Woodchip Bedding for Livestock

inlooniest

Howrye all,

I've a question for anyone using woodchip bedding for livestock. I'm thinking about putting 6 inches of it under a straw bed to house some weanlings. I looked at some last night, it's being made for woodfuel burners and so is dried in an industrial drier. The chips were very brittle and had fairly sharp edges which I'm thinking might be a bit harsh on cattle, especially their feet.

The guy said he can also make me some from undried timber which would be softer but mightn't have the same absorption. Has anyone any experience of the dried chip, or should I go with the undried?

He's selling it at €50 for a builder's bag, which I reckon is about 1 cubic metre (would that be about right?). I'd need about 6 of these to cover the area I want, which is one 15ft bay of a 30ft wide haybarn,

Any help is appreciated,
Cheers

49801

dumpy bags of sand are 0.75m3

Sounds expensive to me.

If you used two 4x4s of straw every week till start of march, 5wks you would use 10. If the straw cost you €15 into your yard you would spend €150.

ally k

Far too expensive we get a 10 ton load here of very dry woodchip it covers a 6 bay lie back area its 94 odd feet by 16 feet wide and its 9 inch deep and it costs 200 euro ...If you cant get it cheaper than you said id definitely wud go for straw much cheaper in the longer run ..

blue5000

Just used the ordinary woodchip on it's own is what we did a few yrs back.

inlooniest

Cheers for the replies, I'm having a look around for cheaper chip, just can't find anyone local (west limerick) to deliver such a small load

49801

inlooniest wrote: »

Cheers for the replies, I'm having a look around for cheaper chip, just can't find anyone local (west limerick) to deliver such a small load

Why are you set on using wood chip?

6480

49801 wrote: »

Why are you set on using wood chip?

i put a base of woodchip into a 4 bay shed and it does 2 years with bedding straw on it afterwards it gives the straw room to soak

manjou

Got woodchip 2 years ago for creeps and it cost 220 a load rang other day for load this year and price gone up to 340 for same load so woodchip getting dearer.

inlooniest

Manjou, what size of a load was that for? was quoted €85/tonne plus vat this evening, still sounds pretty dear

manjou

inlooniest wrote: »

Manjou, what size of a load was that for? was quoted €85/tonne plus vat this evening, still sounds pretty dear

Big skip holds about 6 tons of woodchip Waste timber so would be very dry Wouldent be much good for outdoors but great for creep area for calves and calving cows.