How it all began…..a cedar story

[okmulch]

Just recently our companies were featured in National Woodlands magazine. A nation wide publication for woodland owners. This article below tells how our business has grown over the years and gives a small peek into what we do.  It was hard to put over 19 years into 1500 words. I will include pics of the pages in the article but it will be easier to read below the pics. 


 


 


 


 






It all started with a tornado that touched down in Marengo In. near Richard newton's (my father) company Eastern Red Cedar Products LLC. Many cedar trees were destroyed and the idea of letting the limbs dry out then grinding them into mulch became a reality and a viable mulch product. I (Aaron Newton) at the time had built from the ground up and was operating a 2ndcedar sawmill in Alabama, after graduating from Purdue University with a B.S. in Forest Products. Markets were changing for the Alabama mill and Richard had been invited out to Oklahoma several times by the Aromatic Cedar Association looking for sawmill sites. However, most cedar trees in Oklahoma are bushy and are as wide as they are tall with limbs coming out at ground level. This is where gears changed and the focus became grinding whole cedar trees into mulch. 
In September of 2004 we setup a demo with Rotochopperoutside of Stillwater Oklahoma. We had two companies send their mulch buyers, with one of them sending a semi with live bottom trailer to load, and collect samples. We could tell by their reactions we had a great product. This would be the first successful attempt at grinding whole tree Eastern Redcedar(needles, limbs, and trunk), and the beginning of Eastern Red Cedar Mulch LLC.
With the demo being a success and agreements with the buyers being made that afternoon, the next day we bought the MC166 grinder from Rotochopper. This grinder had a 400 HP engine with an 18 inch by 66 inch wide opening for trees, on dual wheels with a pintle hitch to move it around. At the time it looked big and was intimidating even if it was considered a small unit. To say things were moving fast would be an understatement! We were now the proud owners of a grinder with no support equipment, a payment and I was still living in Alabama. The search was on for the support equipment. We contacted several local banks for financing, but were turned away from all after hearing "you are going to do what with cedar trees"? Luckily the 3 skidsteers were bought through Caterpillar and the tractor, conveyor, trailers and other equipment were purchased using leasing companies and friends. All of this was accomplished by the middle of December 2004, along with buying a house in Stillwater and moving from Alabama with my wife (Jennifer) and our 10 month old son Cade. We celebrated our first Christmas in Stillwater not quite knowing what the New Year would bring but were excited about the new adventure. 
As 2005 arrived all equipment was in and the learning curves were many. Production was not what we were counting on. The grinder was operating as expected, other than a leak in the radiator that we eventually found, but Mother Nature was the wild card rain, rain, rain and wind. Since we used mother nature to dry the cedar after it is cut down to get the needles dry, all the rain caused issues by not being able to grind dry product. Also, the rain made moving the grinder throughout the fields extremely difficult. A wrecker was needed several times the first year to get the grinder out of soft spots. We needed the wind to blow the dust away from the radiator and air filters so they would not plug. The downfall of grinding dry cedar trees is all the dust that comes from them. One problem with wind and weather would cause great anxiety and the thoughts of no wonder no one else has been successful at this. After several months of second guessing and about to call it quits, the sun comes out in May and we dry up and we would have many days with several semi's lined up to load cedar mulch. This would be mine and jennifer's lives for the next several years working any day of the week, including weekends to keep the mulch flowing and the bills paid working around the weather even having some summer help from  my father and my brother Ian when needed, especially in 2008 when our second son Cooper was born.
The word was getting around about our company utilizing nuiscance cedar trees. Long before we came along, landowners were cutting and burning cedars. This cost the landowner time and money. For us the trees still have to be cut but we save the landowner time an money on stacking and burning, especillaysince having only a few day a year one can burn without setting the country on fire. We grind the cedar  trees for the mulch so this is of great benefit to the landowner, It also helps the economy of Oklahoma by using in state resources and keeping the money here instead of paying surrounding states for their cedar mulch. Most of our grinding and pasture reclamation is done around Stillwater and the surrounding counties. We did travel 2 hours south on two separate occasions, for a unique situation,  to grind 60 acres of cedar on Chickasaw National Park in Sulphur Oklahoma. The park wanted to reclaim the original town location and golf course that the cedar had overtaken since  the 1930's.
Realizing our biggest bottlenecks were wind and weather, and the demand for cedar mulch was growing, we decided in 2011 to jump off the cliff and get a new Rotochopper B66T tracked grinder. What a difference maker! With over 800 HP, remote controlled, on tracks and with over a 30 inch opening I was in heaven. We were now producing twice as much in half the time, 130 yards in 40 minutes compared to over an hour with the first grinder. The tracks made moving through fields and shifting for winds easy. 
With the new grinder we were saturating the cedar mulch markets and one of our larger customers was slowing down. We decided to expand our mulch line by coloring our cedar mulch. We retro fitted the b66 with a colorizing option and produced red, black and brown dyed cedar mulch in one pass. We were told by many it could not be done , but again we proved the nay sayers wrong and produced a great product. Honestly it wasn't the easiest but since we were completely portable and wanted to save money we figured out how to color trees into mulch in one pass. It worked and we were able to once again move more product to happy customers. 
In late 2015 another opportunity cam along about an existing customer wanting to sell their business. We had been supplying cedar mulch to them for several years and they in turn were processing it into oilfield products and what they called "double grind cedar" for bedding. We were months away from being debt free but aginn the mulch markets were being fickleand we were a one trick pony. After many discussions we decided to take the plunge again. In February 2016 we purchased a 20,000 Sq. ft. facility in Oklahoma City and Custom Wood Fibers and Cedar Mulch LLC. was formed. We had now diversified into cedar mulch (bulk and bagged), LCM for oilfiled, shavings for horses and double grind cedar for show cattle. With my background in forest products, I immediately began developing a better way to produce and market cedar cattle bedding. It was renamed cedar fiber bedding and we put in a new hammermill system and changed from paper to plastic bags to produce product faster. These transitions helped us make a superior product. 
Sales and usage of cedar bedding continued to climb. So in 2018 we once again expanded and bought out another customer and moved all production to a 70,000+ sq. ft. facility on 7.5 acres in Oklahoma City. This facility came with a compressed bale bagger and is what our cedar fiber bedding is currently being packaged with to the present day. We currently have 2 patents for our cedar fiber bedding and our product is sold in over 30 states from Coast to Coast including major retailers like Atwoods, Bomgaars, and Orschelns farm  and ranch stores along with many local farm and feed stores. 
In 2022 we added a 2nd B66t grinder to our fleet in Western Oklahoma to keep mulch at the Oklahoma City due to increase sales. Between all 3 locations we have 11 employees not including me and Jennifer to help grow our operation. We have 2 semi's with live floor trailers hauling cedar mulch into the facility most days but we still have to work around Mother Natures schedule. 
It has been a lot of hard work since we started 19 years agoand we are very thankful for what we have accomplished. Being considered a "green" company and utilizing a nuisance species like eastern redcedar to landowners and reclaiming the pastures for their livestock is a big part of our everyday. We look forward to helping landowners for many more years as our companycontinues to grow.

[RichTired]

What a great story!!!
8)

[SwampDonkey]

Great story. 8) There is certainly demand for mulch. I buy mulch every spring here. Not a lot, but it all adds up. Every grocery store and hardware sells the stuff. ;D

Keep at it!

[Ron Scott]

Well done! Keith Argo, the owner of National Woodlands magazine, has been a long-time forestry friend of mine.

[JD Guy]

Aaron, What a fantastic success story! Just proves that with a dream, some skill, hard work and a belief in yourself the American Dream is alive and well!
Congratulations, my hats off to you and your family  8)

[moodnacreek]

Good story, thanks for posting.

[thecfarm]

A job well done!!!

[Stephen1]

What a great operation and business you have !!

[Nebraska]

Neat story thanks for sharing it.

[rusticretreater]

Truly the american dream and success story.  A shining example to us all.

[customsawyer]

Absolutely awesome. Didn't realize you had a set up in OKC too. Next time I visit my son's family there I will have to stop in. 

[okmulch]

I appreciate all the kind words!! Thank you! 

[mike dee]

Good on you for finding enough buyers to support a business model.

Can't give the stuff away here. Has to be coloured construction mulch in little bags with free delivery.

[YellowHammer]

That is a great success story, and I'm am always impressed with how big and successful you guys really are but still have the "down home" personalities.  

It is such an incredible business model to be able to utilize hundreds of thousands of acres of nuisance trees as your raw material.

 

 

   

[okmulch]

Good on you for finding enough buyers to support a business model.

Can't give the stuff away here. Has to be coloured construction mulch in little bags with free delivery.

We started out selling strictly mulch but we have transitioned into the cedar bedding markets. The picture below is our main product now. That is the product we ship all over the country. Our mulch sales are only about 5 percent of profits now. So almost 100 percent of the mulch we make with the grinders is taken to our plant and made into bedding now. 


 

[barbender]

That is a great story, happy for your success. I know those "opportunities" require a ton of work and sacrifice, and people don't get that part when they see your success. I see a few opportunities on my horizon, but honestly I don't have the ambition to take the bull by the horns anymore. I'm starting to value the easy life over success😂

[Magicman]

This is a wonderful example of seeing an opportunity and stepping out on faith.  It is also wonderful when that opportunity grows and develops into further unseen opportunities.  That is when experience and foresight urges you to move ahead but also regulates your actions and does not allow you to outgrow yourself and your ability. 

I am proud of and proud for your family and also proud to have each of you in my (our) circle of friends. 

 

[okmulch]

Again thank you for the kind responses! Glad to be a part of the forum and a great group of people. 

There is a real good possibility of more expansions in the near future but only time will tell. Always have to be 3 or 4 steps ahead on planning and growth and ready to go to the next plan if things go south to keep an edge.