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Extreme Veteran
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| What do you use to bed your trailer? I have always used sawdust becuase it's what we use in the stall so it's avaialable but I'm don't really like the mess it makes. I use my front stall in the trailer as an extra tack area and everything up there is always covered with a layer of dust, the horses are always covered with dust. We show alot in the summer so that means traveling with windows down which just adds to the problems. I was thinking about trying some wood chips to see how that worked. I know some people bed cattle stalls with cedar fiber...nto sure what that is but wondering if that would be better. |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Ohio | We use straw or pine shavings..Not quite chips and doesn't float around like dust. It does have a tendency to be dusty when you first spread it, but not nearly as bad as straight dust. I can't remember where I read it, but horses can be "allergic" to certain types of wood dust. Cedar seems to ring a bell. I'll have to try to find it again.
Edited by GRNMCHNEDAZE 2011-03-25 1:30 PM
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Extreme Veteran
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| Originally written by GRNMCHNEDAZE on 2011-03-25 1:28 PM We use straw or pine shavings..Not quite chips and doesn't float around like dust. It does have a tendency to be dusty when you first spread it, but not nearly as bad as straight dust. I can't remember where I read it, but horses can be "allergic" to certain types of wood dust. Cedar seems to ring a bell. I'll have to try to find it again. Pine shavings is what I was thinking when I said wood chips, I think I will give that a try. |
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Location: Northern Utah | I put in two bales of the pine shavings in my 4H trailer. They are about $5 or $6 per bale. I pick the manure after each trip and can usually get it 30-45 days during the summer season before I need to replace the bedding. |
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Location: New Salem, ND | I too use the pine shavings. but last year I picked up bags of a pellet bedding that is for horses and is moisture absorbing. I mixed the two together and it worked great. 2 bails of pine chips and 1 bag of pellets. I use my stud stall as a extra tack area alot and no dust, worked great. |
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Location: western PA | We use shredded paper. High absorption, no dust, breaks down fast in gardens. Inexpensive once you have the machine |
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Location: Georgia | I tried the shredded paper for a while but always felt bad leaving traces of it where ever I parked. Liked it cause it worked well and was free! Inevitably some would come out with the horse as he came out and it was not easy tring to get it up. If you leave it, it just looks terrible on the ground especially in a park setting (National Forest). Tried the pellet and it worked well but it was horrible to get out when you needed to change it out. Went back to regular old pine shavings. |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: TN | I use shavings by a company called America's Choice that are screened 5-6 times and guaranteed to be dust free. They are much cleaner than using wood pellets.
Edited by cutter99 2011-03-25 6:33 PM
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Location: NY | I do not use any thing, I think that the dust is bad for horse to breath in |
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Location: Northern Utah | I just haven't seen the dust problems. Maybe I'm just lucky on what shavings I've purchased. For those of you that have decided that shavings cause dust problems, Just what are you seeing? Is it dust when the horses paw? Or is it dust swirling while the trailer is being driven down the road? I've done a lot of long summer drives with all the windows open and still not seeing dust swirling in the trailer from my shavings. Now 20 miles of BLM dirt roads and everything inside my horse is dusty. |
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Location: Indiana | We use bagged pine shavings in the trailer because they are less dusty than a fine sawdust. We always spray them down with the hose before we load our horses. This keeps any fine dust from blowing and getting in their eyes or lungs. I do like to have some sort of bedding in the trailer so that the urine doesn't splatter on their legs and so it is also contained to help keep the trailer easy to clean when we get home. |
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Location: centrally located amongst the "NUTS" | Originally written by blackcows on 2011-03-25 1:05 PM
What do you use to bed your trailer? I have always used sawdust becuase it's what we use in the stall so it's avaialable but I'm don't really like the mess it makes. I use my front stall in the trailer as an extra tack area and everything up there is always covered with a layer of dust, the horses are always covered with dust. We show alot in the summer so that means traveling with windows down which just adds to the problems. I was thinking about trying some wood chips to see how that worked. I know some people bed cattle stalls with cedar fiber...nto sure what that is but wondering if that would be better. Cedar fiber is really absorbant and soft but you need to wet it because of dust and I would think very hard to get out when soiled. It is mostly sold in the south. I use varieties of pine shavings that I have found to not be dusty. |
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Location: michigan | I have used sawdust- the same we use to bed the cows-and have not had any dust related issue. I prefer straw..I use it for stall bedding as well. We put it up so I have it,its easy to move and use. Whatever works for you there isn't a really bad choice. |
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Location: TN | Farmbabe- What's the price of straw out there? We have a difficult time finding it here and it's selling for $7-9 per bale if you can find it. We use it to bed our pigs, but it is almost impossible to find! We have had a ton of thoroughbred farms come into this area in the last 5 years and I think they buy it all up.
Edited by cutter99 2011-03-27 3:06 PM
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Extreme Veteran
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| Usually about $2 a bale here in Nebraska but not a lot of people put it up just because there isn't a big demand. Lots of cornstalks used for bedding around here. |
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Bedding the Trailer
