I’m in love with these shavings bales! (Well all things in this photo, really 😜💕)

They are cedar millings & shavings from the local cedar-shake roofing mill. Mixed with waste hay and/or corn stalks, holy cow, they absorb, smell nice, and I bet help keep bugs at bay! The long-strand millings kind of ‘snag’ on their feet as they walk and keep a layer above the poo. They weigh about 80lbs each and cost $5!

Before folks snark at cedar, consider that goats are browsers and will promptly eat the bark off a cedar or pine tree, getting sap/oils all over their muzzle! Goats also destroy poison ivy, eating the leaves and tender stalks and leaving the woody trunk (that becomes a sap fountain… and then they walk through it, covering their underside and legs in sap, and then give their owner the worst case of poison ivy when she unsuspecting picks up and/or snuggles them).

I experimented a bit in one stall before buying a bunch. That stall had 3 unthrifty 2021 wethers, 2 small 2021 does, and Jodi & her November buck kid. I see no evidence of any kind of skin sensitivity after 2 weeks of use and my barn smells fabulous! I think these things are ready for mainstream use! Is it possible they will kill the smell of a rank-ass buck in full rut?! 😲

Cows & sheep are probably much the same as goats. I bet they’d work pretty good for chickens too, especially just under the roost where they poo but don’t walk. They’d make the coop smell lovely.

I wouldn’t use them for horses as I bet some, not all, would be sensitive to the oils. They’d prob work great for firming up a mud hole in the pasture, though. Dogs, pigs, rabbits & small animals are probably a bad idea too.