Woodchip corrals

ajcc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Tell me what you know from experience. I have 50 beef cows and no shed space, they graze beet and lie on grass but it can all get pretty muddy in a wet time.
I happen to know of a thousand ton heap of chipped Douglas fir about five miles away...so I’m thinking of making a 40x40 fenced enclosure with two foot of wood chip where I could confine these cows for 20 hours a day in an effort to lessen any poaching or necessity to lay on a wet bed in prolonged wet spells.
Anyone do /done anything similar?
 
Don't mean any disrespect, but i'm buying popcorn for this thread.

If woodchip corrals can work with your soil/rainfall, they are a simple way to cut costs in our post-brexit world.

Not sure if two foot deep is enough, and then what do you do with it all in the Spring?
 

multi power

Member
Location
pembrokeshire
20 hours a day is too long, I'd suggest you get them off the wood chip onto concrete for most of the day, keep the wood chip clean
I have seen cow's do extremely well on such a system
 

Sharpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Tell me what you know from experience. I have 50 beef cows and no shed space, they graze beet and lie on grass but it can all get pretty muddy in a wet time.
I happen to know of a thousand ton heap of chipped Douglas fir about five miles away...so I’m thinking of making a 40x40 fenced enclosure with two foot of wood chip where I could confine these cows for 20 hours a day in an effort to lessen any poaching or necessity to lay on a wet bed in prolonged wet spells.
Anyone do /done anything similar?
I take it you mean 40m by 40m?
SAC were promoting them up here a while ago but SEPA do not like them. As far as I can tell this is because of the effluent issuing from the base, allegedly due to overstocking in high rainfall areas. A big area per cow on the correct site should be fine. Do not feed on them.
 
Tell me what you know from experience. I have 50 beef cows and no shed space, they graze beet and lie on grass but it can all get pretty muddy in a wet time.
I happen to know of a thousand ton heap of chipped Douglas fir about five miles away...so I’m thinking of making a 40x40 fenced enclosure with two foot of wood chip where I could confine these cows for 20 hours a day in an effort to lessen any poaching or necessity to lay on a wet bed in prolonged wet spells.
Anyone do /done anything similar?
That will probably be wood chip for biomass I think the coral chip is different they use a screw chipper much bigger chip
 

GTB

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
I thought they were supposed to work best in high rainfall, as the rain washed the sh!t through the woodchip and kept a clean surface? hence why sepa no likey, as the effluent went on its own merry way
That was exactly the problem. You'd need a big lagoon to catch all the effluent.
 
About 15 years ago SAC and the wonderful Dr Lowman pushed woodchip corrals saying they were the future. Many beef units across Scotland invested thousands of pounds in them. However, To my knowledge, none of them are still in use. In fact most only lasted 4 or 5 years.

To me that speaks volumes about the reality of them.
Last time I went to Scotland there was 2000 suckers on pads dotted around 1 farm. While love to see his shed if that is the way he went.
 

Bill dog

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Scottish Borders
Last time I went to Scotland there was 2000 suckers on pads dotted around 1 farm. While love to see his shed if that is the way he went.
Was that down Stranraer way ?
If so then then he has fewer if any on corrals, and most cows now out running on maize stubble n fed from feed trailers. He built a fffing huge slatted shed with sides n no roof to finish the bullocks n hfrs on !
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Was that down Stranraer way ?
If so then then he has fewer if any on corrals, and most cows now out running on maize stubble n fed from feed trailers. He built a fffing huge slatted shed with sides n no roof to finish the bullocks n hfrs on !


I wonder who that could be :ROFLMAO:

He got right into the corrals back at the start!! They really didn't last long though.
 

Inky

Member
Location
Essex / G.London
I've used it on outside areas in the past where cattle have access to straw in a building as well. Chip size is important, the larger the chip the easier it will compact on the top 8" and water will run straight off. Going in with a grab and breaking it up a bit helps.

Cattle do stay incredibly clean on it although i tried wood chip inside the buildings but found the cattle didn't settle on it. Another local farm uses wood chip inside all their buildings with sucklers.

I'm lucky to have concrete pads where i am now and use woodchip on them and the feed passages to reduce straw use.

Once it's mucked out i heap it and leave it for about 2 years to rot down before spreading it.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
never been a massive fan of out wintering but if you have a dry sheltered field then why not . price of straw makes in wintering look stupid an corals you will get hung for water course contamination .can't see how you can possibly avoid it
 

Ysgythan

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ammanford
What about woodchip in a shed? Heard conflicting theories. A 3” base of wood chip in a shed apparently acts like a nappy core taking away moisture and allowing the straw on top to keep drier. The FYM from chip is apparently is a lot better for the soil and promotes mycorrhizal fungi. Which brings in the second theory. If the chip starts rotting before you use it you can get clouds of fungus spores come up out of the bed that are harmful to the cattle. With the price of straw though trying some fresh chip seems an attractive option.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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