Woodchip / sawdust for loose house bedding

[Acorn2012]

This year I’m using wood chip bedding rather than straw. I’m looking for management advice please if anyone has experience of this type of bedding. It’s a loose housing system for beef cattle. I’m raking it once a week but after only a month on it they’re not staying as clean as I wanted. I’m considering straw now but wondered if anyone has advice on managing it

 

[farmerm]

If you are considering straw you need to get buying it... Its as rare as rocking horse doo round these parts.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Sawdust would be better than chip if you can get it . Some using sand also
Every one who uses an alternative will help save straw and Maybe stabilise the price

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Im suppling this that is probably to expensive for loose housing but great for cubicles

 

[deleted user 837354]

I had clients putting cattle on chipped wood. Worked well. Throw in a bucketful now and again, rake it about etc, the animals were clean and clean. This was waste wood that would otherwise be chipped and end to powerstations. Things like chipboard, MDF, all kinds of stuff.

 

[michael N123]

I had clients putting cattle on chipped wood. Worked well. Throw in a bucketful now and again, rake it about etc, the animals were clean and clean. This was waste wood that would otherwise be chipped and end to powerstations. Things like chipboard, MDF, all kinds of stuff.

Has he looked into the legalities of waste chipboard mdf ect I take it it’s getting spread on his land

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Has he looked into the legalities of waste chipboard mdf ect I take it it’s getting spread on his land

I'm afraid its not legal . Can only be grade A wood

 

[Rod Dumbreck]

How deep did you start the bed?

 

[deleted user 837354]

Has he looked into the legalities of waste chipboard mdf ect I take it it’s getting spread on his land

Errrrrr.... that didn't appear to be a consideration.

 

[mo!]

We've been using recyled pallet wood in our finisher shed for the last month. I like it, keeps them clean, just put a little bit each day and scrape out the feed passage.

After doing the numbers we could buy straw at £75 and use double what we have used historically and still be better off.

 

[deleted user 837354]

We've been using recyled pallet wood in our finisher shed for the last month. I like it, keeps them clean, just put a little bit each day and scrape out the feed passage.

After doing the numbers we could buy straw at £75 and use double what we have used historically and still be better off.

Exactly the same with the clients I knew using it. Very very fine grind to it, very fluffy and absorbent and cattle stayed clean as clean. Could walk on it in wellies and not get any muck stick to your boots!

 

[Bill dog]

It might be fine to use to bed your cattle, but the muck is fffing useless unless you let it rot for a good number of years. It takes more nitrogen out the ground to break up the woodchip, than it has goodness to return !

 

[deleted user 837354]

It might be fine to use to bed your cattle, but the muck is fffing useless unless you let it rot for a good number of years. It takes more nitrogen out the ground to break up the woodchip, than it has goodness to return !

Around here there is some heavy clay land that is crying out for some fibre to be added to it. The nutrient value is low but it is having cattle muck added to it remember.

 

[Rattie]

We have tree surgeons tip woodchip here daily, goes off to power stations etc. We also spread it onto clover leys before ploughing them down as a Nitrogen catch.

We got to thinking, dangerous I know, that we should mix it into the muck to start the process early.

Following on from there, when we bring the cattle in, they go liquid for a week or two and we started spreading it in the feed passage as a sponge, works a treat and you get lovely sh1t impregnated woodchip to spread.

Thing is, the cattle choose to lie on it over straw, not tried it yet, but thinking this free chip ( we load probably 30t a week away) is the cattles preferred choice of bedding...

 

[Rattie]

Exactly the same with the clients I knew using it. Very very fine grind to it, very fluffy and absorbent and cattle stayed clean as clean. Could walk on it in wellies and not get any muck stick to your boots!

Not only clean, but dry, much more absorbant than straw...

 

[Rattie]

It might be fine to use to bed your cattle, but the muck is fffing useless unless you let it rot for a good number of years. It takes more nitrogen out the ground to break up the woodchip, than it has goodness to return !

But builds SOM and soil C, feeds it as well. Long game, but pays if you commit? On heavy ground it depends aids workability and drainage as well.

 

[Bill dog]

Long game possibly, if you can stockpile the muck. I’m not knocking the stuff totally, I used it for years on bedding youngstock.
The variances in the quality of the fines we got was remarkable. Some was cold out the truck, some was so fresh out the mill, it was so hot, I couldn’t touch it !
The last stuff we got I found an intact school desk! What other chopped up crap was in it was anyone’s guess.
We got a load of dried peat from Aberdeen a couple of years ago, it was great. Can’t get it now sadly.

 

[Hard Graft]

We have tree surgeons tip woodchip here daily, goes off to power stations etc. We also spread it onto clover leys before ploughing them down as a Nitrogen catch.

We got to thinking, dangerous I know, that we should mix it into the muck to start the process early.

Following on from there, when we bring the cattle in, they go liquid for a week or two and we started spreading it in the feed passage as a sponge, works a treat and you get lovely sh1t impregnated woodchip to spread.

Thing is, the cattle choose to lie on it over straw, not tried it yet, but thinking this free chip ( we load probably 30t a week away) is the cattles preferred choice of bedding...

I am jealous as I would love some of that virgin wood chip as can not get enough as use it in conjunction with straw as a carbon source to help with composting

 

[Rod Dumbreck]

I am jealous as I would love some of that virgin wood chip as can not get enough as use it in conjunction with straw as a carbon source to help with composting

In these parts tree surgeons are looking for places to get rid of it.

There is a forum called Arbtalk with a dedicated chip site locator, and its free (optional buy me a pint contribution) and seems to work well. Ive not used it because I have a good supply from waving down passing tree surgeons and exchanging phone numbers.

I would remind everyone to be aware of the obvious possibility of Yew, Laurel, Rhododendron, Laburnum etc and Im not sure Id encourage blackthorn

The issue of Nitrogen robbing has not been apparent here, and someone I spoke to recently pointed out that mulching with wood chips on the surface is common and does not cause a problem, but if the chips were worked into the ground they could absorb soil nitrogen as they decompose. Arb chips in the summer come with the leaves as well and compost quite readily (if you look at the table of C to N ratio ), but I think let in a heap they run out of moisture. This is quite handy because you can then spread them in the cattle shed to dry further until the Autumn.

 

[Hard Graft]

I know most off the local tree surgeons but there is limited arb waste here I had thought about using the arbtalk