Giving You the Unique Power of Pine

Naturally antibacterial protection in your lambing pens

Saving more lambs with fewer antibiotics

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The Power of Pine

Pine wood possesses clear hygienic advantages compared to other woods.

We have always chosen to use pine timber to make our Stockman shavings. Most shavings or sawdust used for beddings are made from spruce, but there is a big difference in the benefits you get from these two softwoods, and the Scots Pine we use offers you and your animals a unique and remarkable health and hygiene advantage.

Many farmers who have tried Stockman 100% pine shavings in their lambing pens report that they save more lambs without the need for antibiotics. Game chick farmers and poultry keepers say the same.

Find Out Why

Scots Pine (Pinus Sylvestris)  is the only species of softwood native to the British Isles. It’s the preferred home of our native red squirrel, and we buy our pine timber only from managed renewable forestry sources in the UK, where every mature tree extracted is replaced with new planting.

Ancient Wisdom

For thousands of years, pine has been recognised as a powerful natural antiseptic. In cultures as far apart in distance and time as the Ming dynasty in China and the First Peoples of North America, pine timber and its needles have been used as antiseptic protection and in the treatment of illness. In the days of the working horse in Britain, pine sawdust was often spread on stable floors as a hygienic barrier under straw bedding, and even today modern pine disinfectants claim to kill 99.9% of all known germs!

Modern Scientific Evidence

“Pine wood possesses clear hygienic advantages compared to other woods…”

Source: A. Schönwälder, R. Kehr, A. Wulf and K. Smalla

PINE KILLS E. coli and E. faecium

In a study by the German Federal Biological Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, pine was tested against spruce and larch – the softwoods most commonly used for making wood shavings beddings. All species were inoculated with Escherichia coli pIE639 (E.coli) and Enterococcus faecium bacteria, two of the most common harmful strains of bacteria found in lambing pens. The study concluded that only pine completely eradicated these bacterial threats AND prevented their regeneration.

Straw vs. Pine Shavings

Study 1: Beating E. Coli

Stockmax shavings are made from 100% pine and Scots Pine (pinus sylvestris) in particular. Independent scientific research studies shown below have proved that E. coli is one of the many harmful strains of bacteria that Scots Pine kills completely.

In a study carried out at Nottingham Trent University in 2016, Dr Kelly Yarnell measured the survival of E. Coli in several different types of bedding. While E. coli survived in significant quantities in straw, the E. coli count found in pine shavings was below the minimum level of detection.

Study 2: Saving More Lambs

In 2018, Bedmax commissioned a specific study at Harper Adams University to measure the key factors that affect the health and outcomes of ewes lambing on straw and pine shavings. 40 Suffolk X Mule ewes were housed in 10 groups of 4 ewes, half bedded on straw and half on pine shavings. The study concluded that pine shavings bedding demonstrated:

  • Higher lamb survival in first 48 hours
  • Higher thermal value/temperature
  • Higher dry matter content
  • Lower ammonium nitrogen content

Testimonials

‘As part of the continued drive to encourage responsible use of antibiotics by sheep farmers we trialled Stockmax shavings in our lambing pens and did not administer a single prophylactic watery mouth treatment to any of the lambs born as singles. Stockmax shavings have been a great hit as it delivers a dry, fresh, hygienic bed in the lambing pens, at a comparable cost to straw.’

David Miskelly

Aberdeenshire Vet & Sheep Farmer

‘The cleanliness and dryness of Stockmax is definitely a huge benefit we are seeing over straw. This has led to a noticeable labour saving as we are not having to change pens as regularly. Also, we value the antiseptic qualities of the pine. Particularly at lambing time, and especially if a ewe has had a caesarean, keeping them clean and dry is critical.’

Tom Darling

Duns
'We’ve started using Stockmax shavings at lambing time. We were suffering with watery mouth in the pens, we went on to the shavings and within 24 hours the watery mouth had stopped. To be honest we would now never look back. We would highly recommend other people using it, as the shavings dry all the moisture out, the lambs are clean, the ewes’ udders are clean as well, and it’s a great product, always consistently good.'

Adam

Farmer, Tadcaster

Research Sources

The Survival of two Hygienically Relevant Bacteria

The survival of two hygienically relevant bacteria, Escherichia coli pIE636 (E. coli) and Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) was followed on wooden sawdust of seven different European woods (pine, spruce, larch, beech, maple, poplar and oak).

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Experiments with Pine and Spruce

The survival of two hygienically relevant bacteria, Escherichia coli pIE636 (E. coli) and Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) was followed on wooden sawdust of seven different European woods (pine, spruce, larch, beech, maple, poplar and oak)…

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