Frequently Asked Questions
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What is the best bedding for horses?
The most recent independent national surveys show that more than half of all UK owners now use wood shavings. Equine vets, experts and professionals, and thousands of owners prefer purpose-made shavings with the least dust content. Many use Bedmax.
Can bedding make a difference to the health of your horse?
The quality of the bedding you use in your horse’s stable has a fundamental impact on every aspect of your horse’s health. The best bedding helps safeguard respiratory and hoof health, protects joints, encourages rest and promotes mental and physical wellbeing.
What is Bedmax made from?
We make our shavings from fresh timber sourced from sustainable, managed UK forestry. At least half of our shavings are made from Scots Pine, which has unique natural antibacterial properties we think helps keep your stable hygienic and your horse healthy.
Is Bedmax Dust Free?
We screen out and vacuum extract every particle of ‘airborne dust’ we can capture during production, but it’s physically impossible to ensure that our shavings are completely free of dust particles at every point in their lifecycle. But we keep aiming for perfection!
What do you do with the dust you extract?
We recycle all our waste. All the dust we extract from our shavings is compacted into Hotmax fuel logs, and in our drive to minimise our use of plastic we’re now packing a growing proportion of them in fully recyclable or compostable paper sacks.
How does Littlemax differ from Bedmax?
Can bedding improve your horse’s performance?
Is Littlemax dust free?
All our shavings, including Littlemax, are triple dust-extracted during production meaning they have one of the lowest levels of dust on the market.
Is Littlemax good for lamanitic ponies?
Yes. Littlemax provides excellent support under-hoof which is particularly important if a horse or pony is suffering from Laminitis due to the impact it can have on the pedal bone.
Why is Strawmax better than straw?
Strawmax offers a hygienic dust-extracted option for owners who prioritise horse health. The high temperature reached in the process of pelletising means the pellets contain none of the harmful dust and spores often found in virgin straw.
The high absorption of the pellets means stable odours are also kept to a minimum and with wastage being minimal the muck heap itself is half the size.
How environmentally friendly is Strawmax?
Locally sourced, from within five miles of the production plant, Strawmax is made from a waste product. It produces no air miles and it has a low carbon-footprint.
How easily disposable is Strawmax?
Strawmax is very easily disposed of and can even be put straight from the stable onto onto the land. As the used bedding breaks down very easily Strawmax is ideal for composting.
Does Strawmax need water?
It is recommended to water Strawmax every time. Watering enables the straw to fulfil its potential and volume giving a lovely fluffy cushioning bed, while also discouraging horses from eating their bed. Dust-extracted when pelletised, once the bed is dampened the risk of dust is minimal.
What are the three main benefits of Strawmax?
Cost, Absorbency and Ease of Use.
This bedding is very cost effective compared to other options on the market. It also offers a hygienic dust-managed environment for the horse and is a super absorbent and comfortable bedding, with minimal wastage. Time is money and time is precious, and a Strawmax stable is very easy to manage, muck out and maintain which saves both time and money.
Is Strawmax good for horses with respiratory problems?
Reducing the levels of harmful airborne dust is important for managing allergens in the stable, including equine and human asthma. Because Strawmax is dust-extracted and heat treated, in addition to the pellets being dampened down, it produces minimal dust in the stable.
Where can I buy Strawmax?
Strawmax is currently stocked by equine retailers and country stores across Yorkshire, the North of England and Scotland.
Is Stockmax suitable for Poultry?
Will Stockmax help to reduce antibiotic use in lambing pens?
Is Stockmax a pine bedding?
How do I use Stockmax?
How deep should I make the Stockmax shavings?
Can I store my Bedmax products outside?
Our products are manufactured and then wrapped in sealed plastic bales. The bales are then stacked on a pallet and covered with a waterproof hood. The pallets are delivered to direct customers, wholesalers or retailers who may then split the pallet down to use, sell the bales individually or in smaller quantities.
Once the pallet is split down into individual bales it is still safe to store them outside as long as you do not damage the packaging and allow the ingress of moisture. Covering the bales with a tarpaulin and stacking on a pallet can also protect the packaging, keeping the product clean fresh and dry.
Can I store my Bedmax products in direct sunlight for any period of time?
Once the bales of Bedmax product are stacked on a pallet, a waterproof hood is placed over the bales. Over time, direct sunlight can deteriorate plastic causing the colour to fade or make it become brittle.
Our hoods are manufactured with a UV additive in the plastic to enhance UV stabilisation and prolong the life of the plastic. The hood manufacturer has informed us that even with UV protection the plastic packaging could start to break down after 3 months if stored in direct sunlight.
To alleviate any potential UV problems we will be using white coloured hoods to reflect the sunlight and will also continue with UV additive in the hoods, we will also now use the UV additive in the plastic film that the bales of product are packaged in.
If you are storing individual bales outside for over 3 months, it is recommended you cover them over with a tarpaulin.
Are Bedmax products completely free of splinters or shards?
No company who manufactures shavings from completely natural virgin timber can guarantee that there will be 100% removal of splinters from every bale, but we at Bedmax feel we are probably better than most.
During production we have two splinter extraction systems, one on the shavings wet side which extracts the larger splinters and then an air pressure system on the dry side which drops any remaining splinters out of the shavings. These machines are regularly inspected and maintained.
We carry out a quality check three times a day; one per shift. One of the checks is to see if there are any splinters present. If there are more splinters than our manufacturing specification permits, then we retest and if still over specification, we investigate and rectify as required.
Are Bedmax shavings completely free from dust?
It is not possible for any shavings company to guarantee that their product is 100% dust free. No matter how much dust you remove through the manufacturing process, as soon as you start the packaging and transport process the shavings will rub against each other and breakdown slightly.
We at Bedmax have extremely efficient dust extraction systems in place and our shavings are as near dust free as possible.
Why does it no longer say ‘Dust Free’ on the packaging?
We work very closely with the British Equine Trade Association (BETA); we have just become the first bedding company to achieve their accreditation for Natural Occurring Prohibited Substances (NOPS). As part of this accreditation they told us we were not allowed to advertise as Dust Free on our packaging as it is impossible for any shavings to be 100% dust free.
Do Bedmax products have a shelf life?
There is no shelf life on our products and if stored correctly, preferably inside and stock rotation is used it will remain fresh, clean and dry for many months. We do recommend using the product before it is 6 months old. (The time and date of manufacture is printed on our packaging).
When manufacturing our Bedmax products we dry the shavings to a certain specification and package it in a sealed bale. Every single bale then passes through an infra-red moisture meter and if the moisture exceeds our specification it will be rejected by the stacking robot.
If the shavings are stored outside and are subject to extreme variable hot and cold temperatures they may be subject to condensation inside the hood or inside the bales.
Are Bedmax shavings always the same colour?
Bedmax is a horse bedding material made entirely from renewable, quality round wood timber. Pine is predominately used due to its abundance, medicinal properties and shaving properties. Spruce is also used when required but is never more than 50% of the mixture.
The material should be as fluffy as possible but hard wearing and the material colour should be as light coloured as possible and have a sweet aromatic smell of pine.
Although Bedmax use quality timber, occasionally in the summer months when Pine is freshly cut a small amount of blue – greyish staining may appear in parts of the log while it is drying out. No harm is done to the structural properties of the wood, but a few shavings in the bale may not have the usual creamy white colouring.
What's the best way to manage my horses bed?
Good bedding management is essential. We recommend taking the wet out every day and skipping out as regularly as possible.
Bed depth is key, a minimum of 8” is a good starting point, a deeper bed increases absorbency.
Keep the bed fresh by regularly turning over and adding new bedding.