# Where do you get your shavings?



## Shosadlbrd (Nov 3, 2013)

Just curious. Where do you get or buy your shavings??
We use to get free shavings, just had to load and haul ourselves.
Then we had some delivered. That option is still available, but no where to store them right now.
Of late, I have been buying the bagged shavings. But that can get expensive.
Going today to a place that sells miss-marked bags of shavings on pallets known as Farmers Pallets and they are $3 a bag for 5.5 cubic ft. per bag. Thirty bags to a pallet. 

So tell me where you are located and how do you handle your shavings.


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## Horseychick87 (Feb 5, 2014)

Well, I don't have a farm of my own, nor a horse at the moment, so my storage is limited, but I can tell you about what my past trainers did.

I'm in Jacksonville FL:

I have 3-5 feed/ farm supply stores within 20 miles of me and can get a variety of shavings that are bagged, or pelleted bedding. I can also get a wide selection of brands. (I've looked into how much I would need if I do a self-care boarding set up in the future.) 
If I have one horse I could just get a small shed and keep the bagged shavings in there. I wouldn't be able to do loose shavings unless I found a way to contain them in a small shed, maybe in plastic drums/ barrels.

My first instructor did a co-op with four or five other trainers and they would split the cost of a huge shipment of bagged shavings and then just store them in a spare stall or in the old hay loft.

My second instructor bought only what she needed each month as she did not have space to store lot's of bedding or hay for that matter.

My newest instructor...well I'm still not sure what she does, mainly because I've yet to ask, and I know she only has one storage shed. So she must keep them in there or maybe she stashes them somewhere, but the stalls are always fresh and well bedded so I know she keeps them on hand.

There is a person in a fairly nearby county and they sell huge bags of shavings, they are not compressed, but fill up 42 gallon liner bags (like you'd put in a food type barrel for flour.) and sell those for $6 each, or you can get 15 to 16 yards of shaving dumped on your property, but price will vary according to the miles they have to haul them which is only fair.
And I'm pretty sure they allow people to pick them up themselves for a lower fee since they wouldn't have to haul them off. They offer Pine, Oak, Poplar, and Cedar, absolutely no walnut anywhere near the shavings.

But to do the loose shavings you'd have to have some kind of building set up to where the shavings could be dumped easily enough to make it worth the extra work.


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

Lumber mill around the corner. Free if I load it myself. $5 if they fire up the big loader.
The stuff is a little fine but at that price who cares.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

This might surprise many horse people but shavings do not make good bedding. It causes the horse to stand toes down which means the sharp edged P3 is pushing against the laminae. Straw doesn't do this. Wheat straw is best if available. I was taught how to bed with straw and particularly how to get the most mileage out of it.


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## Larissa (Jan 25, 2014)

I do $35 a truck load. They pour it in. I bring it home. Fill the stall, bank the corners and bag the rest in yard bags. I will not use straw - my horses eat it like no tomorrow, it's harder to clean, and more expensive to get and get rid of in the long run for me.


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## Roman (Jun 13, 2014)

We use this for our pigs and the barn I take lessons at uses them for stalls.


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## bunny987 (May 10, 2012)

We get free shavings from Amish sawmills around our area. We bag them ourselves in old feed bags, because it is easier to fill our storage container. We normally get about 20 at a time. We buy them at Tractor Supply if we are in a pinch, but don't like them as much; they don't soak up the urine like the sawdust does.


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## Freespirit96 (Jul 11, 2015)

I used to get shavings from a local business who supplies mulch, rock, gravel,etc in bulk. 10 dollars a load and it lasted quite a long time. The problem is it was very dusty, if you got them after it rained then they would be very wet and it would be hard to dry them out, and I have no where to store them so i would get 1 or 2 yards, fill up all three stalls and that would last me 2 weeks. Jumping in and out of the truck filling up the stalls took about an hour and i did it for about two years but once I got a boarder I just decided to do pellet shavings. 6 bags of pellet shavings fill a stall and depending on how long your horse is in for, how much you bank, and how wet they are will be the factor in how many bags you put in a week for maintenance. I cut open the top of the bag, fill it up with water until it starts leaking out the sides, and let them sit for about 10-20 minutes. Then I cut open the bag and spread. I put about a bag in a week for all of my horses which is about 20 bucks a week in shavings for 3 horses and a pony. Not terrible but not great either. The great things about the pellet shavings is that you can decide how developed you want them. The less developed they are the more they absorb so I normally do 3/4 developed and leave about a 1/4 of the bag in pellet form. Also when I remove and clean the pee spot, I throw a scoop of lime and dry pellets over it and then cover it with the shavings. It Works well.


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