How to bed a stall with straw...

[BCGirl]

Cross-posted from Horse Care

After using shavings for my entire life, we are considering switching to straw due to the increasing cost with shavings and nitrogen scald it causes.

I know that oat straw is what I want, but other than that, what technique do I use to actually bed the stall? I have always preferred quick change methods to deep litter ones. Is there a special way to fluff the hay, distribute it, etc?

I have tried many searches but haven’t had any luck with figuring out exactly how to bed with straw. I apologize if this has been covered before, I just couldn’t find it!

Thanks!!!

[Buckskin]

Straw is pretty easy. You just figure out how many flakes you need to cover the stall and get your shake on. Be sure to shake each flake all the way out and you’ll end up with a fluffy stall. You could also use a straw pitchfork to toss straw in the air to fluff it if it’s been used but not dirty. I personally like to use a sawdust pitchfork when picking the stall (is that weird?) because I don’t like leaving lots of “pieces”. Be sure to bed pee spots pretty well as the straw doesn’t do the best job at absorbing it. Using a little sawdust in those spots wouldn’t be a bad idea to help soak it up.

[HPFarmette]

I used oat straw once and they ate it. Despite free choice hay…

[rustbreeches]

When you bed, you want to make sure that you shake the straw really well. I love straw, but am deathly allergic to it. You will need to bed deeper than sawdust, just because sawdust is so much more compact and straw is fluffier and less absorbent. A few inches of sawdust is sufficient, a few inches of straw not so much.

The fastest, best, most efficient way to clean a straw stall is to round it off. You basically flick all the clean stuff to the edges and put all the piles on the wet spot, generally in the middle of the stall. You end up with an island of wet, dirty straw in the middle of the stall, surrounded by a bare circle, surrounded by the okay straw you banked around the walls. Then you just fork all the dirty stuff out, pull the okay straw back down and add more new straw on top.

[khall]

Yeah I would be afraid of them eating the oat straw, I know mine would. They sometimes will eat the wheat straw. One thing with bedding with straw is urine. I always put shavings under my straw to soak up the urine that will pool otherwise. I foal out mares periodically and that is my standard go to, shavings covered with a deep bed of straw. So soft and fluffy! I use a regular pitch fork and a manure fork to clean my straw bedding.

[maunder]

Years ago I learned the old British way of bedding a straw stall. Take one flake of straw at a time (usually wheat) and your straw fork and fluff it into the air and as it falls to the stall floor you pat it down lightly so it’s flat. Repeat until you have layers of straw - lying flat and even all over the stall. When you bounce your fork on the straw you should not hear a clunk and it should be soft and springy - then you know the depth is getting at a good point.

You can roll edges so that there is a nice cushion all around the stall…we did this for the in-foal mares.

A stall done like this will be fairly easy to clean because the horse doesn’t churn up the layers.

[sid]

You may want to cross post on the Breeding Forum, as breeders use straw for term mares, foaling and foals.

I don’t have the time right now to tell you myself from my days of breeding…but lots of straw users over there that can give you some pointers.

[Romany]

Are you sure you want oat straw? That stuff is delicious, according to our lot!

If you have the handling capacity (tractor, bale spikes), see if you can get the large (3’ x 3’ x 6’+) square bales of straw. The straw is cut into 6-8" pieces, almost like large chaff, making it MUCH easier to shake out as a bed. Easier to muck out, too.

[fatappy]

I use wheat straw and it’s really not complicated. Shake it out.

When you clean it, push all the clean stuff to one side, and bring all the dirty to the middle. Don’t be shy about throwing the dirty out. You’re going to have a higher volume of waste compared to shavings, but you should still see cost savings. When you pull the clean back out, you don’t drag, you do kind of toss it to refluff.

There is a learning curve, but it’s a short one. I recently went to a horse show and bedded on shavings and was surprised at how much I did not miss it.