ABOUT BEDDING
Long Meadow Farm of Shamong, LLC.
Making stall cleaning easy, fast and thorough
Home of the original Poop Shaker (tm)
About Bedding…
There are many kinds of bedding available to the horse community. A quick search of the internet provides a host of bedding options. These include pine or cedar chips and sawdust, engineered pelletized bedding, recycled material such as shredded paper, and straw.
Typically, any of these beddings are placed over a rubber matting which is placed over stone dust or dirt. The rubber mat enhances the cushioning while the sub-flooring acts to drain liquids.
The bedding material provides a number of uses:
- It provides a cushion on which the horse can stand, keeping it off the mat, dirt or concrete floor,
- It provides absorption for the urine and manure,
- It aids in the clean up of the stall by containing the waste material.
Whichever bedding is chosen, it should have the characteristics of absorbency, adequate cushioning, dust free, easily removed, and cost effective.
The absorbency of the bedding is one of the most important aspects since it is critical for removing urine and reducing ammonia vapors. Additionally, dust free bedding aids in minimizing respiratory problems for the horse and the cleaning staff. From a practical standpoint, dust free beddings are easier to clean and will enhance the cleanliness of a the stable, since fine dust gets everywhere.
Straw can be a viable bedding option since it is relatively inexpensive and degrades easily in the manure pile. However, straw if often difficult to clean up, has an increased volume over the other options, and is not as easy to handle.
Some of the most common bedding materials now include wood shaving, chips, pulverized wood, or pelletized wood products. These are typically highly absorbent and can be easily removed when soiled. Both pine and cedar chips are commercially available with the cedar scent having the added benefit of reducing flying insects. In fact, small amounts of cedar shavings added to pine bedding will have a similar result.
Wood beddings are relatively easy to handle with most products available in 50lb or smaller bags. These bags can be moved into the stall, slit open, and raked out. As stall cleaning progresses, addition bedding can be added to make up the balance that is lost during cleaning. Occasionally, all bedding should be removed and replaced with virgin material as part of good equine health management.
The wood chips, dust-free sawdust, and pelletized bedding can all be used in the Poop Shaker. The particle size allows the bedding to sift while the manure rolls off into a bucket. Straw and large flake bedding will not work with the Poop Shaker. In fact, the Poop Shaker will very effectively remove this bedding from the stall, leaving any small particles behind.