I had a call from a reader in NYS who's looking for a machine that will make sawdust. I told him every sawmill makes sawdust but he says that there are so many mills stopping operation near him that the availability of sawdust for bedding his dairy cows is at an all time crisis situation. Anyone want to weigh in on this?
Nancbee
Dairy farmers are easier to deal with than horse people, but I would get calls from both weekly. What they really want is planer shavings, the bandsaw sawdust is too fine, the circle mill dust is too wet. They want it without walnut and trucked to them, which means you either need a good sized dump and take time away from your operation to do it or take the time to line up a contractor. I found it easier to spread the material out back than deal with deliveries. A millworks friend of mine is supplied a gravity wagon from a local farmer, blows his chips into it and calls the guy when it is full. A win/win situation.
Thanks for the reply, Brad. I learned something new today! :)
Many of the dairy farmers around here went from sawdust to sand. Dairy farmers still have stipulations on the sawdust. Wet old sawdust can cause Mastitis, sawdust from some of the oaks when cut on a circle mill can cause udder abrasions. Our Farmers up here really love the aspen sawdust, but when that is in short supply, they do go to sand.
How do they use it in their operations? Joe
I don't think I've ever seen sawdust used on dairies here. If they do, I have never see their sawdust stash anywhere. Straw is all I've ever seen and remember.
Quote from: logwalker on February 16, 2009, 04:04:20 PM
How do they use it in their operations? Joe
Its bedding material
I'll have to pay closer attention when passing by the dairies, maybe I just never paid enough attention.
Sand works great in a free-stall setting, but not as well in stanchion barns or box stalls. Our free-stalls have been sand for many years. We are also having a very hard time getting sawdust or shavings. There is one guy with a 25 yard truck who does nothing but truck sawdust. We found if we got on his list, it was the best chance we had. I've been thinking strongly about a shavings mill, but not really in a position to make it all work right now. A new trend in bedding is composting. You have a large open area in the barn, and you start with some bedding, like sawdust or straw, and you rototill every day. After a while, it is just a big fluffy pile of compost.
We sell sawdust to dairy farmers, horse people and chicken farmers. We produce about 3-4 trailerloads a week, and there is usually a months worth of deliveries waiting for dust. The pellet plants have put the cork on some of the dust supplies to the farmers. Our dust gets blown right into the truck from the mill. We've been selling like this for 20 years.
There are shaving machines, and Morbark used to make a machine called a duster. It would take slabs and turn them into a coarse sawdust. Works well, if you have the production. Some guys run them instead of chippers. I don't think they make them anymore.
Some of the farmers will run the sawdust inside so it stays out of the weather. Others may cover it up.
I was thinking to keep an eye out for a sawdust shed around operations. I don't know how the sawdust would work in these operations here as most spread liquid manure.
Forestall used to make something called a Sawduster, it may be similar, or the same, as the Morbark unit. It makes a product that looks very similar to a stump grinding, not really a decent bedding product. There is a guy with one near me, and he said that you would have to run it all day to keep up with his handset mill, it was rather slow. It also takes a 100HP electric motor. :o
salsco makes a a unit had it at the PBS this year.
I hope our stoopid cows don't hear how yankee cows live. Ours just sleep out in the brush and don't have to have bedding or cleaning up behind. Well, they do seem to save up for the few minutes they are in the milk barn------stoopid cows ;)
:D :D Yeah, but yours are happier Bro_Noble. ;D The neighbor's little heard gets to go out on the land in the summer as well. Ours were always pastured as well, but dad said goodbye to them 30 years ago. :)
Sawdust is in real short supply here too. For the same reason, mills have reduced production. We always, and to this day, leave the cows out on pasture as much as possible. The beef herd we have now has unlimited access to the pasture. That's a way of saying I'm too lazy to pen them up. ;) They seem to be happier and healthier that way. The horses and donkey are out with them too.
I could never figure out the horse people who insist that the animal needs to spend all its time in a stall. They must like to buy bedding and shovel manure. It's against a horse's nature to be cooped up in a twelve by fourteen box. That's one way they pick up bad habits, like cribbing. They're just bored. We don't pen up any animal unless we have a good reason.
Two of my brothers ran dairy farms (stantion barn, not free-stall) until recent years.
They both confirm that the sawdust from a band saw mill is too fine and it will cause mastitis because it will get into the end of the teat and cause an infection!
However they both used sawdust from circle saw mills and had no problems with it! Circle mill sawdust is a lot courser pieces!
They used mostly softwood sawdust, pine, hemlock, spruce, etc., but they have used hardwood sawdust too!
Quote from: SwampDonkey on February 16, 2009, 08:46:40 PM
:D :D Yeah, but yours are happier Bro_Noble. ;D The neighbor's little heard gets to go out on the land in the summer as well. Ours were always pastured as well, but dad said goodbye to them 30 years ago. :)
Actually SD, the happy cows are out here in CA. I know cause I saw it on Television. ;D
Oh man, brings one of the recent Good Wrench commercials to my head. I don't want to go there. :D :D
I remember some farmers that used to talk about mastitis and sawdust. Then, one day I was at a mill that was primarily a pine mill. I was stopping by to look for sawdust for a cogen operation. I asked him where he was selling his sawdust.
It went to Penn State for their dairy barns. I figured if it was good enough for one of the leading ag universities in the country, the other farmers shouldn't have any problems.
Oak saw dust is the culprit, and the least preferred. Bedding costs are a real issue as sawdust gets harder to get. Sand is the gold standard these days but settles out in manure pits and is hard on handling equipment. Straw or hay usually needs to be chopped to work with barn cleaners etc. and that is a dusty job. and it cant be used at all in some systems as it clogs some kinds of pumps.
Most of the saw dust around here is being burned at the mills for heat or being sold for pellets. They actually ration the dust to farmers.
I think it it is wet hardwood sawdust that promotes mastitis. Wet softwood dust is okay.
Stonebroke
Is walnut a problem for cows or is that just horses?
Nick
We have horse farms standing in line for our sawdust. A couple farms have even bought loads of mulch for bedding. Our mulch is ground from our slabs and seems to work just as good as shavings. We have a 1 1/4 " screen in the grinder so the mulch is ground up fine.