Bark mulch

[bull]

 Anyone else sell bark mulch..... or wood waste products
Composted wood waste etc..
Wood waste is more than 50% of my income and my bark mulch buisness is growing.

[Sawyerfortyish]

Yep shure do about a year ago I put a grinder in line with the mill so all my slabs, bark and even the sawdust that spills out of the blowers gets swept up and tossed in the vibrating conveyer. What a time saver vs running the slabs through a cornell slab saw. Now instead of selling a pickup load of slabs for 10 or 15 bucks I get a couple hundred for a dump truck load. Also I don't have people and there kids running around the slab pile and log piles. That eliminated a big liability. I also doubled my lumber production. Grinders are expensive but when you eliminate a big liability double production and get rid of all the waste wood not just some of the bigger pieces for firewood then the cost for the machine is more justifed.

[Jeff]

They fight over our bark. The guy buying our bark just paid to upgrade our ramp and all the approaches just so he could BUY our bark. We generate at just the mill I run, around 100-125 yards of shredded bark a day. Thats just bark.  Last I heard we were getting 7 bucks a yard and they pick it up.

[Ron Wenrich]

We sell solely through a wholesaler.  He buys it green, so we don't lose anything in the curing process and the price is about the same.

There are 2 types of mulch.  One is bark, the other has more wood in it.  Some markets are fussier than others.  We have guys who are hogging pallets for mulch and getting paid a tipping fee to boot.  Then, they add dye and get an even bigger profit without having to cure it.

Municipalites are starting to become a market force.  They are composting their green waste and selling it at a greatly reduced price or giving it away.  Its a good use for grass clippings, Christmas* trees and other stuff that doesn't need to go into the landfill.

[SwampDonkey]

I read on a Chipman brand of potato seed piece treatment that they use Douglas-Fir bark. The treatment is brown in color and talk about value added: $$100 per 12 kg bag.   The EPA lists it in their lists of inerts (as inert as dolomite) on their pesticides page.

List 4A: Minimal risk inert ingredients. The determination that a chemical is minimal risk would be based on a recognition of the overall safety of the chemical (such as very low toxicity or practically non-toxic) considering the widely available information on the chemical's known properties, and a history of safe use under reasonable circumstances. Minimal risk (List 4A) substances are recognized as safe for use in all pesticide products subject only to good agricultural practices or good manufacturing practices. Classification as a List 4A inert ingredient is critical to those products that are exempted from Federal regulation under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.

[bull]

My customers are anti Colored products, they want the real thing.

We have 100% bark products and blended products, the blended products allow for up 20% additional wood fiber.

All products are twice ground and screened to keep fiber size in check..... I sell wholesale direct to landscape contractors and also have wholesale and  retail pickup at the mill. We also deliver to residential customers.

I also compost all my sawdust and millyard clean up (bark,mud,etc).

[Frank_Pender]

I sell all of my sawdust from the Mobile Dimension mills for $10 a yard.  The material I chip through the Valby on my tractor is also $10 a yard.   The larger material I sell for firewood that I cut in my jig a 1/4 cord at a time;  or use myself for kiln fuel or home fuel.  If my supply of kindling that I bundle and sell is low I will bundle and not chip.  I get $5 a bundle which amounts to 1.5 cu.ft. each, 22 bundles per ric, 66 per cord, $330 a cord.