market for sawdust?

[My Oslo heats my home]

I'm in the beginning stages of setting up a small firewood business when I retire in a couple years. I'm going through all the phases to be as prepared as I can. Which brings me to by-products. Is there a market, or a place where the sawdust can go after it's produced after cutting?

 

[smokinj]

Some of the hardwood I have seen for sale on ebay for bbq smoking. Just a thought. (tag and bag)

 

[Delta-T]

what kind of volume are we talkin here for sawdust? if its fairly large quantity you could sell it to a pellet mill, if not, horse farms, making topsoil or burn it yourself.

 

[fyrwoodguy]

i've been thinking of making my own pellets to heat my owm place,wonder if it's worth it.
i cannot get rid of what i generate.give a little away, but i load it.

 

[Thistle]

Sawdust & coarse shavings are great for garden mulch or livestock bedding.EXCEPT Black Walnut,which contains juglone,that is injurious & sometimes toxic to other plants.And causes horses to founder.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

Small time operation here, I'm only talking maybe 50 cord a year. I'm not sure I would create enough sawdust to consider having it hauled away. Maybe the local farms could use it at no cost to them, just have to pick it up. Thanks for the ideas...

 

[Dune]

Pook burned sawdust.

 

[fyrwoodguy]

the dairy farmers don't like it,so maybe all the farmers are the same. garden people are your best bet.
i'm now turnin' my pile over every 2-3 years,looks like i can make some nice stuff. the snow stays off all winter long...'tis cookin' for sure!

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

just out of curiosity, are there any pellet mills in NH?

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Unless you generate a LOT, you will do well to just get rid of it without paying someone I think. 50 cord won't generate the volume I'm talking. On the other hand- I could use about 1/4 yard of it in the near future.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Fyrwoodguy- I love seeing the steam coming off the woodchip/sawdust piles. Add nitrogen source to make it go quicker- manure, grass clippings, urine, whatever is free like that. I once composted a deer carcass in a hot compost pile with extra sawdust.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

even if I could produce 8 yards of dust a year, that would be 2 truck loads to move a year for my small operation. If the mill was close enough I think it would be worth making a small stockpile and covering it.

 

[lukem]

I once composted a deer carcass in a hot compost pile with extra sawdust.

Hog farmers will put dead livestock under sawdust. After a while everything except the teeth will be gone.

 

[muncybob]

I once composted a deer carcass in a hot compost pile with extra sawdust.

Hog farmers will put dead livestock under sawdust. After a while everything except the teeth will be gone.

Yep, works on horses too.

If the sawdust isn't too fine we use it for bedding for our horses...get it by the dumptruck load..small truck load is $55 these days and that's if the mills are busy as sometimes we order and have to wait a few weeks for it.

 

[Battenkiller]

I once composted a deer carcass in a hot compost pile with extra sawdust.

Hog farmers will put dead livestock under sawdust. After a while everything except the teeth will be gone.

Yep, works on horses too.

If the sawdust isn't too fine we use it for bedding for our horses...get it by the dumptruck load..small truck load is $55 these days and that's if the mills are busy as sometimes we order and have to wait a few weeks for it.

Brings up visions of taking the dump truck to the sawmill and shoveling it full of free sawdust for the rich guy's farm I worked on. Face full of it, eyes red, choking and hacking away all night long, all so this rich bass-turd could save a few bucks. He got his when one of his best TB brood mares contracted heaves from the dust. Fond memories... not.

I live right near two major racetracks. There is a company called "Saratoga Organic" that used to take all the stall cleaning and compost it scientifically, adding lots of air and getting the temps up to about 160º. Kills all the weed seeds and bugs that are in there. They mostly sold it for mulch, but that there stuff is some of the best garden compost you can concoct. Great stuff, just horse manure and straw. That's what the French organic market gardeners user back in the day. Folks would visit and say, "How do you get your plants to grow so fast?", to which I'd always reply, "Race horse $hit."

Used to get 6 yards every season. Tough to keep the dog out of it. Then we stopped the huge garden and went with our own compost. One time I drove the pickup over to get a small load. Tilled it in and planted as usual, but everything came up and started to turn purple. Turns out they switched from straw to wood chips at the tracks, and the wood chips take a lot of extra nitrogen to get them composting well. The new stuff was robbing my garden of nitrogen instead of putting it in. If you ask me, they shoulda dumped in a couple of the horses that I lost my shirt on at the track. :coolgrin:

 

[CountryBoy19]

I once composted a deer carcass in a hot compost pile with extra sawdust.

Hog farmers will put dead livestock under sawdust. After a while everything except the teeth will be gone.

Yep, works on horses too.

If the sawdust isn't too fine we use it for bedding for our horses...get it by the dumptruck load..small truck load is $55 these days and that's if the mills are busy as sometimes we order and have to wait a few weeks for it.

Brings up visions of taking the dump truck to the sawmill and shoveling it full of free sawdust for the rich guy's farm I worked on. Face full of it, eyes red, choking and hacking away all night long, all so this rich bass-turd could save a few bucks. He got his when one of his best TB brood mares contracted heaves from the dust. Fond memories... not.

I live right near two major racetracks. There is a company called "Saratoga Organic" that used to take all the stall cleaning and compost it scientifically, adding lots of air and getting the temps up to about 160º. Kills all the weed seeds and bugs that are in there. They mostly sold it for mulch, but that there stuff is some of the best garden compost you can concoct. Great stuff, just horse manure and straw. That's what the French organic market gardeners user back in the day. Folks would visit and say, "How do you get your plants to grow so fast?", to which I'd always reply, "Race horse $hit."

Used to get 6 yards every season. Tough to keep the dog out of it. Then we stopped the huge garden and went with our own compost. One time I drove the pickup over to get a small load. Tilled it in and planted as usual, but everything came up and started to turn purple. Turns out they switched from straw to wood chips at the tracks, and the wood chips take a lot of extra nitrogen to get them composting well. The new stuff was robbing my garden of nitrogen instead of putting it in. If you ask me, they shoulda dumped in a couple of the horses that I lost my shirt on at the track. :coolgrin:

Not to get off topic too far, but plants turning purple is not a nitrogen deficiency, it's phosphorous. Nitrogen deficiency will cause plants to turn lighter green/yellow.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Yup. Purple can also mean that it's too cold- common to see it on tomatoes/peppers early season because of that.

 

[Battenkiller]

Not to get off topic too far, but plants turning purple is not a nitrogen deficiency, it's phosphorous. Nitrogen deficiency will cause plants to turn lighter green/yellow.

Interesting. I love to garden but I have always said I have a brown thumb. For example, I just cannot grow a decent pepper. Maybe I should read more, but I thought someone at the farmer's market told me not to buy the Saratoga Organic compost anymore because it would rob the soil of nitrogen. Definitely warm enough, we never plant on time. Plus, it only happened where we put the compost, not in the smaller plots. Whatever was going on, the plants turned purple. I still think the wood chip compost had to be responsible because we never had a problem before or after that. Not very scientific, AP, I know. ;-)

Thanks for the correction, though. What organic amendment can I add to increase the phosphorus? Potash should be fine since there was plenty of wood ash dumped in there. Leaves turned into the soil in the fall as well.

 

[woodsmaster]

I burn mine from the table saw in my biomass downdraft gasifier. Havn't tried large quanities yet.

 

[midwestcoast]

Small-time chicken farmers might take it from you. I agree on not trying to sell it with the quantinty you'd have. You want a way to get rid of it, either composting or having someone take it, or even dropping it somewhere for free.
If you're chipping brush as well you could add some in to the chips & get rid of it all as mulch?