Sawdust

[Peter Drouin]

Chemical in the wood. Get hardwood sawdust in your eye and it will burn badly, Solfwood will but not much.
Farmers in NH just don't use hardwood sawdust.

[Magicman]

Maybe it's the tannic acid in the hardwoods?

[plowboyswr]

Maybe it's the tannic acid in the hardwoods?

Bingo, if you ever have sawn sappy black walnut on a hot summer day and not been able to wash the saw dust and sweat off it can leave a nasty burn on exposed skin. Now that being said we have used walnut saw dust as bedding for our Dairy calves with no ill effects. Granted it was from a cabinet shop so it was dry but considerably finer than even a band mill produces. We never used it on the milking herd as we were a grazing Dairy and had no free stall barn. Hogs on the other hand would eat it when I first dumped it out then ignore it after that. :

[Hackermatack]

I have noticed chickens eat a lot of sawdust when I first dump it in, but then they really are not to bright. They are still laying well.