One of Jason Hellickson's jobs is to spread bedding in the loose housing barn for his family's 50-cow dairy herd.

The 16-year-old son of Dave and Sandy Hellickson, Brooten, Minn., has had this job for a few years now. "Spreading straw from bales with a fork took a lot of time," he says.

So, he built a bedding chopper that gets the job done faster and easier, and reduces the amount of bedding used.

Jason got the idea for the bedding chopper when he found the straw chopper from his grandfather's Deere 42 pull-type combine. It was in the woods near the farmstead. "He used the combine mostly for corn so he took off the chopper and left it," Jason says.

The chopper had been used only a few times, but after more than 20 years in the woods it was in poor condition. He took it to the farm shop, cleaned it up and freed the hammers and shafts. Then he built a frame from angle iron on which to mount it along with a 5 hp Briggs & Stratton engine with a centrifugal clutch on it. He took the engine from his go-cart. He put a couple of wheelbarrow wheels and tires on one end of the frame so he can roll it around the barn. A V-belt from the clutch turns the chopper.

Once he got it all together, he painted it silver.

The chopper is about 2 ft. wide, which is big enough to accept a small square bale endways. He usually feeds in about a half bale at a time. By adjusting the fins on the chopper, he can aim the chopped bedding into the stalls so very little is wasted.

Jason says he might be a little more careful about welding the chopper onto the frame if he were doing it over. The old straw chopper still has the original knives and after two years of use, they get dulled. He's thought about replacing them. "The way I welded the frame on it, though, it's going to be difficult to replace them. So far, I've been able to sharpen them and get by," he says.