# need help..straw or wood shavings?



## JadeAnne (Dec 16, 2005)

Hi all,

I've been reading the sheep forum for some time, really enjoy it and have learned lots! I live in central Ohio, and have just started raising sheep. ( In May) I have Katahdin cross sheep, have 11 at this time. Also purchased a guard llama. He seems to be working out well.

The place I live on is 10 1/2 acres, previous owners had horses and cattle.
I'm in the process of making the fences safe for sheep. My problem is the management of the barn. It is an old barn, dirt floor and I'm trying to decide between straw or saw dust for the bedding. The llama seems to want to urinate and defecate only in the barn stalls and of course the sheep go there and cleaning it has become difficult. The urine seems to puddle under the bedding, how can I keep the floor dry and clean? The sheep and llama can go in and out of the barn at will. Is this not a good idea?

I was wondering how you all clean and what type of bedding you use.

I do agility with my Border Collies and am learning herding. Love the sheep so far, do most of you clean out the beddiing daily? Sheep poop is hard to pick up when it mixes with the bedding. How often do you all clean out all the bedding?


Annie
I'll post some pics of our place when I figure out how!!!


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## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

Both have their issues, but shavings are easier to clean than straw, so that's what I've gone with. Tried both...and with wool sheep the shavings are a major pain, but since you've got hair sheep, that shouldn't be an issue


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Dry is far more mportant than clean, as Kesoaps says it's a matter of choice. I use shavings first then bed with straw on top of that.


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## catahoula (Dec 14, 2005)

I have used both as well and settled on straw, not so much because I like it better but because it's cheaper, I can fit a years supply on a trailer for about thirty bucks. I use pine shavings in the chicken house, the best part about them is that they smell "pine fresh" for a really long time. With a dirt floor you could try the deep bedding method where you just keep layering fresh bedding on top of the old soiled bedding eventually the old bedding begins to compost keeping the floor warmer in the winter. The down side to that is the really, really, really bad stench that engulfs the stalls when you do clean back down to the dirt floor every six months or so. Grows a good garden, but not for the meak. Happy herding.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

If youll put down a few inches of lime and then put the bedding it will help a lot with odor control. It will neutralize the amonia. I prefer straw siince it doesnt get in the wool so much, but using layers of both would be good also. Just keep adding layers an adding lime as needed if the odor gets bad. Then when you decide to clean it out it can go straight to your garden or pastures


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## CrownPoint (Jun 25, 2006)

I have used both also. I started out using straw and switched to pine shavings. Straw gets wet and is heavy to shovel, also gets tangled in Romney fleece. When I tried shavings, NOT SAWDUST, I found that the shavings do not cling to the fleece, but are shaken out when the sheep shake  . Also I can use the shavings as mulch and they are not as heavy as straw when wet. Adding new shavings is easy. I buy the bales compressed and right off a tractor trailer for $3.00 each. Cheap, easy, not a great deal of work AND the sheep smell better than wet rotten straw. Just my 2 cents on this post. 

Grass fed, hormone free, great tasting Lamb!!! Beautiful fleeces for the handspinner!!!


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