S Michigan or N Indiana Where do you get your saw dust???

[sweetpea]

Does anyone have any contacts for saw dust in Northeast IN or SOuthern MI or 60 West Of Toledo OH?? Thanks

[woops]

i am curious too!

[Equsrider]

There's a shortage here too!We ordered early more than 4 weeks ago and still waiting!!

[woops]

Hello!!!equus
how much do you pay for a load and how much do you get??

[goodhors]

Any local sawmills? You might check with Amish, see if they know someone with a sawmill. You do have to advise about no black walnut, Butternut, in sawdust for horses. Maybe some company making things like trailers, cutting wood to size, would generate enough sawdust to be worth collecting.

[TheOtherHorse]

Not sure if they have any currently, but my old BO in MI got sawdust from Fibre Woods, 269-483-0066.

[Equsrider]

I think we pay about $150. per load.It comes in a smaller dump truck so say 6 yards perhaps, maybe more.I know the mills around here are slow and then they always seem to close for 2-3 weeks around Christmas, so it gets REAL difficult to keep stocked up.Actually I prefer the bagged stuff mixed with pelleted bedding, costs a little more, but my stalls stay cleaner and drier and I think there is much less waste.Of course my boarder thinks hers is the best because she can get so much for $150.Honestly though, she adds shavings everyday, and almost strips her stall everynight, way too much work for me,I'd rather pay a little more!

[woops]

Any one from the Battlecreek area?

[bighorsema]

I own a farm in W MI and I started purchasing Guardian pellet bedding. It lasts longer than shavings, but more importantly, I can find it!!! For those of you in our area, the pellets are manufactured here, but the regular shavings they sell are manufactured in Georgia (I think!), so we can get the pellets typically cheaper here and I like them better.

[deltawave]

bighorsema, where do you get your Guardian bedding? I use their Swift-Pik shavings and get them up near Hudsonville.

[ImJumpin]

About a year and a half ago one of the shavings guys in the NE IN area told all his barn clients that they would either have to pay double price or he was no longer going to provide to them-- he found another industry to sell to and they were paying the higher price. I don't know what that other industry was-- any ideas on industries in the area that would use shavings? The only think I could think of is perhaps Sauder furnature, but I really don't know if they use wood shavings or not.

The trainer I was with at the time switched to the pelleted bedding. Another facility went ahead and paid the double price and raised board significantly to cover the increase.

[deltawave]

Probably the stove-pellet industry, I'm guessing.

[findeight]

Yep, stove pellets. Which can be very similar to the horse bedding pellets...fact have a friend who uses one of those products for both purposes.

Am in southwest Ohio so not that far and barn went to pellets when they could no longer get decent bulk shavings on a dependable basis. That's a 60 stall operation, any smaller qualtities and you just about have to buy bagged, when you can get it.

[TrueColours]

I also service most of MI with a pelleted straw product - EcoStraw - that comes in 30 lb bags, and the huge benefit over wood pellets is the quick decomposition rate of the straw pellets compared to wood - 2-4 weeks as opposed to 6-8 MONTHS for sawdust and pellets and up to 3 years for shavings

It can be seen at:

www.angelfire.com/on3/TrueColoursFarm/EcoStraw.html

[bighorsema]

bighorsema, where do you get your Guardian bedding? I use their Swift-Pik shavings and get them up near Hudsonville.

Go to www.guardianhorsebedding.com and look up dealers near you, but I get mine from a dealer in Door, Michigan.
The Feed Connection
2872 144th Ave.
Dorr, MI 49323
Web Site:
Phone: 616-896-6583

[deltawave]

Dorr is a bit farther than Hudsonville, but thanks for the info. :)

TrueColours, any chance of getting a sample bag somehow, or could you point me in the direction of a dealer near Grand Rapids, MI? I'm always willing to try a new bedding and manure-storage space is PRECIOUS on my little farm. Question--I know your product indicates no wetting is needed, but can you wet it if you want to? I bed with pellets in my outdoor run-in area, and want to know what would happen to your pellets if they got really wet, like in the rain?

[bighorsema]

[QUOTE=deltawave;3816108]Dorr is a bit farther than Hudsonville, but thanks for the info. :)

Did you think I meant Door Wisconsin? :winkgrin: if so, I meant Door, MI which is 30 min south of GR.

[deltawave]

Yes, I know Dorr very well, used to keep my horses there. It's still much farther from where I live than Hudsonville. :)

[slp2]

I can't help on this--only to agree that there is a real problem getting sawdust in bulk right now. Where I board (fairly large operation just north of Lansing) they have always gotten their sawdust from local millls. They said all of the sawmills are closed due to the depressed construction industry here and the only 2 sawmills still operating are slowed down because of the weather. So, right now they are trying the bagged "Woody Pellets" and checking into the possibility of using peat moss. No one seems to be impressed with the Woody Pellets--I think they are supposed to "fluff up" when wet--but they are afraid to wet them in this cold weather because they might become ice pellets! They said that bagged shavings are outrageously expensive for the amount they need to buy. Hopefully in the spring, things will start to turn around for the sawmills.

[bighorsema]

Yes, I know Dorr very well, used to keep my horses there. It's still much farther from where I live than Hudsonville. :)

OK. Just wanted to make sure. Sorry!

[deltawave]

slp, the pellets do indeed freeze in these temperatures. That's the main reason I stopped using them--10.5 months out of the year they are TERRIFIC. ;) In the deep part of winter, they are a little bit of a PITA in that regard. Then again, when it's THIS cold, my shavings freeze, too--my barn is pretty much open to the elements, though.

[TrueColours]

deltawave - if you want to email me with your mailing address -

truecolours@xplornet.com

I'd be happy to send a sample out to you ... :)

If the EcoStraw gets really wet, it simply holds the moisture. I ended up putting a few bags down around my gates last spring to see what would happen and it works fabulously well to give them a firm base to stand on. It took a long time for it to get mixed in with the mush around the gates, even under heavy use and heavy traffic. But .. having said that while it worked great for them to stand on, I have had clients use it in run in sheds as well, but ONLY if the sheds were on high ground and they didnt have water running through them on a constant basis. I have also had some use them as a base for straw as the EcoStraw held the moisture and then the straw on top stayed much drier as well

And the EcoStraw pellets dont freeze - no matter how cold the barn is, simply because you are not wetting them first to make them effective. But - if you do have an area in your stall that gets water dumped on them and your barn is below freezing inside - yes - they will freeze the same as anything else would when wet ...

[deltawave]

Thanks, I sent you my address! :)