Economic evaluation of wood pellets in equine husbandry in consideration of ethological and stall climatic parameters

Abstract

While straw and wood shavings are among the most commonly used bedding materials in the field of equine husbandry and their properties have been described in a large number of studies, wood pellets as a bedding material are still relatively unknown and hardly any research has been conducted in this area so far. Consequently, the wood pellets were tested in a practical environment at a horse farm with single stalls and compared with wheat straw and wood shavings. In addition to providing an economic comparison of the three bedding materials, differences in horse behaviour and stall climate were also investigated. From an economic point of view, the use of wood pellets proved to have the lowest labour and material costs. However, the horses spent less time foraging and lying down with wood pellets and higher dust and ammonia concentrations in the air were measured. However, the climatic limits of the stall were clearly undercut with all three types of bedding. Wheat straw was found to be the bedding material that came closest to the horses’ needs, while the wood pellets were convincing due to their high potential for cost savings.