Bed-Down Shavings was one of the added-on-value products we were able to offer early in the past decade. We had timber from our Woodlot management program; we had horses that needed bedding, and the motto “waste not, want not” passed down from our grandparents…so we bought a small shaving mill, a 40′ sea container, and an unlimited number of bags (which we filled by hand).
Caledon is definitely horse-friendly, so we were able to find farms that wanted a regular supply. As we have found with most things homesteading, we took this side business as far as it could go without investing in bigger everything: a bigger mill, a kiln to dry the shavings in, an automatic bagger, a bigger truck to deliver, and more staff to meet the demand. It was a great business opportunity, but not one we wanted to pursue at the expense of the other elements which made up the farm for us.
