Wrapped straw

[Hackback]

I'm sick of the dust in my stables, it can't be good for the horses or me, so I'm thinking of swapping to dust extracted straw. I have a choice of chopped straw or just 'straw'. I've never seen wrapped straw. Does anyone use it? Is it just like normal straw? I watched a video of a bale being opened on the company's FB site and it looked shorter and more fluffy, but it's not very clear.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

If the problem is adusty stable, I would opt for chopped straw

 

[Hackback]

If the problem is adusty stable, I would opt for chopped straw

Thank you, I may do that. I tried chopped rape straw before but didn't like it because I found it quite 'claggy' and hard to get the fork through. I don't know if chopped barley is any different but I may need to toughen up

 

[twiggy2]

You may be better to try and improve the ventilation in the stable.
If you use clean start then dust shouldn't be an issue if the ventilation is good.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I think you need quite a clean horse for chopped straw, it gets very wet.
We used it at two yards I work/ed at. The one place tops up with half a bale a day and if they didn’t the less than clean horses beds look filthy within no time.
The other gave up on it very quickly.

My stable gets dusty, on normal straw but it’s very good quality clean straw. I think it’s because my horse is so clean he doesn’t get the turnaround of bedding that a dirtier horse would.

 

[Hackback]

Well I got a pallet of chopped straw to try. I've only put it in one stable so far as the other is still too full of shavings. I got down to a fairly low bed of shavings in the other so put a couple of bales of the chopped straw on top. I've found it surprisingly easy to muck out, pretty much like the shavings. I can still remove the surface droppings and chuck everything else up against the wall to shake the muck out. Although it's still a mix of shavings and straw the shavings seem to sink to the bottom. The only concern is the wet, as you say @poiuytrewq. Because it doesn't make a solid patch like shavings I'm not sure quite how to tackle it so end up taking quite a bit out. It really is dust free though so on the whole I'm very pleased. Especially now that the horse has stopped feasting on it - I was a bit worried the first night!