Small square bales stacked on wooden pallets against a barn wall, keeping them clear of the floor

How many bags of shavings per pallet?

Bymuntaseer

A pallet of bagged pine shavings holds 45 bags. That figure is stated independently by six suppliers of large-flake bedding, which is about as close to a standard as this trade gets.

It is not quite universal. At least one 8 cu ft barnyard flake ships 54 to the pallet, so check the listing before you plan your barn space around a number.

At roughly 26 lb a bag that is about 1,186 lb on the forks, or 538 kg. Expanded into stalls it becomes something near 383 cubic feet of bedding.

A pallet of large-flake pine shavings, in round numbers
  Figure
Bags on a pallet 45, and up to 54 for some 8 cu ft flakes
Weight of one bag about 26 lb (12 kg)
Weight of the pallet about 1,186 lb (538 kg)
Bedding it holds, expanded 383 cu ft (10.8 m³)
Space it takes stacked roughly 113 cu ft (3.2 m³)

How much is a pallet of shavings?

Multiply your own price per bag by 45 and you have the honest answer, because bedding prices move with freight and with how far you are from a mill.

At a fairly ordinary $8 a bag, a pallet is about $360.

We do not publish a price of our own, and you should be wary of any site that does. Shavings are heavy and cheap, which means the cost is mostly the lorry, and the lorry is local.

What is worth knowing is the shape of the saving. Buying by the pallet usually takes something off the per-bag price rather than transforming it, and the real gain is not the discount at all.

It is that you stop making trips. A pallet is one delivery instead of a fortnightly car boot full of bags.

How long does a pallet of shavings last?

Longer than most people expect for one horse, and no time at all for a yard. The figures below come from our bedding calculator, which works the top-up from what the horse actually wets rather than from a rule of thumb.

How long a 45-bag pallet of flake shavings lasts, and what the bedding costs a month at $8 a bag
Yard Bags a month A pallet lasts Cost a month
One horse, out 12 hours a day 4.3 10.4 months $35
One horse, stalled around the clock 11.5 3.9 months $92
Four horses, stalled around the clock 46.1 1 months $369

The pattern to notice is that turnout matters more than anything else on that table. A horse out 12 hours a day only leaves half its urine in the stall, and bedding use halves with it.

For a single horse in overnight, one pallet is most of a year. For four stalled around the clock it is a matter of weeks, and at that point buying singles has stopped making sense.

How many bags of shavings come on a pallet at Tractor Supply?

It depends which bag, and we would rather say that than guess at a number you can check in thirty seconds. Tractor Supply sells its own 8 cu ft flake alongside branded pellets and mini-flake, and the pallet count follows the bag.

The listing gives the pallet quantity on the product page. For a large-flake bag expect it to be in the 45 to 54 range, which is where the rest of the trade sits.

Pellets are the exception and they are not counted the same way at all. Bedding pellets are palletised by weight rather than by bag, typically fifty 40 lb bags making 2,000 lb.

Will a pallet fit where you want to put it?

This is the question that catches people out, and it has a reassuring answer. Bagged shavings ship compressed, so a pallet is far smaller than the bedding inside it.

Forty-five bags at about 2.5 cu ft each occupy roughly 113 cubic feet stacked — call it a cube a bit over five feet on a side, on a standard 48 × 40 in pallet.

The same shavings opened out fill 383 cubic feet.

That compression ratio of about 3.4 to one is the whole reason bagged bedding is sold this way.

It is also the single commonest source of error when people work out how many bags they need, because the number printed on the bag is the compressed volume and not what comes out.

Store it off the floor and out of the weather. Kiln-dried shavings are dried to around 12% moisture and the absorbency you are paying for is the dryness.

Is a pallet worth it for one horse?

For one horse in overnight, a pallet is roughly 10.4 months of bedding. Whether that is sensible comes down to somewhere dry to keep it rather than to arithmetic.

Two horses, or one horse stalled full time, and the case gets easier. Three or four and you will be ordering pallets whether you meant to or not.

The one caution is that shavings are only worth buying ahead if they stay dry. A pallet left under a leaking roof for six months is not a bargain.

Common questions about buying shavings by the pallet

How many bags of shavings per pallet?

45 bags for standard large-flake pine shavings, which is the figure six suppliers state independently. Some 8 cu ft barnyard flakes come 54 to the pallet, so check the product listing.

Bedding pellets are sold differently again, palletised by weight at about fifty 40 lb bags.

How much does a pallet of shavings weigh?

About 1,186 lb (538 kg) for 45 bags of large-flake pine at roughly 26 lb a bag. That is well within what a compact tractor or a telehandler will lift, but it is more than two people should try to move by hand.

What does a pallet of shavings cost?

Your price per bag times 45. At $8 a bag that is about $360.

Bedding is heavy and cheap, so most of what you pay is freight, and freight is local — which is why no honest national figure exists.

How many bags of shavings does a horse go through a month?

About 5 bags for a horse turned out 12 hours a day, and 12 for one stalled around the clock. So a 45-bag pallet lasts roughly 10.4 months for the first and 3.9 for the second.

Our bedding calculator works it out for your own stall and turnout.

How much space does a pallet of shavings take up?

Roughly 113 cubic feet stacked, on a standard 48 × 40 in pallet — a cube a little over five feet on a side. The bedding inside expands to about 383 cubic feet once opened, which is the same compression that makes the number on the bag so misleading.

Is it cheaper to buy shavings by the pallet?

Usually a little, and the bigger gain is that you stop making trips for bags. The saving per bag is rarely dramatic because the cost of bedding is mostly haulage.

It is only a saving at all if you have somewhere dry to keep it — shavings that get damp lose the absorbency you bought them for.

How many bags of shavings make 2,000 lb?

At about 26 lb a bag, 2,000 lb is roughly 76 bags of flake shavings — a little under two pallets. Bedding pellets are much denser, so a 2,000 lb pallet of those is fifty 40 lb bags.

Related calculators and guides

Where these figures come from

Every figure on this page is published and cited. Where sources disagree we take the more conservative one and say so.

Our full approach is set out in how we source our numbers.