From Field to Stall: How Hemp Bedding is Made
Have you recently upgraded your animal bedding to hemp? If so, you know it absorbs more moisture and traps odor better than any other product on the market. But where does it come from? How does a 10-foot-tall green plant get broken down into small “shivs” perfect for spreading in your stalls or chicken coops?
High-quality hemp bedding isn’t as simple as taking a plant and running over it with a shredder. The fiber must go through a delicate decortication process, and farm owners must understand plant biology in order to harvest the most absorbent portions of the plant. Here at Dakota Hemp, we pride ourselves on being South Dakota grown from seed to sale. Let’s walk through how our world-class hemp bedding is made.
Step 1: Planting the Correct Variety
It all starts with the seed. Hemp grown for industrial extracts is cultivated differently depending on the end goal. Varieties used for bedding are bred specifically for high biomass and thicker stalk production. These hemp plants are planted densely so they grow straight up rather than out, producing the maximum amount of woody core possible. This woody core is also known as hemp hurd.
Step 2: Harvest and “Field Retting”
Once hemp plants have reached their full height, they are chopped down and left in the field for several weeks. This process is known as retting. During this time, morning dew and rain will soften the “pectins” that naturally glue the tough outer fibers to the inner “shivs.”
Correctly retted hemp drastically reduces the time and energy it takes to separate the absorbent hurd from the stringy fiber in the next step of hemp harvesting.
Step 3: Decortication (The Separation)
After hemp stalks have dried and gone through the field-retting process, it’s time to get them pulled apart. Hemp plants are fed into a machine known as a decorticator. This step is where the “magic” happens. A decorticator uses several steel rollers and beaters to:
- Strip away tough “bast” fibers that weave boat sails and make textiles.
- Crush the coveted inner woody core into small pieces of uniform size.
Step 4: Cleaning and Triple-Screening
Raw hemp hurd straight from the decorticator still has TONS of dust and fine particulates. At Dakota Hemp Animal Bedding, this is where our quality control truly shines.
We run our hurd through a series of screens that separate any remaining “dust” or “fines” that could damage your animal’s lungs. We also remove any long, stringy fibers that could cause the bedding to clump together when exposed to moisture. The result? A clean, consistent, absorbent product.
Step 5: Baling and Shipping
The final step of the process is compressing clean hurd into high-density bedding bales. The tighter we can compress the hemp, the easier it is to transport and store on your property. Don’t let a bulky hemp bale fool you, though; when you open up a bale of Dakota Hemp animal bedding, it expands 3-4x larger than traditional wood shavings.
Why Professional Processing Matters
You may have heard of “raw hemp mulch” being sold at local feed stores. While it may technically be hemp, true hemp animal bedding needs to be processed correctly in order to be safe for your animals.
- Better Absorbency: Only after professional decortication will the hurd be broken down to the perfect size—like our premium 1/4” hurd—to create more surface area for absorption.
- Safer Materials: If hemp hurd isn’t triple-screened, dust levels can rival those of traditional wood bedding. Our process creates a “breathable” stall that protects animal lungs.
- Consistency: Heavy machinery ensures there are no long strings of fiber in your hemp shavings. Stringy fibers can wrap around a chicken’s leg or a horse’s hoof, causing injury.
Does Processing Affect How It Composts?
YES. Because hemp hurd is broken down into small uniform pieces during the decortication process, there is more surface area for microbes to break down the material. This means hemp shavings compost FAR faster than wood chips, turning into a rich soil amendment for your pastures or gardens.
The Dakota Hemp Way
Here at Dakota Hemp, our farming philosophy is simple: everything we do is done for the well-being of your farm animals. From the moment the seed touches our South Dakota soil to the second we seal that beautiful hemp bedding bale, we are always thinking about quality.
Don’t just take our word for it—check out our animal bedding collection for yourself.