Barnlime vs Stall PDZ

[dixie_belle]

Here in Kentucky we have had snow, snow and more snow. I have kept the horses in the barn for weeks now. Every day I go out and scoop up the poop (actually several times a day) so it is not sitting and getting ground into the dirt floors. However, there is a certain um....aroma wafting from that area now. Yesterday I went to my local Tractor Supply and got another bag of stall PDZ, which I find works well. On the shelf, right next to it, there was also a bag of barn lime. It's like 1/4 the price and it says on the bag that it'll keep the barn smelling fresh but there were no instructions. Of course, I bought a bag of each. But now I'm wondering....how do I use the barn lime? Do I just sprinkle it the same way I have been using the other stuff? Now that the snow has stopped, the monsoon rain has begun (that just about figures, doesn't it?) So they are STILL in the barn.

Can I rant a little? I'm sick of snow, rain, wet poop, wet horses, muck, yucky hay, more poop and mud. Ahhhhh, I feel better. NOT

 

[amysue]

I hear ya on the wet stalls. We're elbow deep in mud right now, and the ponies are crawling the walls waiting to go back outside. I have always used regular lime. We use so much of it that I couldn't justify the high price for pdz. I have clients that have bought it, thinking it would be better but found it didn't do anything more spectacular than the lime to justify the price. We use it in all of our horse and calf stalls and bird coops. I have had success cleaning really stinky stalls with diluted bleach. We keep it in a watering can and pour it on the wet spots on the mats. The lime works real well on the dirt floors and even stinky wet spots in the turnout pens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've used both over the years, and find the regular old lime works just as well. With all this nasty snow and rain, even the dry lots are stinky messes! When they get started peeing in one spot, it gets nasty real quick, so I sprinkle lime on those spots and they find new spots to stink up!

 

[AngC]

Can I rant a little? I'm sick of snow, rain, wet poop, wet horses, muck, yucky hay, more poop and mud. Ahhhhh, I feel better. NOT

I don't know about lime; there is no tractor supply in our neck of the woods, so not sure which lime product you're referring to. The PDZ is pricey. We had a few 40 lb bags of the powdery StallPDZ; I had the husband bury it, under the pea gravel when we put that in. The PDZ stuff was like talcum powder and blew everywhere; I was worried about powdery stuff in horse lungs.

We also bought a few bags of the of the granular PDZ, which we use outside our girls' stalls. If they get there before I have a chance to rake it in; they get PDZ all over their noses as they "help" me. I have no idea whether that's a problem. For the most part our girls don't do their business in their stalls, but they do pee right outside the stall doors, especially if it's stormy or if the coyotes are out and about. I've tried various methods of incorporating the PDZ into the pea gravel but I gotta' say, it really does not do all that much for odor control.

 

[MountainWoman]

I use the PDZ granules and they are wonderful. No dust residue. It does absorb moisture and I'm a big fan. I put it down in the stalls after I've cleaned them and before I put fresh shavings down. I think it helps with ammonia odor and to keep stalls drier. Can't really complain about the weather after seeing the forecasts from around the country but I can understand people being really tired of this winter.

 

[bevann]

I have use both lime and another product called Barn Dri(very much like PDZ) which is a granulated lime product and is coarser than lime.My barn is an old dairy barn with concrete floors and rubber mats in stalls.After I clean the stalls I sprinkle Barn Dri in the wet spots and then wood pellets over that before raking shavings over that spot. Lime is cheaper but definitely way more dusty.I had a n issue with lime once when a rather careless employee put far too much in an area in the run in sheds.There was so much horses were gasping and I had to rush and remove them and clean off faces.IMO if you have dirt floors lime would be ok if you cover it with something after you put it down.It can be hard on the lungs.

 

[Barnmother]

A long time ago they used lime in a barn where I kept horses, it was in a garbage can in the aisleway. A horse got out and ate some of it and it blistered his mouth terribly. I don't know if there was anything else at play as I was only about 10 years old, but I remember the lime being all over the aisle and the horses face covered in it.

 

[lkblazin]

I love barn lime. A little goes a long way. And its cheaper. I have five girls and I have had a bag for about a year now.

Also you can do diatomacious earth. Its not really gonna nock down odor. But it will dry out wet spots. I mix it with my lime.