Anybody have any experience with Flax Farm bedding?

My feed store is now carrying this brand of flax bedding. I know nothing about flax bedding. I did a search on the forum but information on flax bedding is sparse and several years old. Does anybody have any experience to share?

I used a couple bags of it. Super absorbent, but heavy and turned dark, and wasn’t as fluffy or as nice-smelling as pine pellets bedding. I didn’t stick with it, just because I was happy with the pine pellets.

1 Like

I gave it a go a few years back. I found it to be SUPER slick and fell twice as it was basically like walking on ice over when used over rubber mats. I also did not find it to be very absorbent, at least not as much so as it was claimed to be. I did not find it to be any more absorbent than pelleted bedding or sawdust.

1 Like

I tried flax bedding earlier this year for one of my horses who has allergies. Initially I was pretty happy with it but shortly thereafter I found I had the same issues as above - it was slippery. I stopped using it at that point.

Same as the others, very slippery and not overly absorbent. Easy to clean from a manure standpoint, though.

Well, sounds like y’all have had pretty much the same experience. Thanks for the heads up. I think I will stick with my usual pine bedding.

I use it for my horse with allergies. He does not tolerate shavings very well. We don’t have pellets available around here for whatever reason, so I haven’t gone that route yet.

The flax bedding is very good for his alleriges from a dust standpoint. It is slippery at first, but he hasn’t had an issues and I’ve watched him lay down and get up.

It isn’t as light and fluffy as shavings, nor is it so “pretty” looking, especially when it gets a bit damp (turns darker) but it is so beneficial for my guy with dust allergies as he is quite sensitive.

It doesn’t absorb as well as they claim, it’s roughly on par with shavings, not much better than shavings.

It is easy to clean and deal with.

However, if my horse didn’t have allergies, I would’ve stuck with shavings because a bulk load can be cheaper than flax. But that depends on time of year and supply.

1 Like

Never used Flax but we have one horse that has tested allergic to pine as well as oh, 30 other things… he is bedded on shredded news paper. Not cheap, but works very well (once you figure out have to clean the stall).Also finding this shredded news paper is a challenge, with few feed stores carrying the product. Cost is little greater than twice that of pine shavings

Baled like pine shavings, two bales of the compressed shredded paper expands to about four or five inches coverage for a 12 by 12 stall. The bedding over rubber mats is not slippery. Nor is the bedding slippery on the concrete pavers that he tracks out into the hallway

Very absorbent as horse if a native America would they have been named Pees A Lot or maybe Source of Great Waters … but the bedding absorbs the urine just as well as pelleted pine does that we use with the others

The biggest issue is Mr Poops A Lot kind of buries the evidence since the bedding has a tendency to bank itself against the wall as Mr Walks A Lot’s hoofs pick up the bedding and by the rotation of his walking the bedding ends up near the walls where Mr Pops A Lot deposits his loads

1 Like

I use flax bedding for all of mine (this stuff http://www.equisorb.co.uk/)

I love it but there is a knack to using it. You need to leave some/most of the wet in do it compacts together and forms a solid base, taking out the manure and adding fresh bedding as necessary. I strip my boxes about every three months. I don’t find it smells, it composts much quicker than shavings and I waste less. I probably go through two to four bags per week topping up (7 horses, including one very messy gelding) and use about five bags per new bed. The fresh stuff is quite slick but it really does make a warm and comfortable bed. Can’t say your product will be the same but I really like flax bedding as a whole.

2 Likes

Shredded newspaper is the best.

sort of agree after getting used to it as there no dust, very absorbent, provides very good cushioning

the only down sides are cost and time it takes to muck a stall since wonder boy sort of plays cat and buries poop. It takes at least three times the time to clean his stall that is bedded in shredded paper than the ones that are on pine shavings.

Got him down to three compressed 40# bags a week … so about $38/week in bedding for him

yes, it had cut my bedding bill down considerably… then my distributor stopped carrying it :frowning: I still have 5 bags for the trailer that I am hoarding.