For horse ownerPhyllis Elliott, keeping her animals warm this winter is getting harder and a lot more expensive.

A shortage of wood shavings used for bedding has forced Elliott and others to cut back and shell out more cash.

"It's been bad. I only see the price going up and sources drying up," said Elliott, who owns Hidden Pond Farm in Brentwood and cares for 25 horses. "We're skimping and not bedding as well as we used to. We're just trying to be extremely conservative."

The shortage is being blamed on the slump in the housing market. With new home construction down, lumber companies simply aren't sawing and planing wood like they used to. That has meant fewer shavings to go around.

Kingston Stables owner Albert Brien is feeling the pinch, too. He used to buy 20 trailer loads of loose shavings a month from as many as seven mills, then sell them to his customers. The Kingston man is now down to one shaving supplier, Barton Lumber Co. in Barnstead, and only gets about two loads a month.

"We're basically out of business. We're still running, but not for long," said Brien, 69.

Three years ago, Barton Lumber was producing up to four trailer loads of shavings a week. They're now lucky to get one or two.

"For the last couple of years, it's been dropping off. I get calls all the time for shavings and sawdust," said owner Bruce Barton.

The story is similar at Fernald Lumber in Nottingham. The company cut its overall lumber production about a year ago. The company's supply of shavings and sawdust is now down by about half, said co-owner Linda Fernald.

"We don't expect any end until the mid to late end of next year," Fernald said.

Like Fernald, Peter Crowell is hoping the housing market turns around soon.

"We're definitely producing less shavings. It's been on the decline for the last two years," said Crowell, vice president and general manager of Durgin & Crowell Lumber Co. in New London.

Because of the shortage, suppliers either have none to offer or have put a limit on the number of truck loads or bags customers can purchase at a time.

At Fernald Lumber, customers are allowed up to 50 bags at a time. To provide bedding for her horses, Elliott used to buy about 100 bags a week from her supplier. Now she can only get 40.

"This is the worst year, absolutely the worst, and winter just started," said Elliott, who paid $2.75 for a bag of shavings last winter, but this year forked over $4.50. That was a bargain compared with some places.

"I couldn't do $6.50 a bag," said Elliott, who has had to settled for shavings that aren't the best quality, but are a bit cheaper.

While shavings costs have jumped sharply, Barton Lumber hasn't charged its prices.

"Probably I should have, but I haven't increased the price for the customer," Barton said.

Brien, the owner of Kingston Stables, has only two horses of his own to keep warm at the farm, which he's owned for 30 years.

"It's gotten very, very bad in the last two years," said Brien, who blames giant national retailers such as Home Depot and Lowe's for local mills' loss of production.

"Anyone under 55 years old doesn't go to a local mill. The buying of lumber has shifted to the larger dealers," Brien said.

Meanwhile, farmers are trying to find ways around the shortage, which has affected sawdust production as well. Some dairy farmers have switched to sand instead of sawdust, but that can sometimes create other issues, said Rob Johnson, executive director of the New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation.

Others have tried using shredded paper, Johnson said, but it tends to blow around.