My feed store is now carrying flax bedding. I usually bed with straw, but in reading about flax, it says it’s beneficial for pastures and soil. Does anyone have experience spreading flax bedding in your pasture? My guys all get ground flax meal in their feed and I’m wondering if they’ll try to eat it? Pro/cons?
No idea about spreading but I have rubber mats on my floors and found flax bedding very slippery when first put in the stall. I had to mix mine with sawdust to make it safe for my horses.
I’ve seen it in use. It seems nice. They don’t really eat it, as it’s basically like chopped straw.
I use flax bedding! It can be slippery, but found that if it’s got a bag of hemp bedding mixed with it, it makes it’s perfect and not slippery! I absolutely love it and hemp and only switched to the flax due to it being more economical per bag. I switched to both products due to the more alkaline properties as I spread my manure and compost. Pine of any kind is extremely acidic and lowers the soil pH a lot! I’m in Virginia and already have slightly acidic soil by nature, so every little bit helps! It’s super easy to pick out manure and pee spots stay isolated and don’t spread. Minimal to zero dust and easier to keep clean than anything else I’ve ever used and it helps keep flies away when compared to other kinds of bedding!
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I’m in Western NC and we have acidic soil as well. I have stall skins which are not at all slippery.
I used it and didn’t like it. I liked the fact that it was good for the soil when spread on pastures, but I found that it didn’t absorb urine well. It does clump when it gets wet but much of the urine would pool under the clump and stay very wet on the mat. I use Sweet Pdz and let the wet spots dry but my barn still ended up smelling like a gerbil cage after a while. Also, it was slippery and I didn’t feel like it gave the horses a good surface to lay on, since it didn’t feel like it afforded any cushion.
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