Barn Pilot
How to run a hemp hurd bedding trial in your barn
Open the sheet on your phone.
- Tap the Daily Log tab.
- Add one row for each stall each day.
- Use the dropdown menus.
- Go to the Summary tab and type the stall name to see the numbers.
The sheet does the math. You can also print the PDF and write on paper.
This packet and sheet let you walk the aisle and write down what you see. You start with whatever bedding is already in the stall. After two weeks you switch to cleaned hemp hurd. Then you write down what changed.
The categories come from published horse bedding research (Murray State, University of Kentucky, Cornell, and Padova). This is not a university study. It uses the same things those studies measured so you can compare.
How to use it
1. Print the packet and clip it to a clipboard, or open the sheet on a phone.
2. Write the stall number or horse name on every page. Write what bedding is in the stall now. Write the date you switch to hemp.
3. Once a day, fill the daily log: ammonia at three heights, fly count, moisture, odor, dust, how easy it was to clean, and how long it took.
4. Once a week, fill the horse sheet: age and use, cough, nose, breathing, hoof, appetite, whether the horse eats the bedding, coat, attitude, lying down, skin, stiffness, and last farrier visit.
5. On haul days, fill the haul sheet: full strip or just pick, minutes, how much waste, hauler name, and whether a composter will take it.
6. At the end of the month, look at the sheets. Write the totals on the summary page. Count the days. Add the numbers. Write what you saw most. Look at the Week 1 photo and the Week 9 photo and write what changed. Mark whether you would keep hemp.