I use pellets out in the middle of my mare’s dry lot pen. Very evident wetness from pee vs wetness from rain. Her highness requires a bed and it prevents hock sores and I like not having to constantly clean pee off her legs from her peeing on hard ground so have found them very useful…even with NO roof.
A lot of the year, shavings just aren’t practical due to the wind and the BO won’t allow sand.
Susan
I’ve already got a barrier board system up so all clear there.
I’ve been sprinkling the beds with the hose a bit and so far it’s not terribly dusty. As we move into summer, maybe the humidity will assist too.
Good to know thank you.
Would some tarps folded in half make enough of a rain break for you? You could zip tie them to the outside of the panels. You could get tarps pretty cheaply at Harbor Freight stores.
I think the screens I ordered are going to be sufficient. They should stop most of the driving rain.
I’do need a tarp for another application though and hadn’t thought to check Harbor Freight for pricing. Thanks for the tip.
Straw doesn’t dry well once it gets wet. A little rain blowing into a clean stall wouldn’t be a problem, but horses walking around a wet straw stall will mean a lot of ruined bedding.
Pellets and shavings, on the other hand, will dry out and still be useable even if they get wet.
I say all this as a straw lover.
The pellets are looking good so far. We had some pretty good rain and only a bit on one edge got wet. I think once the screens go up, the pellets work fine.
I like straw. I think it makes better compost. Evidently, year round availability is an issue here though. Would have been a bunch cheaper though. Takes a lot of bags of pellets to make the beds.
I agree it is cheaper.
If you don’t go through a lot, you can usually get what you need from garden stores. They almost always have it, or at least that has been true most places I’ve lived (including places where no one bedded on straw).
But not the best choice for rain.
Nope. Called every feed store, nursery, and landscape supply nearby. The closest is like an hour away, one way! One local store carries it during the season, clerk said maybe in two months. Weird. That’s life at the beach I guess lol
Not around here - straw is ridiculously expensive. And you are right, supply is very limited. I suppose not a lot of people grow it locally, and those that do probably sell out to breeding farms, etc. first.
You will find that the initial cost of bedding with pellets is fairly high, but week to week the replacement bedding is far less (usually). So it seems shocking at first, but hopefully will actually be cheaper.
The only source I found that had straw currently had it priced at $11 for @50 lbs bale. It would have been cheaper to start the beds for sure as 3 or 4 bales would have nicely bedded each stall. I’m currently at 12 bags of pellets in each of my stalls and one I’m still not happy with. note my stalls are double the square footage of a 12x12 standard stall so I wasn’t surprised at the amt of bedding but still at $6 a bag it was pricey Based on how little bedding I’m removing when I’m cleaning I think it will be cheaper long term. And less volume to dispose of so that’s a bonus!
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