# Storing bulk sawdust/bedding



## emeraldbutton

We are new to farming and find that as we grow we are spending too much money buying bagged bedding. We have found a place that will deliver bulk sawdust (10 cubic yrds) for a very good price BUT we have no idea how/where to store it. We live on very little land (farm shopping as we speak), our existing buildings are full to the max and we don't want to build anything too intense as we hope to be moving to a larger farm within a year. I was hoping to quickly build something against the garage (it's the only place a truck would be able to pull in during wet months) but I need some suggestions. How do you store your bulk bedding? Do you have any ideas? We can get pallets free by the dozens for materials if that helps get the creative juices flowing.


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## Dixie Bee Acres

My thought would be, if financially possible, buy a portable shed, dedicated to just storing your bedding material. Yes, I know you would have to do a lot of manual labor to get it in the shed.
Then when you get a new place, have the shed moved to your new place.

Myself, I use the pine bedding for baby chicks, for the most part, the chicken coop bedding is straw. It is easy to stack and store, plus I get it for about $3 a bale from a neighbor.


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## 1shotwade

If you're set on using sawdust just put down plastic,dump a load on it and cover with plastic. Small expense,roll it up and take it with you,till the used bedding into the garden.Just a thought.


Wade


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## Hidden Hills

We put out a tarp. The truck dumps and we fold the tarp back over it. If you don't buy the nicer tarp it will get wet though. Done that for years. We replace our tarp every 3 or 4 years though. The weather and sun deteriorate the tarps.


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## haypoint

This won't help now, but might for farm shopping. Almost no one uses silos any more. So, they aren't of any real value. At one time, corn, stalks and all were chopped and blown up into a silo. Then there is an automatic unloader that dumps the silage back down to feed cattle. If you could blow sawdust into a silo and get it out easily, that might be something to look for in your next farm.
I know a guy that converted a dairy barn to a boarding stable. He used the silo for sawdust storage.


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## Jennifer L.

You need a small commodity shed. https://www.google.com/search?q="co...2NLOwsATxm4CICA&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=1344&bih=723


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## TnAndy

emeraldbutton said:


> we don't want to build anything too intense as we hope to be moving to a larger farm within a year.


Buy a used grain wagon. You can find them many places for 1,000-1,500 (seen them for 6-800 if you don't mind some rust).....far less than you could build much of a shed for. Throw a tarp over the top and you have great storage for bulk materials like sawdust.

AND when you move, roll it with you, or sell it.

AND if the sawmill is close enough, you could tow the wagon to the mill, and save transport cost of the dust.




















OR remove the running gear, which often sells for half or more of the total package, keep the "box" on a wood skid, and you get some really cheap storage that way. The two above wagons are on my local Craig's List for 1200......the running gear, they are asking 950.


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## Darren

I use a tarp too. Lay it out so the truck dumps on half of it, then pull the other half over top and secure so it doesn't blow off. I tuck the bottom of the tarp no covered up on the sawdust first so water can't get to it along the ground.


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## joebill

Be careful with that stuff. Get it damp it can spontaniously combust, expecailly if contained without air.......Joe


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## Tinkman

Hi Emerald Button,
I saw your post regarding the saw dust bedding storage. Have you ever considered a fabric storage building? Some consumers call them "hoop barns". They are metal framed structures (shaped in hoops) which have a cover that is tensioned to the frame utilizing ratchet straps. Hoop buildings can be fastened to any mounting surface including concrete slabs, poured concrete walls, gravel, dirt, etc. These units are very cost efficient and typically do not require a building permit. They are used quite frequently for this type of application. See link below for a complete selection:
Hoop barns and buildings


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## am1too

Dixie Bee Acres said:


> My thought would be, if financially possible, buy a portable shed, dedicated to just storing your bedding material. Yes, I know you would have to do a lot of manual labor to get it in the shed.
> Then when you get a new place, have the shed moved to your new place.
> 
> Myself, I use the pine bedding for baby chicks, for the most part, the chicken coop bedding is straw. It is easy to stack and store, plus I get it for about $3 a bale from a neighbor.


Just use a lawn blower. Cut a hole in the peak. They both blow and suck. I have a pile of saw dust in the open and it is peaked. It sheds water that way. There is some damage loss.


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## cfuhrer

When we boarded horses we used to get sawdust by the truck load too, but we had to get into the trailer and shovel it out.

For the first couple years we just piled it up against the barn (corrugated steel sided). To this day you can still see where the sawdust "polished" the side of the barn. Amazingly we didn't loose a whole lot to the wind and what got wet we spread out to dry and then used.

In later years we built a three sided and roofed bin off the end of the barn that we could back the trailer into. No wind loss and we were still able to spread out the wet stuff to dry.


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## mulemom

Emerald you didn't say if the sawdust was kiln dried or green. Green sawdust will heat and it will freeze. We're in NE OH so our weather is probably similar to yours. In the summer I wouldn't put it too close to a building if most of the pile will sit for very long. If you're using the whole pile in a week you should be ok. We stopped using green because we got tired of having to cut a hole in the frozen part with an axe to get to thawed. It also doesn't keep a stall dry nearly as well as dried. We can get kiln dried once a year so we get three five ton dumps at a time and tarp it. Tried plastic under-tarps under-all disintegrated in a year. Now we dump on the ground, bottom will soak up some moisture but we mix with the dry and it helps to keep the dust down. Hardware poly tarps are good for about a year but we had to use tires on top to hold them down. Like Andy said gravity box is great especially if you can pull it past your stalls to unload. Same problem with green sawdust though-it freezes to the sides. Hope this helps.


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