How to use all of this sawdust?

[plastikosmd]

I would love a gravel pit!

 

[JJT]

The sawmills near me sell their sawdust to horse owners. I'd love some free sawdust.

 

[Snobdds]

I had a friend who's family were dairy farmers. They would bring in saw dust by the truck load to use as bedding. They would just dump it in huge piles under cover. They never worried about it combusting.

They would just continue to spread saw dust in the barns until there was about a foot depth of manure, urine,and shavings. They would then load it up into a spreader and just spread it on all the fields. They also had a pit under their barn that they would scrape manure into. They would just pump it out twice a year to spread on all their fields. In fact, they would keep one field fallow each year just so they could spread shavings and manure on. They said once plants were in the ground, their ability to get rid of manure and shavings went away until after harvest. They got smart and left one place open for disposal.

They never paid one cent for fertilizer. I have also never seen men work so hard all the time as that dairy farmer family. It was 4 am to 8pm every day all year round.

 

[Jstpssng]

Why do you think they are willing to give it to you? There are huge sawdust piles around here from mills which haven't even operated in decades. However, with work and other materials you could probably make some decent compost from it. Chicken litter would probably be great; plenty of nitrogen to do the job. Then keep turning it with the dozer, and in time you might be able to plant grass if your goal is to reclaim the pit.

 

[Jstpssng]

I would love a gravel pit!

I would, also. Come to think of it, a dozer would be handy, too. As would his dump truck...

 

[droy]

I have a friend that works at a hardwood lumber mill. He is giving me all the sawdust I want if I will haul it off. I’m thinking of hauling it to an old gravel pit that was stripped of top soil long ago. I have a 15 yard dump truck so thinking of hauling 30-40 loads. Maybe dumping it and spreading it about 4” deep. Would this help the gravel pit eventually be able to grow weeds and grass?

Don’t know what area of the world you’re in but here in south Louisiana lots of hurricane downed trees & limbs were shredded & compost was given to whomever wanted it. Many people spread it over their lawn, then the termites came…….

 

[dirttoys]

I’m going have to check on manure. I would have better luck finding chicken litter. Personally I don’t know of any cow or horse operations big enough to sell manure from.

Anything organic, especially if it has been processed by a critter will help. If you can stand to keep nitrogen on it, and some water, that will speed it up as well.

This is probably the dumbest thing I have ever said, but, I wonder how much a good crop of termites would help?

Best,

ed

 

[BoylermanCT]

I'd get a PTO pellet mill and convert the sawdust to wood pellets.

 

[mapper]

All over the world, from India to England to the USA folks are using machines that turn sawdust into "briquettes" that are then sold for burning in wood stoves. Kinda like small Presto Logs. The sawdust needs to be fairly dry (I think, and could be wrong) but that is the only limitation. Anyway, the machines that press the sawdust into these so called briquettes are available from several sources. The machines are widely used and if I had tons of sawdust that I needed to dispose of I would look into buying a briquetting machine. I think even wet sawdust may work because the machines use high pressure and heat to make the briquettes, which would tend to drive the moisture out. I'm sorry, I don't have a link, but just looking online or on YouTube will result in several hits.
Eric

There were some presto log type factories that processed waste sawdust in Everett when I was going to college there, several of my classmates had jobs there. Said it got real exciting when some wet sawdust got into the system. Logs would explode as they came out of the press!

 

[EarPlug]

How To Compost Sawdust (9 Things You Can Add To Speed It Up) | GreenUpSide

To compost sawdust, add plenty of nitrogen-rich material (or "greens", such as grass clippings) to your compost pile. The nitrogen in these "green" compost materials will balance out the high amount of carbon in sawdust. To avoid chemicals, don't use sawdust from wood treated with CCA...

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