How to spread sawdust?

[showcrop]

I am amazed at the amount of replies I have received so far, I appreciate all the input. The majority seems to say that I would need to spread nitrogen on top of the sawdust to help break it down.

I do have red clay soil. How do I determine how much nitrogen I would need to spread?

Your soil pH is important. If it is acidic the nitrogen gets tied up. You may need lime. You may need a whole lot of lime.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Been putting sawdust and planer chips on garden as mulch for several years without problems. Plow under in fall. Add nitrogen in spring.

"Add nitrogen" is the key to why you are not having problems.

I would put money on everyone here who spreads sawdust and has "no problems" is also adding quite a bit of nitrogen when they plant.

So if you plan on adding nitrogen at planting time, it's perfectly fine to spread sawdust.

 

[Destroked 450]

Biggest issue with spreading sawdust is it bridges up in narrow throat fertilize spreaders
Some manure spreaders can have a fine material pan added to keep the sawdust from simply dropping out the back of the spreader
Sawdust adds organic matter and carbon to the soil, in large amounts it will lower the ph levels in the soil, lime has more effect on ph levels than nitrogen
Having the soil tested will tell what is needed

We use sawdust in our poultry barns and spread the sawdust filled litter on our fields at a rate of 1-2 tons per acre, the spreader has a wide floor chain with fans to scatter the material

I worked at a local sawmill for some years, we had 45 ft walking floor semi trailers for delivering sawdust to stockyards, dairy, cattle and horse farms for bedding, plus a number of poultry farms including our own, but that sawdust was courser from a circle saw and not as dusty as band saw dust

Again the most important thing is to soil test to see what nutrients the soil needs or doesn’t need
Check with your local soil conservation office for information on soil testing

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Have you thought about putting an ad on craigslist or facebook to sell or give your sawdust away to people with cows or horses?
My friend used sawdust for his horses. The place he got his sawdust from just went out of business.
My dad used sawdust in our dairy barn.
Sawdust and animal poo make a great fertilizer.
Give a horse owner sawdust and he may give you back sawdust and poo.

 

[Texgasser1]

Have you thought about putting an ad on craigslist or facebook to sell or give your sawdust away to people with cows or horses?
My friend used sawdust for his horses. The place he got his sawdust from just went out of business.
My dad used sawdust in our dairy barn.
Sawdust and animal poo make a great fertilizer.
Give a horse owner sawdust and he may give you back sawdust and poo.

Yeah tried that too. All I asked was $5 a bad, cause that is what the bag cost me. I even offered to pay them the $5 if I could have my bag back.

 

[MKinON]

We used newspaper for bedding with the cows for decades. Also, used leaves from the cottonwoods in the yard as well. Soil was as productive as you'd find. Granted we'd add lime from the barn floor to reduce the acidity.

That's a totally different thing because it's loaded with the manure and amonia from the urine. Plain fresh sawdust will require a lot of nutrient to break it down, leaving little for your crop.

 

[MKinON]

My friend used hardwood sawdust for his horses.
Some claim sawdust removes nitrogen from the soil to get the wood to breakdown.
I use his sawdust mixed with horse poo in my garden. I mix the sawdust/poo with my soil 50/50 and
My CPA friend calls my mixture radioactive dirt. His garden grows like crazy.
I would use a loader to spread out the sawdust and use a tiller, disk or plow.
There is a good chance you may be adding termite food to the soil.
So, I would keep your sawdust away from buildings. View attachment 104371
I had a stump ground. About a month later the soil was crawling with termites.
It didn't take long and stump grindings were gone along with the termites.
I plant flowers in my radioactive mix and people ask what's my secret to growing flowers?

Sawdust loaded with manure is very different from pure sawdust. Horse manure is a lot hotter than cow manure, especially if it's fresh and will help breakdown the sawdust faster. Win win for you.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Sawdust loaded with manure is very different from pure sawdust. Horse manure is a lot hotter than cow manure, especially if it's fresh and will help breakdown the sawdust faster. Win win for you.

My friend has 3 horses and I wait for his poo pile to compost for a year before hauling it to my place.
He has a 55 HP YTM with a loader. He loads it and I haul it. I estimate each load weigh between 6-7000 #
My CPA gets a 50/50 blend of top soil and poo each year.
My son wants to make raised garden beds. He wants a load or two this spring.
My boss gets a load each year for her garden.

 

[Mcrafty1]

So I run a little sawmill, and have been collecting enormous amounts of sawdust, Daddy told me I ought to plow it under in the field help build up the soil.

What Would I spread it with? Manure spreader? also how thick would I spread it? Or should I spread it in rows?

Any input appreciated. Thanks.

If your sawdust comes off a circular saw it seems that some or one of the more than 1000 dairy farms in Texas would be happy to haul some or all of it off? Maybe even pay you for it. If band saw sawdust I don't know what a good use for that would be. Here in Maine the dairy farmers pay decent money for bedding sawdust off circular saws, and shavings. They actually spread the barn manure on their hay fields, it is heavy on the manure side.

 

[Texgasser1]

If your sawdust comes off a circular saw it seems that some or one of the more than 1000 dairy farms in Texas would be happy to haul some or all of it off? Maybe even pay you for it. If band saw sawdust I don't know what a good use for that would be. Here in Maine the dairy farmers pay decent money for bedding sawdust off circular saws, and shavings. They actually spread the barn manure on their hay fields, it is heavy on the manure side.

Like I said before. Here it is worthless. There are a least 10 mills within a 50 mile radius all bigger than me, where you can get tractor trailer loads of sawdust for free. They are all bandsaw mills, as well as mine.

How much do they pay per ton in Maine.

 

[Destroked 450]

Here in Ky we were getting $750 per 45 ft semi load for green circle saw dust from our circle sawmills, loads averaged 20-25 tons per load depending on the wood being sawed
That was for delivery’s within 30 miles, additional trucking charges beyond that

 

[Texgasser1]

Here in Ky we were getting $750 per 45 ft semi load for green circle saw dust from our circle sawmills, loads averaged 20-25 tons per load depending on the wood being sawed
That was for delivery’s within 30 miles, additional trucking charges beyond that

DANG, Wish I had a market like that.

 

[paul]

Lot use it for bedding here, for various critters. Pay for it.

Mixed with manure and piled for a year, it then makes great fertilizer for a field or garden.

As others say, raw fresh sawdust will use up a lot of nitrogen and make your soil fertility worse for a year or two, before everything comes back to balance and then would be helping your soil.

The organic matter is great, it’s just getting it composted or balanced with a high N source so it’s a positive, not a negative for the first year or two. Growing a N fixing crop would help, like soybeans or alfalfa or clover, but I think the N drag would hurt the crop still in the beginning.

For your question, I would use a manure spreader. There are several types, the typical old beater spreaders we think of. Would have to be sure the apron doesn’t ride up on the sawdust, not sure how it would act with the lighter fine dust materials. You might get a rather heavy application down the middle, and not very much spread to the wheel tracks.

There was the old tub with a shaft and chains hanging in the tub, spin the chains and they would fling the debris out. Wonder how they would do, but I don’t think any of this type have been built in decades.

Vertical beaters are the new in thing, do a very good job of distributing stuff, but very spendy.

There are the type with a few augers in it, and a fast spinning ejector in the front side that really fling the stuff out. Would think that style would work well.


A spinner fertilizer broadcast spreader would be interesting to try, but I assume there are enough bigger bits of bark and wood chips that it would cause problems, these things like really small uniform product to fling.

Paul

 

[Mcrafty1]

Like I said before. Here it is worthless. There are a least 10 mills within a 50 mile radius all bigger than me, where you can get tractor trailer loads of sawdust for free. They are all bandsaw mills, as well as mine.

How much do they pay per ton in Maine.

Not sure, but I'll try and find out....much of the sawdust and shavings in Maine are made into wood pellet fuel and the demand for that is increasing continually so it has a valuable use. Wood pellets here run in the $300.00 per ton range or at the time I purchased mine they did, likely more now since I bought mine last fall.

Update....I just looked to buy another ton of pellets to get me through winter, they now are $350.00 a ton!

 

[Mcrafty1]

Here in Ky we were getting $750 per 45 ft semi load for green circle saw dust from our circle sawmills, loads averaged 20-25 tons per load depending on the wood being sawed
That was for delivery’s within 30 miles, additional trucking charges beyond that

Sounds about right, I was thinking the Dairy farmer I watch on youtube was paying around $40.00 a ton but I'm not sure but I know it is pricey for what used to be waste.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

So I run a little sawmill, and have been collecting enormous amounts of sawdust, Daddy told me I ought to plow it under in the field help build up the soil.

What Would I spread it with? Manure spreader? also how thick would I spread it? Or should I spread it in rows?

Any input appreciated. Thanks.

I'd probably talk to someone at my state extension office in a state university. There's a reason they use wood shavings for mulch and it ISN"T to promote plant growth. gm

 

[Texgasser1]

Not sure, but I'll try and find out....much of the sawdust and shavings in Maine are made into wood pellet fuel and the demand for that is increasing continually so it has a valuable use. Wood pellets here run in the $300.00 per ton range or at the time I purchased mine they did, likely more now since I bought mine last fall.

Update....I just looked to buy another ton of pellets to get me through winter, they now are $350.00 a ton!

Dang, That was one thing I have been trying to figure out is if I can make wood burning pellets out of this sawdust.

 

[Mcrafty1]

I'd probably talk to someone at my state extension office in a state university. There's a reason they use wood shavings for mulch and it ISN"T to promote plant growth. gm

My wife puts bark mulch...which is nothing but tree skins on her flower gardens to prevent grass and weeds from growing. Works great too.

 

[Mcrafty1]

Dang, That was one thing I have been trying to figure out is if I can make wood burning pellets out of this sawdust.

There are small pellet presses sold, I've seen them advertised but I don't believe they are anything that you could get much production out off though...idk, They are more like for a home owner to use, maybe others can add more to that.

The commercial pellet manufactures have huge presses and there is a drying process that is involved that is usually done with LP gas, the commercial pellets are required to be dried down to a very low moisture level, that is to meet industry standards to achieve acceptable BTU output per pound.