No Cost Dairy Bedding

No Cost Dairy Bedding DAIRY EQUIPMENT & IDEAS Dairy Equipment & Ideas 17-4-3 If you've ever considered switching to chopped newspaper for livestock bedding, you've probably asked one crucial question: How can you get enough newspaper to make it work? Some farmers pick up newspapers at local recycling centers. Others place ads in local papers and stage their own "recycling day" by parking a trailer in a downtown parking lot. The problem is that even if you don't have to pay for the paper, it's really not "free" since it takes a lot of time and labor to get enough paper to provide daily bed-ding. Wisconsin farmer Scott Miller, Beaver Dam, Wis., found a solution to the problem with a simple idea that provides him with a nearly unlimited supply of old newspaper. Miller simply parks an old combine bin at the end of his driveway and puts a sign on it: "Wanted - Old Newspapers" that can be seen by passersby moving in either direction on the highway that runs by his farm. People drop off papers day and night. In fact, he gets so much newspaper, Miller often has to empty the bin twice a day. He loads the paper by hand into a front-end loader bucket to haul back to the barn. He chops the paper with a Wic square bale chopper and blows it directly into his free-stall barn. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Scott Miller, RR, Beaver Dam, Wis. (ph 414 885-3179).

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