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We've had good luck with it personally, and the large majority of people we sell to. The key to economy is following the directions from WP. Don't scoop out the wet spots until the entire bedding is too damp to absorb. Stir the wet into the surrounding dry mat'l. When the wet spot looks slightly reddish in color, it's time to get it out and replace.
We've had people who've gone 3 months or more before they strip stalls. This is where it becomes cheaper than shavings. You don't have to go that long to realize a savings.
There's a manure fork with loosely spaced tines that helps get the little pieces out without the bedding. Fine Tines fork.
There's several very similar products. Magnum, etc. We prefer Woody, but they're all in the same ball park.
A lot of our customers go the the pelleted stuff to cut down on the ammonia smell.
hello,
I have my own and board other peoples horses for a number of years. Straw is great for a foaling stall but for everyday use it is heavy to remove and not very absorbent. I used to use sawdust but what I use now along with many of the horse people I know in my area is wood stove pellets. Do yourself a favor and try a bag or two in a stall. You will never go back to sawdust. It turns in to sawdust, is way more absorbent, there is way less waste so in the long run it is less labour intensive and more cost efficient.
Around my area, straw is almost and sometimes more expensive than hay is due to being used to start grassy areas by developers.
When the mill where my sawdust came from burned almost two years ago, sawdust became scarce and pricey so we went to bagged shavings/dust then to Woody Pet.
The Woody Pet works well, and is certainly easier to sift then shavings. However, the cost of using WP has really cut into my bording income combined with the price of hay these days. I continue to use it because our farm is on the market and I don't want a big pile of sawdust around.
By the way, the best way to use WP that I figured out was to dump a bag into a wheelbarrow, add about 3/4's of a bucket of water and mix it a bit just like a bag of concrete. Most of the pellets break down yielding the most dust.
Besides Walnut, Red Oak, Black or Wild Cherry and I think Red Maple are not good to use for bedding.
Adequate ventilation and turnout go a long way to aleviate dust problems.
I bed according to each horse's needs. To wet = more dust but just enough to get by.
The best bedding I found overall is no longer available in my area due to high fuel prices used to dry it. Drywalls scraps from the modular industry contain gypsum which is similar to lime and good for the soil.
The scraps were baked and pulverized yielding something like stone dust screenings. Mice and flys did not like the stuff and it was very absorbent. Some horses did eat it a bit but none ever got ill during the year I used it. Long term, who knows.
That company continues to market a gypsum/paper cow bedding but does not recommend it for horses. I do know different folks who use sredded newspaper for all their bedding.
I have never heard of using sawdust for any stall. You only see hay around here being used. That is pretty interesting though and I am going to check it out. My cousin has a horse barn with 5 stalls in it. She is constantly complaining about the cost of hay!
I really prefer sawdust as well. Since it is organic you usually do not have to worry about it. Unfortunately, it seems that my sons has an asthma attack anytime he gets around the stuff. He is fine with hay though. I dunno, go figure.
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