As 2017 continues to roll along, Pine River Bedding has had a lot of exciting things happen for us and our retail partners so far. Our growth has been solid and steady all year, with some partners experiencing record sales numbers with our products. We have made some huge advancements as a company, introducing a lot of new technology as we commit to being a better partner for our farm and feed dealers.

Last year we launched a new version of our website at www.pineriverbedding.com. At that time, we introduced the "dealer locator" page of our website, where customers who purchase by the bale or skid can find someone local to deal with. That has continued to grow and currently lists 136 dealers in 25 different states. Kentucky was the most recent state added to the mix in June of this year. Currently, we have customers buying product in 32 different states, with some loads of shavings travelling more than 2000 miles to their destination.

As it pertains to our website, we launched online ordering in 2017. Current customers can re-order in about 30 seconds now, even specifying a delivery date for the load. The website also now sports an in length blog that posts helpful content for your customers. The blog has gotten us a lot more traffic to our website and helps provide credibility to our brand. People want to know more and more about the products they are using and buying. We are helping to provide this specific information to the customer.

In March of this year as well, we added an official Facebook page for the Pine River Bedding brand. This page helps build credibility in the marketplace and allows us to interact with the consumer on behalf of our brand. This should give you even more confidence as a dealer that we are actively online and helping to shape our brand's image. We want you to be proud of the fact that Pine River Bedding is in your store.

Our partners are also continuing to expand and grow with our product. We wanted to share some of their success with you as well. In order to keep things organized, we have broken down the newsletter into geographic regions. This should make it easier to navigate and find out what is happening in your specific area.
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 Sergeantsville Grain & Feed has been voted the #1 distributor in the Northeast region for 2017. Jim and his team do an amazing job in their local community and are selling more Pine River Bedding than anyone else in that region. Keep up the great work!

The Southern States in Frederick is a new dealer carrying our complete line of Equine Bedding. They also just recently had a customer appreciation event and are promoting a special feed blend for poultry. ​

Indiana is the largest supplier of Pine River Bedding on a state by state basis. For both the 1Q and 2Q of 2017, no state has sold more Pine River Bedding than Indiana. Our Eastern Sweet Pine is especially popular with show animals, particularly show pigs.
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Illinois is closing the gap quickly, however. If Praireland Feeds has anything to do with it, Illinois is going to explode with new customers in 2017! 

Prairieland Feeds is seeing an increase of 20-25% growth in Pine River Bedding sales year over year. Our Eastern Sweet Pine is crushing sales numbers in Illinois thanks to Garry and the team!

Don't count out Iowa either! County Wide Ag Service had three different customers come in off the PRB website in just one week! All three were brand new customers that found his store as a local supplier of our Eastern Sweet Pine. 

Mike and his team are seeing explosive growth since partnering with us. Our website is a free promotion tool for all our retail partners, creating a true win-win scenario for your store.

As mentioned earlier, some of our trucks are running over 2000 miles to their destinations. We are proud to be represented in Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, and Kansas as well.
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Pine River Bedding is experiencing tons of new growth down south ya'll!

We continue to grow in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana.

We are actively looking for dealers in the following states:

Alabama
Arkansas
Kentucky
Mississippi
Tennessee

If you know of anyone in these states looking to grow their animal bedding business, please let them know about Pine River Bedding.

So as you can see, things have been crazy around here lately! We are so happy that you have trusted us to help build your business! Until next time...

When it comes to animal bedding, you have lots of companies, products, and materials to choose from.

The best way to break all the information down so that it makes since for you and your animals, is to look at what type of bedding is best for your specific animal type. Let's use dogs as an example.

Most outdoor dog breeds do really well when using cedar or pine shavings. Until recently, straw or hay was an acceptable bedding, but they are now no longer recommended. The reason why straw or hay are no longer recommended is due to fleas, mites, and ticks infesting the kennel area. A large infestation of fleas, mites, or ticks can cause canine scabies along with other medical issues.

Additionally, by switching to pine or cedar shavings, there are three very pleasant side effects for you and the dog. For one thing, cedar and pine both smell exceptionally pleasant when being placed into the kennel prior to use. Secondly, both pine and cedar shavings will do a better job of covering up the smell of urine and feces in the kennel. Third, pine and cedar also repel insects, including fleas, ticks, and mites.

As if you needed any more reasons to switch over to cedar or pine shavings, take absorption into consideration as well. Both pine and cedar shavings will absorb more moisture than straw or hay. Please do take note that newborn puppies and their mothers should not be placed on wood shavings. Though the risk is small, there is a possibility of a bacterial infection.

We believe that both our PRB Deluxe Yellow Pine Shavings and our PRB Cedar Shavings make excellent options for general animal bedding needs. We have animals of all varieties on our products everyday. We also know that everything we sell is from pure virgin lumber. Shavings from pure virgin lumber makes for better (and safer) animal bedding.

​Great pure virgin wood shavings, pellets, and sawdust. Pine River Bedding.

Pine River Bedding is one of the best options for your horse breed, regardless of any specific skin issues that that breed may have. Check out the link and article below.

"Pine is the most desirable type of wood shaving since most horses don't react to this wood source. However, if the pine is too green, some sap may remain which irritates the horse's skin."
- The Learning Center @ petremedycharts.com

​Pine River bedding never uses green pine, and all sawdust or pellets are dried, aspirated (removes airborne dust), and ready to use when you purchase the bale. We disclose everything about our process, even going so far as to disclose the production specs on each product right on the product page. Our PRB Gold Stallion and PRB Double Quick Pick are extremely popular for this reason.

Additionally, we don't add anything to our pine, and all shavings, sawdust, and pellets are made from untreated lumber as well. We just wouldn't risk having that kind of concern when selling our product to a horse owner.

Are there other cheaper options for horse bedding? Sure. We have the link to an article that discusses the pros and cons of all of them. But if you desire only the best option for your horses, then it has to be pine. And why not try Pine River Bedding?

​Great pure virgin wood shavings, pellets, and sawdust. Pine River Bedding.

When it comes to wood shavings, how the shaving is derived matters.

Most people don't realize that there are different types of shavings on the market. There are manufactured shavings, by-product shavings, and planer shavings. Unfortunately, there is a wide and varied difference between each type. Let's go ahead and break it down.

The most common and least expensive type of shaving is by-product shavings. This is where a lumber mill collects all the shavings/sawdust from circular saws, band saws and sanders into a big pile and then scoops it into a bagger where you will see variable sizes of flakes mixed with sawdust. This product is usually very wet versus the other types of shavings, and makes retailers feel like they are getting a good deal as the bag is very heavy for it's size. The problem is that it doesn't expand well because it contains a lot of moisture already.

Manufactured shavings are taken from the whole tree. After a log is dried and debarked (the bark is turned into mulch in most cases), the log is carved into shavings and you receive a dry, consistent flake with smaller particles mixed in. There is never any dust, just smaller particles that get mixed in with the big, fluffy flakes.

Planer shavings come from mills that produce high quality lumber for the housing market. In most cases, high-end window and door manufacturers require C and D select grades of lumber to build their products. they also require that the wood be dried to a certain moisture level. When they cut the boards down into size, they then "plane" the shavings off the board in order to make it perfectly shaped. Shavings vary in size and are often smaller than normal because of the high speed planing process used.

Here are TPFP, Pine River Bedding is only made with manufactured and planer shavings from untreated, pure virgin timber. Both methods, manufacturing or planing, are more costly for the mill as it involves more labor and electricity to dry the logs. This is one reason that our product is a little more expensive than some others out there on the market.

​When it comes to wood shavings pay for what you are getting, not water.

Great pure virgin wood shavings, pellets, and sawdust. Pine River Bedding.