Barns/Grounds

In the normal course of evaluating bedding options, you look at cost, availability, storage, maintenance and potential allergens. Also consider what happens to the bedding when you’re done with it. The necessary expense of bedding can actually net you money in the end, or at least not cost additional money for disposal. Consider these bedding-disposal options for your farm:

Composting

If easy-to-compost bedding is what you’re after, “we found that wood shavings composted faster and more completely than hay used as bedding when the carbon:nitrogen ratio and moisture were ideal. Sawdust tends to compost faster and more completely than wood shavings, [which is] related to particle size,” says Lori Warren, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida.

Some bedding additives, such as those made from naturally occurring materials like diatomaceous earth and calcium montmorillonite (such as Stall Dry); and clinoptilolite or zeolite (such as Sweet PDZ), are compostable and can actually benefit your compost pile. One additive that researchers do not recommend composting is lime because of its high pH. “More nitrogen can be lost to the air as ammonia—volatilization—during composting when pH is high. This lowers the nitrogen available to composting microbes, so the process is slowed, not to mention the additional air pollution that is created,” says Warren.

If your anti-composting excuse is that you don’t have time to take on another project or don’t have space to build a compost heap, get in touch with area gardening organizations and offer used bedding for free. Be aware that certain states, Illinois included, have regulations for selling compost created on your farm.

Mushroom Farms

“In some locations, the mushroom industry likes to use the waste and straw to compost for the growing of mushrooms. They generally are particular about what they are using, so if this is a possibility, then that would need to be coordinated with the mushroom farms,” says Ed Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor and extension horse specialist at the University of Florida.

Pennsylvania, California, Ohio, Washington, Oregon, Michigan and Delaware are the largest mushroom-producing states in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.  

Cattle Farms

“In the Thoroughbred industry in Florida, Bahiagrass hay is used on farms where they have cattle operations, as well. Horses are bedded on the hay, and it is then stripped out daily and fed to the cattle,” explains Johnson.

According to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Bahiagrass hay is usually made from surplus pasture growth, so the grass is cut when mature and the resulting hay is poor-quality and unattractive to horses but still digestible by cattle.

Biofuels

Horse manure could someday power the computer you’re using to read this article. Researchers are testing the use of soiled bedding as a biofuel. One such program is a partnership between Mid-Michigan Recycling and Michigan State University Cooperative Extension, in which used wood shavings are burned in a biomass power plant. Every biofuels research program is different, but if there is one in your area, the researchers could give you guidance on the best bedding and stall-maintenance process for their program.

Pasture Fertilizer

Considering the latest findings about parasite loads on pastures spread with fresh manure, using soiled bedding as a pasture fertilizer doesn’t make sense unless you’ve let your bedding compost or you’re spreading the manure on a hot, dry day and then letting your pastures rest.