How do you distinguish good and bad wood shavings? They can look alike in a photo. The difference shows in the stall or the coop: a good bed soaks up urine, stays fresh and breathes clean; a bad one is dusty, damp or full of bark. These are the checks to make before you buy, and the figures Woodbase ships to.
In short: good shavings are a safe wood, dry, screened to a consistent cut with little fine dust, free of bark and foreign matter, and smell of fresh wood. Bad shavings fail on one or more of these.
1. The Wood
Ask which species the shavings are made from. Pine, a softwood, is the bedding most horse owners prefer: soft underfoot, light and fresh smelling. Acacia is a hardwood that suits cattle and poultry. Avoid black walnut, which is toxic to horses. Our Pine Wood Shavings are 100% pine and our Wood Shavings blend pine with acacia.
2. Moisture
Shavings that arrive damp cannot soak up much more, and damp wood in a closed bag can grow mould. Ask for the moisture figure the shavings are dried to. Ours are under 15% for pine shavings and 10% or less for mixed wood shavings. Shavings that feel cold and clammy, or cling together when you squeeze a handful, are too wet.
3. Dust and Fines
Fine dust is the most common fault. Animals breathe their bed all day, and horses all night, so dust matters more than any other point. Good shavings are screened to take the fines out. Shake a handful over a dark surface: a light film is normal, a cloud of powder is not.
4. Cut and Consistency
The flake size should match the animal and stay the same from bag to bag. We screen to two cuts: 1–5 mm, which lies flat in an even layer for poultry houses and small animal cages, and 1–15 mm, larger flakes that make a looser, springier bed for stalls and cattle pens. A delivery that mixes powder with large chunks has not been screened.
5. Bark and Foreign Matter
Bark, splinters, stones, plastic and nails have no place in bedding. Spread a sample on a table and look through it. Bark also darkens the shavings, so a clean, even colour is a good first sign.
6. Smell
Good shavings smell of fresh wood. A sour, musty or chemical smell points to wet storage, mould or treated timber, and no animal should lie on any of those.
7. Packing
Packing protects the shavings on the way. Ours are pressed into compressed blocks, 35 × 35 × 30 cm (15 kg) for pine and 10, 15 or 20 kg for mixed wood, or packed in jumbo bags of 550–600 kg. Torn wraps and wet blocks on arrival mean the bedding has taken on water.
Check a Sample Before the Container
Run these checks on the first delivery and keep a handful to compare with the next. A 40ft HC container holds on average 22–24 tons of our shavings, depending on compression, and we supply about 20 containers a month from a minimum of one container. For the next steps, read how to import wood shavings from Vietnam; to compare beds, see the advantages of wood shavings and how long wood shavings take to decompose.
