoke to at Burghley suggested that he miscanthus was less palatable. Now he knows it's bedding & not food I have bought straw as slightly cheaper & going well.

I have a matting with bedding on about a quarter of the floor & it takes me about 5 mins to muck out. I used 4 15kg bags to set up bed & use 1 bag a week to top up - £3.99 a bag as I bought a ton pallet. TBH I don't find any practical difference between straw & miscanthus, both great with minimal waste. If you have suitable storage for a 1000kg bag it works out a bit cheaper, though you need to make sure access is suitable because you can't move a ton bag up the drive like you can 15kg bags.
 
Where do you get the miscanthus from? There is a lot grown around here but I think it all goes for bio fuel, and the people who produced the hemp I was using as a base have gone out of business, so time for a change. I just use it as a base under straw, and don't like wood products because they can't be spread on the fields.
 
I've used all three. I switched to straw and miscanthus due to them not needing to be dampened first and then with the very cold weather, freezing. However, I did not find miscanthus quite so absorbent. Straw pellets were very absorbent but quite dark and the beds looked manky so I went back to wood pellets. They are cheaper and the beds look much nicer. I changed the way I used them. I used to put two sacks in a wheelbarrow and spray water on them to fluff them up. Now I put a bag in the stable and slit it open and pour hot water in (about a quarter of a bucketful.) I find this is the most economical way of doing it and they seem to last better. I like very clean pale beds and so I use between one and three 15kg bags a week per horse. I could get away with less, but the beds would not be as nice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top