In search of a very low dust/dust free bedding, I came across Airlite bedding, which is cardboard. Has anyone used it? Any experience or advice? It’s a bit more pricey, but if it checks my boxes, then it’s worth it.
I’m looking for a bedding that is:
Thanks!
We have one horse who is allergic to …well life. We have him bedded on shredded straw. It comes in bales like pine shaving (which the lad is allergic to) The shredded straw is much easier to use than pure baled straw.
Not the cheapest bedding but does a great job providing him a dust free environment.
Last year we air conditioned his stall to eliminate outside dust but this year his complete stall is draped in a mesh like misquote netting. Fans are in the inside of the netting with the netting being used to filter the air of dust. Admittedly this is working fine as it keeps his stall free of flies while providing air flow.
We tired the shredded cardboard and it sort of worked but really was a poor bedding, at least for this horse. They claim it decomposes rapidly … maybe in their tests it did but sure did not in our actual use.
We bag all of his bedding which is picked up by our twice a week trash pickup
I used it for a horse who had hives from an undeterminable source. The bedding worked well for us, but he liked to eat it-instead of his hay🤷🏼♀️. Fortunately, the hives went away and we were able to go back to shavings.
I am very interested in trying this, where do you buy it? The only source I’ve found online is from Superior Straw Bedding and they don’t have any dealers in my area…
Is it easy to sift through? Absorbent?
Standlee: https://standleeforage.com/products/certified-chopped-straw
and
Guardian: https://www.guardianhorsebedding.com/fine-chopped-straw
and
Taylor Select: https://www.taylorselect.com/chopped-straw/
All have a chopped straw product. If you have a feed store that sells those brands, they might be able to get it for you.
I was also curious, and have heard good things. Asked my local guy, as they carry Guardian bedding (shavings & pellets.) Was told it was cha-ching $$$ and they’d have to order a whole truck. Sticking with wood pellets for now! But it doesn’t hurt to ask around…
I would love to try the chopped straw… but my piggy horses eat regular straw. Worried they will gorge themselves on the chopped too. I have heard good things about it. And bonus that it would be nice to spread on my fields.
the feed store where we were purchasing the shredded cardboard also has the shredded straw (specifically for equines), I will get the name off the bag when I feed at noon.
I know they were getting the shredded cardboard from Nebraska
I must admit this feed store (which is forty miles away) is Service beyond belief…whatever this “special needs horse” has needed they have gotten it without saying “that’s not something we handle”… then as long as we order a minimum of $100 will deliver, unload, stack, put away whatever was ordered… max delivery charge $30.
Needless to say our average order greatly exceeds their minimum …so they have reduced our delivery charge to $20 .
I really tip the delivery driver well …I want him to want to come here as he always has been wanting to make sure everything is the way I want it before he leaves
we have found this shredded/chopped straw has been ideal to use in the trailer as it is dust free and fairly adsorbent
it is “Equinestraw”
web site
https://healthistraw.com/equinestraw/
where to buy… enter zip code or location
What do you know!? There’s a feed store about 20 miles away that carries the fine farmstraw…I’ll have to give it a try. I assume it will be fine to use in a Newer Spreader?
I would not think there would be any problem, the chopped/shredded straw decomposes and adds about five times the nitrogen to the soil than pine shavings
Current cost for us $10.99 a bale…not cheap, but it makes The Wonder Horse happy.
While looking for you I noticed Walmart has it on line fro $9.83 a bale… so might look at Walmart+ to see if they would actually ship it at no charge,
that "Free 2-day shipping. " dose not apply to this product
I have been at times temped to order a few tons of feed from Chewy’s just to see if FedEx would actually haul it to the front door
I wonder, if this is true, would mixing straw bedding with shavings cause them to break down quicker? Right now I have my piggy of a gelding on chopped straw and my girls on shavings. I’ve been keeping the 2 types in separate manure piles in case I find someone who will take the straw away.
I would not expect there to be any crossover I would think each would decompose at its own rate, I really have not compared the two since we started bagging the manure and wet straw (which has reduced our composting considerably) . The only composted bedding is now the wet pine from urine.
The chopped/shredded straw is expensive at just under twice the cost to pine shavings or pelleted pine (which currently the least expensive in my area)
We do use the chopped straw in the trailer as we have found at least for us it works better than any of the shavings.
My local Tractor Supply carries the Standlee chopped straw.
I use the Bededge chopped straw, really nice and practically no dust. Only downside is I have a limited manure composting area, so the volume I was taking out while doing stalls was a little high. I now put bedding pellets (.5-1 bag a week) under the pee spots. I have a more dust than just using Bededge obviously, but my waste volume is down to a level I can manage. The dust is around a 70% improvement from when I did a shavings/pellet mix.
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