Hemp Bedding

[ladipus]

I’m interested and considering switching or at least trying hemp bedding …I have 2 horses with respiratory issues, and one mare with kidney disease that pees a lot and has a very wet stall My stalls are rubber matted …I’ve been using cardboard bedding for a few years now -I had to start using PDZ or Stall dry powder in the pee spots due to excessive wetness, and because of that it’s also creating dust which is counter productive to the reason I had switched to using it. It’s a lot more expensive than the cardboard or chopped straw bedding …but supposedly it’s super absorbent and lasts way longer than other bedding ….ive done some searches on here and older threads say lt wasn’t very absorbent?? Is it worth it ? Does is save you money in the long run? Will it last longer ??

We’ve now switched to day turnout so horses are spending more time in stalls and they are wetter and dirtier than I’d like.

[SusanO]

I inquired, because it sounded interesting but the price was so much greater than using bagged shavings that I did not order any. I am local to a lumber mill so bagged shavings are cheaper than TSC, but I did not see any cost savings. If you are using cardboard it might make sense.

[ladipus]

The cost is the biggest deterrent…my cardboard bedding comes out to be less expensive though than bagged shavings or the dust extracted chopped straw bedding …currently paying $1092 for 140 bags delivered - that comes out to $7.50/bag

I messaged Auboise hemp bedding company and this was their info & pricing

Attached screenshot of their email response

So if this is accurate it would cost around $680/month for 8 horses Vs $1092/month roughly …when horses are on overnight turnout my cardboard probably lasts me closer to 2 months

[SusanO]

I am able to buy overweight and underweight bags, plus bags that have been ripped and repaired. Delivered (25 bags at a time) for less than $5 a bag for a 10 cubic liter bag. I stack the bags in the barn and I don’t care if they leak a little bit. I can’t even come close to that price with any kind of bedding - even loose shavings these days.

[CanteringCarrot]

I use hemp bedding in my chicken coop, and it can be so dusty. I’ve tried 2 different brands so far. Maybe some are better at extracting the dust than others. It’s easy for the coop because I can use a large litter box scoop to sift poop and the wet stuff clumps. It can get quite pricey, so that deters me from using it for horse bedding.

[Bonnie2]

I have used the Auboise. Expensive then and became hugely expensive after covid. It made a nice bed - packed a bit and didn’t leave bald spots where they walk. It was pretty good on absorption, better when it wasn’t bone dry. It is recommended to dampen new bedding. The biggest draw back is it molds. The company recommends stripping the stall and rebedding at intervals. I keep my stalls very clean daily and have no interest in stripping decent bedding. But I would get mold in the corners and areas that didn’t get dirty and need to be cleaned. End of hemp experiment. I currently use shavings with pellets dumped dry on the pee spot then covered with shavings - as recommended by COTH! The dry pellets suck up the pee and make little volcanos that are a snap to clean.

[Cowgirl]

I used hemp bedding for my horse that has allergies (struggled with hives) until we got the allergy test results back and treated accordingly. I found the hemp bedding to be: expensive, absorbant however not as absorbant as other bedding, smelly. Hemp smells like hemp whereas my pine shavings smelled like pine. Pine is a cleaner smell. I am thankful that I was able to return to Pine shavings that were much cheaper and cleaner smelling.

[ladipus]

That’s good to know about the mold …that would definitely aggravate my heaves /allergy horses respiratory issues …I need something that is not dusty and absorbent …when i used shavings it worsened my heaves horses coughing .

[ladipus]

I just wish the pine wasn’t dusty …although I bet it’s better than what I’m dealing with currently…the stall dry /pdz powder is creating so much dust with the cardboard bedding it’s terrible …I always thought thought that any shavings , wood pellet or traditional straw bedding wasn’t recommended for respiratory issues ?

[clanter]

@ladipus

the stall dry /pdz powder

there are two versions of these products (at least for Sweet PDZ)… Powder and Granular, the powder is really dusty while the granular is not

We had one horse who was allergic to pine dust, we ended up air conditioning his stall and after trying several alternative bedding products found shredded straw to work very well, it was packaged like compressed pine shavings. Worked very well, easy to store and was “just” about twice as expensive as compressed bags of pine shavings