Carnivorous
New Member
This is a strange inquiry for this forum but I’ve been reading and researching everywhere and think this is the place to ask.
I run a large carnivore rescue/rehab facility. Lions, wolves, tigers, bears and other big carnivores go through A LOT of meat. A large portion of their diet is road-killed deer and elk that get hauled to me. I then put them in a walk-in freezer, and quarter them out with a chainsaw to feed the critters. The predators need everything; bones, hide, meat, guts, etc., for the vitamins and minerals. So they’re fed the whole thing, guts, feathers and all.
Therein lies the problem, whole animals in a walk-in freezer waste a lot of airspace, and those freezers are very expensive to run.
After much discussion with staff, there’s a consensus that we could save money if we could “process” the animals into containers. This would reduce the wasted airspace in each freezer (about 40% currently) to more like 10-15%.
So, here’s the idea: (stop reading if you have a weak stomach)
We freeze the road kill whole in the freezer so it’s rock hard, then remove, run through a large wood chipper or recycler, modify the discharge chute (if necessary) to throw the contents into a dump trailer (which we have) so the “chippings” can then be shoveled into 30 gallon garbage cans (the biggest size that 2 men can comfortably handle when filled with animal offal). The filled garbage cans then go back in the freezer until they’re needed.
Stacking those filled garbage cans like cordwood (which we currently do with butcher scraps) is a very efficient utilization of space in the freezer, maximizing cost effectiveness of the freezer.
From those who have a lot of experience with big wood chippers/recyclers, do you think we’ve schemed up a viable option or will this application not work for some reason?
I’ve searched several manufacturers’ wood chippers and recyclers, and looked on MachineryTrader. I don’t know what I need? And was hoping the members of this forum could provide me with some guidance.
My concern is that the biggest intake on many big chippers I see is usually 12”. How much struggle and hassle will feeding a road-kill sized animal into that be? If at all? While we could chainsaw the whole frozen carcasses into smaller pieces, then put those in the chipper, I was hoping to avoid that step if possible because of the additional labor and hassle associated with doing that.
I know this application isn’t standard for wood chippers or recyclers, but I think there’s more than enough experience here to give me some guidance.
Since the walk-in freezers are very expensive to run, and changing them from their current 60% filled (wasted airspace) to 90%+ capacity (garbage cans stacked neatly wall-to-wall) will decrease their monthly operating expense, I would be willing to spend ~$10,000 or so for the right unit (used model I’m assuming) due to the long-term savings it will provide. If I need to pay more to fulfill my requirements, please let me know what make/model I should look at.
So, review of my basic requirements:
- Be able to reduce a road-kill sized deer/elk into smallish pieces (a uniform “mulch” is not a requirement)
- Be able to modify the chute for easy disassembly so it can be power-washed after each use during the warm months
- Ease of maintenance (parts availability, etc)
Sorry for the long first post. Hopefully there are some here who can provide some guidance. Thank you.
I run a large carnivore rescue/rehab facility. Lions, wolves, tigers, bears and other big carnivores go through A LOT of meat. A large portion of their diet is road-killed deer and elk that get hauled to me. I then put them in a walk-in freezer, and quarter them out with a chainsaw to feed the critters. The predators need everything; bones, hide, meat, guts, etc., for the vitamins and minerals. So they’re fed the whole thing, guts, feathers and all.
Therein lies the problem, whole animals in a walk-in freezer waste a lot of airspace, and those freezers are very expensive to run.
After much discussion with staff, there’s a consensus that we could save money if we could “process” the animals into containers. This would reduce the wasted airspace in each freezer (about 40% currently) to more like 10-15%.
So, here’s the idea: (stop reading if you have a weak stomach)
We freeze the road kill whole in the freezer so it’s rock hard, then remove, run through a large wood chipper or recycler, modify the discharge chute (if necessary) to throw the contents into a dump trailer (which we have) so the “chippings” can then be shoveled into 30 gallon garbage cans (the biggest size that 2 men can comfortably handle when filled with animal offal). The filled garbage cans then go back in the freezer until they’re needed.
Stacking those filled garbage cans like cordwood (which we currently do with butcher scraps) is a very efficient utilization of space in the freezer, maximizing cost effectiveness of the freezer.
From those who have a lot of experience with big wood chippers/recyclers, do you think we’ve schemed up a viable option or will this application not work for some reason?
I’ve searched several manufacturers’ wood chippers and recyclers, and looked on MachineryTrader. I don’t know what I need? And was hoping the members of this forum could provide me with some guidance.
My concern is that the biggest intake on many big chippers I see is usually 12”. How much struggle and hassle will feeding a road-kill sized animal into that be? If at all? While we could chainsaw the whole frozen carcasses into smaller pieces, then put those in the chipper, I was hoping to avoid that step if possible because of the additional labor and hassle associated with doing that.
I know this application isn’t standard for wood chippers or recyclers, but I think there’s more than enough experience here to give me some guidance.
Since the walk-in freezers are very expensive to run, and changing them from their current 60% filled (wasted airspace) to 90%+ capacity (garbage cans stacked neatly wall-to-wall) will decrease their monthly operating expense, I would be willing to spend ~$10,000 or so for the right unit (used model I’m assuming) due to the long-term savings it will provide. If I need to pay more to fulfill my requirements, please let me know what make/model I should look at.
So, review of my basic requirements:
- Be able to reduce a road-kill sized deer/elk into smallish pieces (a uniform “mulch” is not a requirement)
- Be able to modify the chute for easy disassembly so it can be power-washed after each use during the warm months
- Ease of maintenance (parts availability, etc)
Sorry for the long first post. Hopefully there are some here who can provide some guidance. Thank you.
