Can bagged shaving be stored outside the barn? If they can, I was thinking of storing them on a cement pad with brick wall adjacent to my manure pile. I read in a couple of different places that could, and even a shavings company said their bagged shavings could be store inside or out because of their “all-weather” packaging, but I’ve never seen any of the barns I’ve been to do it, granted they all used bulk shavings and would just throw a tarp over it, but isn’t that kind of the same thing? I’m a little hesitant to believe they’ll be fine being stored outside and wanted to get others opinions. My other two options for storing shavings is building a shed or storing them in a little 12x12 loft area above the feed room (I would have to build a ladder into the wall to reach there and I’m also not crazy about the idea of having to climb high to get to them).
I bought some last winter from a different supplier and they were frozen inside. I’m assuming they were outside and moisture got in. My bags occasionally have holes in them and do tear easily, so they aren’t weather proof by any means.
I don’t mind them slightly damp, but frozen was a no go. I couldn’t break them up finely enough for bedding and some were wasted.
Maybe if you could keep them dry. My regular supplier does keep them outside, but in a shelter with a tarp and on skids and they’ve always been fine.
we have stored bagged shavings outside after obtaining an excellent price on two pallets for a test load of just how many could be loaded into our three horse trailer. (doing a test run since we prefer to bring our own bedding to Morgan Nationals rather than pay $15 to $18 per bag at Nationals. we ca purchase off site then truck in keeping the shaving stored in the trailer) Two pallets easily fit into the trailer.
We just placed the pallets the shaving came on onto our concrete pad, stacked the shavings on the pallets then trapped the stack for extra protection.
Local feed stores have pallets of shavings stored in their service yard exposed to the weather. Each pallet is factory wrapped where the vendor had places a plastic top over the stack before wrapping
I store my bagged shavings outside. I just make sure I get bags that don’t have any holes or tears.
I don’t keep a lot of excess on hand and I go through them within a few weeks.
My shavings (only use them in the horse trailer, my stalls are bedded in deep sand) locally come in paper wrappers. However, I saw Bob’s trainer had a flat bed of shavings behind the stable all in plastic wrap. It was outside. Clearly mine cannot be stored outside. I usually have only 2-3 bags on hand and keep them in the pickup truck bed.
My supplier used to store shavings outside. They had to credit me a couple bags on most pallets that had gotten too wet to use. In the winter they would freeze and be unspreadable. Now use a different supplier. Your success probably depends on weather in your area. If you don’t tend to get soaking rains and if water won’t run toward your storage area, you may be fine. Try a load and see how it goes.
I buy shavings 2-3 pallets at a time depending on what price my supplier has them.
I stored a pallet outside on a cement pad and covered with a tarp, all the outside bags were damp inside and then froze in winter. Such a PITA.
Now I store them inside.
They sure get wet at TSC stored that way. But I think if you put them on pallets and put a tarp over the stack and secured it they would be fine. I keep mine in the barn since that is easiest for me.
Mine are going to freeze inside or outside without a heated barn, it’s more about making sure the packaging is robust with no holes.
I’ve had three 40-bag (60# bags) pallets (off the pallets) stored in my stock trailer during winter weather & rain.
Plexiglas doesn’t completely seal off the back, so essentially “outdoors”.
No problem with any of the shavings freezing.
I live in a very rainy place. No shavings bag is truly weatherproof. But if you tossed a tarp over top it should be ok
They sure do. You can see the discoloration and if you open it up they are wet. How the water gets in is a mystery because I sure have to work at getting them unbagged!
Maybe they were wet when bagged up?
A barn I frequent stores their large volume of bagged shavings in a repurposed shipping container. They don’t seem to have a moisture problem and have been doing this for 10+ years.
