Can anyone tell me how long their shavings deliveries last? I can get 30 yard loads and there are 5 horses. The cost for this is $400.
Right now, we’re doing bagged shavings for some and pelleted bedding for the others. This comes to around $10 per horse per month for the pellets and $15 per horse per month for the bagged shavings. So, $65 per month total for bedding.
I’m just wondering if the bulk shavings will last longer than 6 months to make it advantageous financially.
Well, it’s pretty easy to figure out how many bags of shavings that 30 yard load of loose shavings will equal. That would definitely be the place to start.
Things to consider besides cost: Do you have a place to store them where there won’t be a lot of loss? I only have a (covered) bare ground location at my place, and did lose some to puddles, moisture, etc. It was also a PAIN chopping at that frozen mound in the winter…the outside froze right up, even though they were under cover.
Mine ended up being cheaper than bagged shavings or pellets, but I was glad to reach the end of the pile. For my small setup (four horses) the slight additional cost of the bagged shavings/pellets was worth it.
Everybody uses shavings at different rates so how long it lasts others is probably not that useful.
You are using about 3 bags of shavings per horse per month?
The bags in my TSC claim to expand to 5.5 cf
There are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard
So there are about 5 bags in a cubic yard
30 cubic yards is therefore about 150 bags
So if you used it at the same rate and there was no loss due to rain, rising damp or wind a delivery would last you about 10 months.
So yes, it’s cheaper if you already have good storage for it, but you’d need really good storage to keep shavings in good condition if you use them that slowly. It’s probably not so much cheaper that it would be worth your while to build new storage. Saving $25 a month will never pay off a new shed and floor.
Wow, how much are you paying for that bagged bedding?! It’s about $5/bag around here and I can’t imagine you’re only adding 2 bags a month of pellets or 3 of shavings each month? (If you are, please tell me what your secret is!)
[QUOTE=Simkie;7744778]
Wow, how much are you paying for that bagged bedding?! It’s about $5/bag around here and I can’t imagine you’re only adding 2 bags a month of pellets or 3 of shavings each month? (If you are, please tell me what your secret is!)[/QUOTE]
I only use a bag of pellets a week, max. That’s when they are in for full 12-14 hour stretches in the darkest days of winter, making a mess.
Much, much less when they are only in for a handful of hours during the summer.
OK my guys are pigs, I admit that. All 3 of mine are nasty, dirty stall pigs and when I bed my stalls, which are dirt floor not matted, if I use bagged shavings from TSC, I use between 4 and 5 bags per stall and within 2 days, I have to use at least 2 more bags.
When I buy sawdust by the truckload, I use about 4 wheelbarrows per stall and it lasts a bit longer, especially if I am able to get the burnt pine sawdust from my secret sawdust place but I just can’t imagine using only 3 bags a month! Even when my pigs are only in for a few hours a week. (I personally think that it is a game between the 3 of them to see who can mess up their stall the most!)
Are your stalls concrete? matted? Please, tell me your secret, too.
Well, I’m not in love with the current bedding situation. My horses are the two on pellets and out 12 hours overnight. They go through about a half a bag of pellets a week. This is what I do to maintain a 4" bed and keep my horses comfortable.
The other three horses belong to others and they only get a dusting of shavings - barely enough to soak up urine. The stalls are all matted. I’m changing everyone to be on the same bedding and to have enough to provide cushion. Either everyone will be on pellets or everyone will go to bulk shavings but everyone will have at least 4" of bedding in the stalls. No exceptions.
And there is a large shavings shed with a wood floor for bulk deliveries. It’s a separate 12x24 building.
When I had horses at home and was super anal about cleaning stalls and super stingy with bedding, I could make a bag last a week… But if I had been paying to board someplace, I would have been whining about how thin the bedding was!
Also consider how much labor goes into bulk shavings. At my small boarding operation I did it for a few years because the cost of bulk was cheaper. I changed to bagged after I realized that loading the bulk into a wheel barrow took over twice as long as grabbing a bag and opening it. If I had to completely rebed a stall this was a major chunk of time. Bags are more expensive up front but the savings on labour is enormous.
I also work at a large (80 horse) show barn. There we buy in semi-load bulk and use the tractor to move it. I’m not sure if bags would be faster or not. I don’t think so. The savings on bulk is important at that scale.
Something else to consider with bulk versus bagged shavings when calculating how long they will last.
The bulk sawdust I get is from a pallet factory. It is not kiln dried and it is oak, not pine. For these two reasons it is not as absorbent as bagged shavings are.
I still find the bulk sawdust to be more economical than the bagged shavings or pellets. Just tossing out this thought so you do not do a cubic foot per cubic foot calculation and expect it to be that exactly.
We get about 3 months out of a 40yard load of mixed wood fiber and sawdust. It comes dried, is put in bin with a roof, so it stays mostly dried. No door, so a driving rain might wet the front area.
Husband said the bucket on tractor holds 1/3 cubic feet, and I can bed the two box stalls pretty well, with half a bucket each. Usually removing one muck tub of dirty bedding from the colt’s stall, and a tub and a half out of the Old Mare’s stall. I can bed the four tie stalls well, with one bucket heaped up. All stalls are cleaned daily, with the tie stalls stripped, daily.
We find the tie stalls save on bedding, horses not wandering to mix dry and wet together, faster and easier to clean. Tie stalls also are a great training tool for getting over being “touchy” or spooky with folks in and out beside horse daily. This is a working farm, each is handled twice daily so horses here MUST be nice to live with. They lay down in tie stalls, bedding is a good depth to keep horses and HOOVES dry while the horses are in the stalls. Our horses use stalls between 8-12 hours daily, turned outside the rest of the time. Hours vary with the seasons, heat, insects and cold.
The wood fiber is VERY absorbent, kind of looks like mulch for the yard, shredded wood. Some sawdust added, for more absorbency at the company that delivers it. We had about the same use span, 3 months with 6 horses, when we used only sawdust from the same company in a 40yard load.
I only shovel bedding to go into the spreader, use the tractor bucket for moving it fresh and dry to stalls. Sure saves the body wear and tear with any quantity of stalls to clean and bed! Wheelbarrow is kept in the OTHER barn except for special needs. Just don’t use it that much with the bucket on tractor now.
You might want to consider width of a bucket on your tractor. Smaller bucket might fit the stall door width, so you can dump right into stall or clean stall into bucket, with less handling of loads. Think of climbing on and off tractor as “stair climbing exercise” in your daily program!! Ha Ha
Saving money is awesome, but I’ve found that bulk sawdust just isn’t worth it for a small herd. My biggest issue is the mildew/mold smell that crops up within a week or so in a load of green (undried) sawdust. A load can last for months with that many horses (especially with your current usage, sounds like). So, unless you’re going through A LOT of bedding or able to find it kiln-dried, the moldy/mildew-ness will get worse as the pile sits. Convenience + fresher air in the stalls makes me to opt for bags of pelleted bedding or shavings.
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