I have heard those phrases in the past and thought "marketing tool". These slogans do not always live up to their promise. However; when I decided to give Woody Pet Animal Bedding a trial I was so fed up with shavings suppliers that I was willing to put out the money for another product.

Here are some of the things I experienced in the last three years of using Woody Pet Animal Bedding;

The product directions must be followed closely in order to achieve the best results.

On cement floors, more product is used initially, four to six bags depending on stall size and individual preference. It appears to make little difference whether or not the product is activated by adding water. Too much water defeats the purpose. I do understand people's reluctance to leave the urine in the bedding for the first few days, the urine itself activates the Woody Pet which in turn absorbs the ammonia odour. After activation the stall is cleaned like any other, Woody Pet is added daily or weekly or as required. It generally takes one bag of Woody Pet per horse per week.

During inclement weather I had to use more Woody Pet to keep the horses and bedded up and dry, no difference between shavings. The more the horses are in...the more bedding is used.

On rubber matted stalls less product was used initially two or three bags, but the process remained the same.

On the Comfort Stalls (heavy matting and cover) even less Woody Pet is used, one bag to start or just a scoop or two with the stall being stripped every day. Regardless of the flooring the same amount of Woody Pet was used... approximately one bag per horse per week.

A further gain for the environmental side of using Woody Pet animal bedding is the fact that as a processed pellet, all of the pine oils and any toxic hydrocarbons are removed, therefore the waste is purely organic. The Woody Pet deodorizer locks the odor producing elements into itself and acts as a slow release fertilizer when spread on the fields and reduces the compost time usually required for other beddings.

The greatest difference is in the cleaning. I found the Woody Pet easier to "sift" and the clumping action made grabbing the wet spot easier, the solids separated more quickly from the Woody Pet and were drier and easier to handle. As a result less bedding went into the pile and more stayed in the stall.

How much less depends on how fussy the stall cleaner is, I can tell you the exact figures for cubic feet of waste produced for 15 stalls are as follows:
 

	Regular bulk shavings produced in a one week period 864 cubic feet of waste while the Woody Pet produced only 288 cubic feet.
	Regular bulk shavings required the manure spreader to be dumped or spread three times weekly, Woody Pet - once a week.
	In terms of yearly figures the differences are this regular bulk shavings produced 44,928 cubic feet of waste - Woody Pet produced 14,976 cubic feet.

Those are the figures for the obvious differences between Woody Pet and regular bulk shavings.

Some of the less obvious differences are these;

• Shavings truck came once a month, so more fuel was used to get the product to the farm more pollution in the atmosphere.

• Shavings truck dumped product in the arena creating a great deal of dust each month.

• A huge pile of shavings takes up a great deal of room in  the arena.

• There is a great deal of walking back and forth to manure pile and back to shavings pile and back to stall, the dumping of shavings into the stall creates further dust.

• Waste was removed and dumped or spread three times a week, more fuel used-again creating further pollution.

• A years supply of Woody Pet for one horse stores in an area four feet by four feet by four feet, in plastic bags and covered in plastic, no dust and less fuel.

• The bags are recyclable.

• Whether one adds bedding every day or once a week there is far less effort involved and no dust.

• A further savings of fuel is realized in the removal of waste, especially if a farm has to pay to have waste hauled away!

• Woody Pet breaks down very rapidly, in less than a years time the waste pile resembles dirt and has no odor, while the shavings waste pile still had obvious pieces of shavings and manure not broken down after two years of inactive composting.
  
  So what are the actual money saving benefits...a bag of Woody Pet = 1.5 bags of shavings or 2 regular size wheelbarrow of bulk shavings...it depends totally on the cost of the shavings.

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