In severe drought, sawdust may be used as a cattle ‘feed’, especially when roughage becomes scarce, expensive, or both, but sawdust must always be considered a last choice of roughage.

Sawdust has no nutritive value at all. Its function is a mechanical one to allow the rumen (stomach) to work.

This Primefact provides information on:

• the use of sawdust in conjunction with a high grain diet;
• how to identify and remedy impaction;
• risks associated with cypress pine sawdust;
• use of sawdust as a diluter.