Uses for Wood Chips: Livestock Bedding Materials
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Make your own livestock bedding materials from wood chips. Many uses for wood chips include recycling them into your garden beds and containers.
by Jenny Underwood
Carbon sequestration is a concept I learned a few years ago. Honestly, up until then, it didn’t sound like anything that would impact me or my life. But after reading about it and how it pertains to animal husbandry, I was intrigued. This could be the answer to the unpleasant smells of a chicken coop or pen, barns, or any place animals are fed. In a nutshell, this is the process of binding a carbon source such as wood chips, straw, or leaves with animal waste to prevent runoff and pollution and also preserve the nutrients and natural fertilizer in the manure. Anyone knows that commercial chicken houses stink, but does your chicken house have to? The answer is a resounding no! And one fantastic way to do this is by using a wood chipper.
First of all, you do need to choose the right size for your projects. I currently raise chickens for eggs so my needs are much smaller than someone with beef or dairy cows or any large animals. My chipper would be quite capable of handling one or two large animals if I spent a few hours each month processing my material.
Making Livestock Bedding Material
What material is suitable for your animals will depend on your location, resources, budget, and time. Once you have the wood chipper purchased, it’s relatively easy to make use of free or cheap resources like leaves, branches from trimmings, or pine straw. However, if you need a larger amount of bedding material, you’ll need access to a woodlot, a tree-trimming service (for their waste), or you’ll have to purchase straw or hay to run through the chipper.
One simple way to make use of all your timber products is to take the leftover tops from trees you cut for firewood and shred them. If you have a smaller chipper, you’ll need to first process the branches into smaller, manageable pieces, but with a large wood chipper, you can toss in whole, big branches.
Either green or dry wood can be used, but they have different places. Dry wood is best in a chicken coop, for example, where you don’t want damp bedding. Green wood holds more moisture and is better-suited to outdoor runs and paddocks. Note that as materials age, they’ll hold the animal waste much more efficiently.
To be as efficient on your homestead as possible, it’s a good idea to set aside a day every few weeks and chip up a large amount of your chosen materials. Gather the raw materials ahead of time, make sure you follow all safety measures, and get to work! When you’re done, you can either place the shredded bedding indoors (important for less sturdy things like leaves or straw) or outdoors (wood chips do fine like this). However, it’s always a good idea to keep the materials out of the rain so that when it’s time to use them, they aren’t already saturated with water.
When it’s time to use your shredded or chipped bedding, put down a good thick layer where your animals will be. Wood chips can be several inches thick, while straw or leaves may need to be close to a foot thick. The wood chips are much more durable and will last significantly longer than other lighter things like straw and leaves. However, they also take longer to break down to use in a garden. As your animals spend time in the bedding, notice if there’s a smell. If there is, you’ll want to practice the deep litter method by adding more carbon (shredded bedding) to absorb the manure and urine. As the animals add manure and urine to the bedding, the wood chips, straw, or leaves grab onto the waste and help prevent bad smells, flies, and mucky walking areas. This makes for healthier animals, much cleaner chores, and a nose that doesn’t mind the animal areas!
The reason you need to shred the materials before putting them in as bedding is because when you decrease the size of the item, you partially break it down thereby making it more absorbent. So, while tossing whole trees or branches in with your animals would do nothing to lock in the animal waste, the small chopped-up pieces work perfectly. When you do finally notice a smell, just add more bedding. It’s only necessary to clean out once or twice a year with this method (though that can be dependent on the number or size of animals). If you have hogs or chickens, you can take the bedding from cows or goats and give it to the hogs and chickens to turn and eat insects from. They’ll turn it into amazing compost given a little time!
Recycle Used Woodchips for Gardens
This is the ultimate in recycling because after it has absorbed all it can, you can simply allow it to age and then apply it to pastures or gardens. You’re taking what is often a waste material and building soil, preventing pollution, and making a better homestead.
Editor’s note: When aging used bedding, it’s best to age for 90 days if the compost doesn’t touch the part of the plant you eat (tomatoes) or 120 days if it does (leafy greens).
Jenny Underwood is a homeschooling mama to four lively blessings. She makes her home in the rural foothills of the Ozark Mountains with her husband of 20 years. You can find her reading a good book, drinking coffee, and gardening on their little fifth-generation homestead. Keep up on her blog here.
Originally published in the November/December 2024 issue of Countryside and Small Stock Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.
