Results: Costs Comparison of Bedding Material

When comparing the cost of the two bedding materials, several items were considered. Table 3 lists the cost of getting the bedding material into the barn storage area.

The initial cost of the pelleted bedding for this project was 15 times more expensive than the sawdust bedding on a weight basis, but only 6 times more expensive on a volume basis.

Table 4 shows that the amount of sawdust used for bedding on a weight basis was almost 1.5 times as much as the pellets, while on a volume basis, 4 times as much sawdust was used. The difference in amount of bedding used for the year was calculated at 20 cubic yards.

The amount of labor to clean the stalls shown in Table 5 was only slightly different, with the sawdust taking about half a minute more per day to clean. A greater discrepancy in time was observed between mares and geldings. It was observed that at the end of the week, the pelleted bedded stalls were dustier than the sawdust bedded stalls.

When considering the initial cost, the amount of bedding used and the amount of manure removed from stalls, the break-even cost of manure disposal would be $350 per ton or $110 per cubic yard.

Table 3: Comparison of Cost on a Weight and Volume Basis
	Sawdust	Pellet
	7.5 ton load	130 bags (30#)
	(840 cu.ft.)	(133 cu.ft.)
Labor	$ 20.00
Transportation	$ 10.00
Material	$ 116.25	$ 552.50
Total	$ 146.25	$ 552.50
Cost per ton	$ 19.50	$ 283.33
Cost per cu.ft.	$ 4.86	$ 112.16

 

Table 4: Amount of Bedding Used
	Sawdust		Pellets
	weight	volume	weight	volume
	lbs.	cu ft	lbs.	cu ft
Total for week	2173.0	139.0	1498.0	33.5
Average for week	217.3	13.9	149.8	3.4
Mare Average for week	222.6	13.6	164.0	3.5
Gelding Average for week	212.0	14.2	135.6	3.2
Average per day	36.2	2.3	25.0	0.6
Average for year	11300	723	7790	174
tons	5.6		3.9
cu.yd.		26.8		6.5

 

Table 5: Time to Clean Stalls
	Minutes
Per stall per day	Sawdust	Pellets
Mare	12.6	12.2
Gelding	14.8	14.5
Average	27.4	26.7
Sawdust vs. Pellet	0.7	Minutes per day
	4.3	Hours per year
Gelding vs. Mare	4.5	Minutes per day
	27.4	Hours per year

 

Table 6: Comparison of Total Cost per Year
	Sawdust	Pellets
Weight Basis (Tons)
Initial Cost	$ 19.50	$ 283.33
Amount Used	5.6	3.9
Final Cost	$ 109	$ 1,105
Volume Basis (Cu.Yd.)
Initial Cost	$ 4.86	$ 28.89
Amount Used	26.8	6.5
Final Cost	$ 130	$ 188