Pellets – only the best for our horses
nur das Beste

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. True to this motto, Carsten Gutzke-Spenrath has already tried out various straw-based materials for the litter of his horse stalls. Until recently, however, none of this had really convinced him. But the tide has now turned: “For a few weeks now, we have been spreading our horse stalls with structural pellets. We are very satisfied with them,” says the horse owner. On a rural estate near Issum, district of Kleve, he and his family have set up nine horse stalls in a stable building. Everything leaves a very neat and clean impression. And that is no coincidence: “We attach great importance to hygiene and species-appropriate husbandry – after all, that’s how our four-legged friends stay healthy and fit,” explains the horse lover.

On the Middendorf dairy farm, the cubicles have been bedded with structural pellets made of straw for 1.5 years. This has proven to be very effective in terms of animal welfare and also from a labor management point of view.
The Gutzke-Spenrath family keeps both their own and other people's horses on their farm near Issum. Not only in the stables, but also outside very much attention is paid to cleanliness.
On the Middendorf dairy farm, the cubicles have been bedded with structural pellets made of straw for 1.5 years. This has proven to be very effective in terms of animal welfare and also from a labor management point of view.
Carsten Gutzke-Spenrath is completely enthusiastic about the structural pellets. This is because they absorb the moisture in the stable very quickly. Since these straw pellets are also dust-free, there are also no problems with respiratory problems for the horses.

Healthy stable air

Dust is like poison for horses, especially when it comes to animals with asthma problems; Gutzke-Spenrath is well aware of this. Therefore, great care is taken on the horse farm to ensure that the stable air remains as dust-free as possible by providing the best possible ventilation and choosing the correct litter. “Since we have been using the structural pellets made from grain straw as litter, we no longer have any problems with dust there. The air is virtually dust-free, so that you rarely hear horses coughing,” the hobby horse owner is pleased about this positive effect of the straw pellets. In order to reduce dust in the stable air, he had previously used chopped linen straw as litter material quite successfully. The bitter substances contained in the litter material also ensured that the horses ate significantly less of it. “But linen straw is now hard to come by and also very expensive. In our search for a cheap alternative, we came across the structural pellets. These are not only significantly cheaper than linen straw, but also ensure even less dust and offer labour efficiency advantages as well,” explains Gutzke-Spenrath.

Litter with many advantages

According to horse owners, straw pellets are very easy to handle: “We spread just enough pellets to cover the floor of the horse stall. Gradually, the coarse and structure-rich straw pellets bind the moisture present in the stall and disintegrate more and more, so that after a short time the stable floor is completely covered by a proper straw mattress. Only after a good two weeks are pellets applied again. Until then, all you have to do is pick up the horse droppings every day and smooth out the straw mattress a little”. Compared to the finer industrial pellets used as litter on a trial basis in the past, which were extremely hard and therefore disintegrated poorly, the coarse structural pellets are not so easily pushed away, according to Gutzke-Spenrath. This means that even a little litter material is enough to keep the horses dry and clean in their stalls. Thanks to the high absorption effect of these pellets, it is expected that recurring hoof diseases such as thrush and mallenders will be very effectively prevented.

On the Middendorf dairy farm, the cubicles have been bedded with structural pellets made of straw for 1.5 years. This has proven to be very effective in terms of animal welfare and also from a labor management point of view.
After bedding, the pellets form a mattress covering the floor, on which the horses stand safely and dryly. Since the structure-rich straw pellets bind a lot of moisture, the material consumption and also the amount of work involved in mucking out is very low.
One big bag filled with pellets replaces a whole stack of bales of the linen straw previously used as bedding. This not only saves labor, but also the need for storage space.

A time and space-saving solution

Compared to before, we now need significantly less litter material and the effort of mucking out the stable has also been reduced considerably. In addition to the labour efficiency advantages, we now also save a lot of storage space for the litter material. Because where there used to be stacks of straw bales, there is now only one Big Bag filled with straw pellets. Since we have been using the pellets for litter, the manure plate is no longer so full due to the low amount of horse manure,” emphasises the horse owner. All in all, he is very satisfied with the structural pellets.

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