To me the best is ceder fiber, they last longer than either straw or shavings, help fight odor and it easy to clean out the cr@p. Basically once you have the bedding in place you add a bag or 2 a week as you go, you loose a little each time you muck. The key is to clean it often, if you go in to tie the calf standing, pick up after the calf, you see one do the business clean it up.
We make the bed about 6-8 deep, wet it and pack it down, it helps to put a stomp mat under their front feet. we clean it often, everytime you are in the barn clean it. When we kick out, we fluff, clean, wet down and repack. Once a week we will really clean it, we turn it over sift through it with a fork to make sure we have everything out and repack adding the new ceder at this time, we put the older stuff under the mat.
if you cant get ceder chips then i would go with wood chips, they will still last longer than straw or shavings.
As for shows we use the heavier wood shavings, build a nice thick bed and wet it down, use a stomp mat and just clean everytime you can, The finer shavings don't pack as well stick in the hair and seem to float around more. You can just add to it if the show is a few days long over 3 days you may need to muck it completely and build a new bed. The FFA kids used the absorbing pellets this year, the build the bed and wet it down, the pellets break up and made a nice bed, I think if a calf has a lot of hair the fine particles would be a pain to get rid of, if you you don't have a lot of hair they work well.
