Pellet Bedding for Livestock

When most people think of a horse or livestock stall, the last thing they think of are pellets like those to the left. After all, those don't look at all comfortable, do they?

I will admit that I was a skeptic when it came to pellet bedding for horse stalls over shavings. I had been to several barns, and the one thing they all had in common was shavings in the stalls for bedding.

For those persons who stumbled upon this blog and aren't horse savvy, when you have a horse in a barn in a stall, the majority of the time, people use what's known as "shavings." Originally, folks were using cedar shavings or a mix of cedar and pine, but most people use pine shavings due to the fact that cedar shavings are known to cause respiratory problems in small animals, and pine shavings are relatively less expensive. If you go to a farm, and you see a large pile of wood shavings, it's what they use for bedding. And there is nothing wrong with that...at all.

My introducing to pelleted bedding came two-fold:

* a regular visit to Tractor Farm Supply showed me 50 lbs bags of these pellets all stacked on a pallet. I thought, "phooey - what a waste of money and time!" I really did say phooey...or maybe it was just a scoff and an eyeroll that translates to "phooey." Either way, I thought people had more money than sense.

* then I saw them in action at a local horse rescue. The rescue wanted to save room and prevent a fire hazard by using the pine bedding. During a volunteer orientation, they wheeled out two wheelbarrows, each with a 50 lbs bag of pellets in them. They turned their water on warm inside the barn, and they taught people how to go about mixing the pellets:

1. Stand the bag on its end in the wheelbarrow.
2. Cut open the top of the bag and let it fall/guide it so it lays flat with the open end at the farthest end of the wheelbarrow.
3. Place two fingers halfway down the bag, and lift up. This will dump out 1/2 the bag of pellets into the wheelbarrow.
4. Remove the bag with the remainder of the pellets.
5. Add some warm water to the wheelbarrow, and use your hand to spread the pellets around. This is sort of done on an eyeballing basis. There's no set # of pints or quarts or however much. You just watch.
6. Wait and watch magic happen.

It's not REALLY magic, but you'll see the pellets start to expand and then crumble into fine wood "dust." The best part is it's not REALLY dust. It's actually FAR less dusty than your average shavings (see why I like it?)

When most of the pellets are expanding, you add the rest of the bag (if you need an entire bag for the stall.)

It is OKAY if not all of the pellets have expanded, but most of them should. Just be sure you don't over-saturate the bedding or you'll have a sloppy mess on your hands. When it has expanded and is ready, it is just finely textured bedding. The non-expanded pellets will be broken down by the horses' hooves so that's fine. Some people don't add water at all in with it if they are in a colder climate.

Benefits of using the pine pellets over shavings:

1. You can stack the bags on a pallet in a storage room. You don't have to have a designated area for shavings. You don't have to worry about the shavings getting wet.
2. Instead of shoveling several loads of shavings into a wheelbarrow and then taking it to a stall, you merely bring a bag, add water, and voila!
3. Low dust. This is a matter of contention. If you use the proper amount, use stall mats, and have a horse that uses its stall, it's great. If you put too much in, live in an arid climate, have dirt floors, and have a horse that does not use its stall often, it CAN get dusty. However, in my opinion, compared to overall dust, it's definitely much lower than regular shavings.
4. If I had a farm, I could throw a few bags in the trunk and back seat (and passenger seat) of my car to bring home whereas shavings I'd need a truck or would need to have it delivered.
5. Lower stinkiness. We've all been to the barn that has been mucked and cleaned, and it still stinks. I don't mean, "breathe in that horse smell!" I mean the "clearly someone did not clean out all of the wet spot!" smell. I've found most shavings, even stalls cleaned well, tend to retain stinkiness whereas the pellets don't. I can't stay this as a whole, but just what I've noticed.


Non-discounted price for A bag of pelleted bedding is around $5-$6. I don't know exactly how much, per cubic foot, that makes, but I've seen one bag work well for a 12 x 14 stall, and of course, when you clean the stall, you don't strip it every time. If you have one or two horses, and you're on a solid budget (that's funny when it comes to horses, isn't it?) I'd look into the pelletized bedding.

Daydream Believer...Barn Plans.

I've been around a variety of barns my entire life: lesson barns for horses, barns that housed hens and equipment, small horse barns, large horse barns, multi-animal barns (chickens, pigs, and rabbits.) I know what works and what doesn't work. Of course, right now all I can do is plan and write and sketch, and so that's what I did today.

This would be my ideal barn, but I will also address common hazards in barns like this design below which is a design I've seen work in the past as a horse barn with alterations. This is absolutely not to scale since I quickly drew it on a standard Paint program.

Feel free to click for a larger view of this sketch. (c) Purity & Simplicity, 2014.

Okay so here we go....the design. Here are some basics of the design:

* The left side of the aisle are stalls: basic 14' x 14' stalls. I chose 14' x 14' over standard 10' x 10' or 12' x 12' because...why not? I would also like to make one wall/partition between two of the stalls removable. When one partition is removed, it creates a 14' x 14' stall and a 14' x 28' stall. In two stalls there will be horses. In one stall will be dairy goats. On the left side, there will be dutch doors leading to a fenced area. The goats won't use these doors. (See below).

* The center aisle will be wide enough to allow a tractor down the center in case of cleanups or animal removal (Heaven forbid.)

* The right side of the barn would be feed/hay/bedding (pine pellets - I'll tell you why in another post) with a door leading to an outdoor covered area for rabbit hutches and a rabbit area.

* Under the feed/hay/bedding will be a grooming/vetting/milking area with a center floor drain and a double dutch door out of the back. The double dutch door in the back will be used for ventilation, and there will be a river rock area that leads out to a pasture for the goats. This makes it easy for goats to come in the evenings, get milked, and moved directly across to a stall (or to an end or wherever since all three stalls are the same size.) Then in the mornings, stall, stanchion, outdoors. Also in this grooming area, a sink and shelf for medicine prep, and a faucet for a horse for bathing. Cross-ties also installed.

* Below the grooming/vetting/milking area is another room: a heated tack/fridge room where the electrical box as well as the main water shut off will be located...as well as a couch. There will be another door leading outside to a covered area for the hen house and "indoor" coop. Of course, the coop won't really be indoors, just covered, and used in cases of severe weather, etc. while also letting the hens forage and scratch.

Drainage is important to consider. For the stalls, there will be a French drain system employed, and the entire barn will be built on a hill allowing run-off, while also surrounded by drainage rock and French drain systems as well.

Some hazards:

Hay being stored in the barn where animals are housed. One of the main reasons why barns are engulfed quickly in flames due to a fire is because of hay and shavings in a barn. I've attempted to thwart this (if a fire should happen) by having doors to stalls on the interior of the building and exterior all on one side (across from the hay/shavings.) If the animals need to be released from the barn, a quick flip of the exterior doors will release them into a fenced pasture. The same goes for the hens - a quick flip of their door to the outside can be opened, and the rabbits can be removed from their hutches.

Each animal will have halters and lead ropes outside of their stall doors and emergency halters available inside the home.

I have also made the electric box on the opposite end from the hay storage, but.... hay can also be stored in a separate building altogether if need be. There will not be dried bedding, like shavings, in the barn. Instead, we will use pine pelleted bedding.

I also made the main water valve in the heated tack room area so that the pipes stay insulated during the Winter freezes.

As you can see from the very-amateur barn design, there is cross ventilation provided at either end of the barn as well as between the double dutch doors of the stalls and the door in the hay/feed area, the wash area, and the tack room.......all of which can be left open. The average size of the barn structure (excluding rabbit and hen area) is approximately, 42' x 42'.