Posted: 14th October 2026 | Back to news feed
With the onset of another climate change wet winter, the absorbency of the bedding you use becomes a major factor in keeping horses dry, comfortable and healthy in their stables.
Over the past 26 years of Bedmax shavings production, we’ve surveyed our customers regularly, and absorbency has been up there with in the top three priorities that determine which bedding to choose.
Minimal dust has always been number one, and that’s been our main priority in making Bedmax and Littlemax. But a few years ago we found a way to produce another kind of bedding that offers astonishing levels of absorbency, and many other benefits too for grooms managing their horse’s bedding over these increasingly waterlogged winters climate change is bringing.
Maximising Absorbency
Strawmax straw pellets are purpose-made in our own dedicated facilities from locally sourced straw. They’re dust extracted, dried at sterilising temperatures and then compacted with no additives into 8mm pellets.
They come in easily manageable 15 kg bags, and even when watered to ‘fluff’ them up into a deep, soft bed, they absorb around 3 times their own volume of moisture – water and urine.
Minimising Mucking Out
Because they’re so absorbent, they concentrate urine in small patches which are easy to isolate and muck out with minimal waste. That means they make the bed last longer with less replacement, and that means they help your bedding budget go further. Less mucking out also reduces the muckheap and they compost like lightning too.
Layering with Bedmax
We’re now finding that a growing number of customers are combining the absorbent benefits of Strawmax with the health & hygiene benefits of Bedmax by layering them.
A base layer of Strawmax absorbs the moisture that drains down from the top layer of Bedmax shavings, leaving the surface of the bed dry and reducing the wastage of both layers of bedding.
You can find out more about the benefits of using Strawmax either on its own or as a base later with Bedmax shavings, and watch our video on How to Make a Strawmax Bed here at: strawmax.co.uk
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