Monday, November 21, 2011

Product Review - Equine Pine.

After having some issues with late arrival of sawdust, and using stall shavings, we decided this would be a great time to try out some new stall bedding. After seeing bags of Equine Pine at our local Tractor Supply store, and doing some research online, we decided to give it a whirl.

You can read about the product and company here. 
"Equine Pine is made of 100% pure Pine pellets that absorb moisture and destroy odors naturally. The unique make-up of Pine bonds with the ammonia and neutralizes it fast. Also, because the Pine absorbs moisture quickly, it makes mucking the stalls much easier and less time consuming, all while reducing the pesky fly population."

Since it is November, I can not tell you whether the claim about flies has any merit, but as for the other stuff: right on!

Equine Pine
After over a week of use, and daily muckings of the stall; I am super happy with Equine Pine. It is not dusty, does not settle on/in Pippi's heavy winter fur, and is really easy to muck out. The amount of manure and waste taken from her stall went from one wheel barrow per day, to 1/4 of a wheel barrow of only manure. I sift through the entire stall every day because Pippi is a stall walker and tends to move her waste all over he stall. In the wet area, in Pippi's case that is right in the middle, I take out the super wet, and then put some dry bedding over it from the sides.




Opening the bags


We bought seven bags, not being really sure how much we would use, and ended up using five. We saved the others for the fill in, as stated on the website. After spreading it on inch thick all around on the cleaned stall mats, I was quite frankly a bit worried. It did not look like it would be enough even if it swelled a lot from being "misted."

Spreading pellets one inch thick.


According to the manufacturer we were to "spray water lightly." Now, what the hmmm does that mean exactly? Spray Lightly? So I hooked up the hose, pulled it inside, and misted away. Of course the hose, immediately developed a huge gash and water sprayed all over the place. I tried to cover the freezing hole with my hands, but it was gushing pretty badly. Misting done!! Just to let you know, water the pellets until the top layer looks darker. I was for sure that I had over watered with the gushing, but it was fine.

After watering.

After watering we all stood around staring at the bedding as though something quite dramatic was about to occur. We were of course convinced that I had soaked it, and you will have the advantage of knowing that you may water, and not just "spray water lightly." Soon the pellets looked softer, and by the time Pippi tried it out, she was standing on a nice fluffy bedding.

My fear was that the bedding would move with her, making lines and divets until you could see the mats. That is not the case. I also worried about sifting the stuff, but it falls right through the fork, leaving only the manure. Somehow the bedding in the stall has continued to grow all week, so that every day we have more. We have yet to open the other two bags, to replace any of the removed bedding.

Sometimes while mucking the stall I still think that the wet areas can not possible be absorbed.  However when I move over dry bedding (which still will be somewhat pelleted due to being by the walls) onto the wet spot and spread it around it magically disappears. (I do take out some really soaked stuff though.) I fluff the stall a bit, and it looks like new bedding again. Pippi does tend to track all her manure all around, so that helps me sift through a lot of it daily. Some of the wet tends to clump, almost like clumping litter.

This product is cheaper than shavings, more absorbent than saw dust, and it is a green product! The manure pile is smaller, and with less overall waste, the manure pile is better for composting. It has only been a week or so, and I will let you know how I feel in a few more weeks. There is no need at this point to strip the stall, as we used to do at least once a week with sawdust and once per day with shavings. That in itself is fantastic, and considering the cost savings, I am sold so far.

Did I mention that is comes sealed in bags, so no more dealing with how to keep sawdust dry in bad winter weather. Don't you just hate it when the sawdust freezes in the pile, and you have to hack lose a wheelbarrow full at a time?

3 comments:

  1. We use similar pellets and they're great - they're a big improvement over shavings in almost all respects.

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  2. That sounds fantastic!! Thanks for the review. :)

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  3. Great review! Our barn uses sawdust - would much prefer this bedding.

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