Friday, November 8, 2013
Worst bedding ever?
I once saw a post by a mill that asked "what's the worst bedding ever", meaning what's the hardest to get out of fiber. It seemed we all had our own "worst" in our mind.
As a mill owner I have seen it all, hay heads, straw bits, pine needles, sand, recycled cardboard, wood chips, and saw dust just to name a few. They all post their own challenge when it comes to getting them out of the fleece. However these are not the things I fret about as a mill owner, after all it is my job to remove them.
Now while it is true that "cleaner in = cleaner out" I know it is almost impossible to get all the vegi and betting material out when skirting and we do offer skirting as a service. We also have that customary "excessively dirty fiber will inquire a skirting fee" warning on our forms, but we rarely implement it. As said before it's our job to get the finer stuff out.
So what's the worst bedding ever???? Sand! Sand???? Yes sand. Here is a fact, the more crimp the better a fleece will hold on to dirt particles, even after tumbling, multiple washes and picking. This is why mills are dirty, nature of the work, we're always cleaning.
Sand tends to carry on through to the carder, not a lot, but enough that after doing a 50lb order we are changing pulleys, bearings, and bushings. So do I ask you not to bed on sand??? No. As farmers we use what's on hand, as business operators we use what's economical. The nature of you bedding is the nature of the area you come from.
What we ask is remove; the sticks, rocks, burr docks, pine cones, pennies, paper clips, poo, pad locks, or any nut/seed pod with spikes. Finding any of these things, And I've found them all in "skirted" fiber, will cause us to slow way down to insure none of these items gets into the machinery. All of the above will cause major damage, it will also get you that "skirting fee" I mentioned earlier.
Each have their own way of skirting, you get the big stuff out, we'll sweat the small stuff.
Happy Farming and Have a Great Day.