Craigslist find

[lakeportfarms]

I have to hand it to Sheril, she can find some terrific things on Craigslist sometimes.  We picked this up a month ago about 1-1/2 hours away.  While we were moving some of the cows through a lane to their next pasture, I decided to stall them for a couple of days to evaluate how it worked as I was concerned it was a bit high for some of the smaller cows or yearlings and I want to shorten the legs prior to needing it.  I'm thinking it could be a few inches shorter, but was encouraged by the lack of hay on the ground around it.  About 25 Dexters have been feeding out of it and a 4x5 bale has taken 2 days to consume.   We paid $350.00 for it!

[Gorignak]

I see......a light, removable roof.. How deep can they get in ? Are you going to have to pull the center out when you add a bale. Couldn't buy the steel for that $$$. If it wasn't for the nice fit and finish on the barge part, I'd guess homemade. Is the whole barge/skid steel. Or, is there even a floor in it....looks like a grid would be fine.

Anyway...a verbal schematic would be nice...I would want to drag it and set it up if necessary.... Good design. At $60 a bale...GREAT design.....

[lakeportfarms]

At only a couple of days for each bale, a roof probably isn't going to matter much. With fewer cows eating from it I think it would be a nice addition. The bottom is formed from heavy gauge sheet with 45 degree angles at the sides and in the middle to channel the hay that falls into the solid bottom toward the outside where they can reach it. I put some oat hay in it (we got about 75 bales of it this year) and the seeds collect in the bottom on the solid metal so they can get at them. It's perfect for that or else many of the seeds would have fallen on the ground and been wasted. The oat hay is in the early dough stage, and the cows are loving it.

It was made by some local Amish from what I understand. I guess they use diesel generators for the welder?

[dexterfarm]

good find. the outer bars look like they are a little close together for horns. Any problems with that? I am working on a new desighn for this years hay feeder. Have not started building it yet. Last years cattle pannels worked good but I did have a few pannels get torn up. How far apart are the inner bars? I am guessing by the looks of it they could be a little closer maybe.

[lakeportfarms]

Most of our herd is dehorned. A few are horned but they have relatively small horns for Dexters. This feeder is in with the non-chondro bull, chondro open cows and all other cows that are confirmed bred. Our other horned girls are in with Mike in the other pasture. But Lady just turns her head sideways and she can get her head in there. The angled inner rods are around 6" apart.

I'm so happy with it that I'm starting to shop around for similar feeders. I'll probably get 2-3 more. I'm sure I'll have some sticker shock! Here are some that I've been looking at:

dillerag.com/8800-series.php

And for the Highlands, whose horns make it almost impossible to get into a non-tombstone feeder:

dillerag.com/HFS-8800H.php

Or maybe I can find the Amish guys and have them build a couple for me!

[ssrdex]

Wow, looks like a steal. I feed small bales, no experience with this type of feeder. Anyone ever seen injury with horned animals using a feeder like this? I've always envisioned a boss cow going around quickly surveying "her" feed and an unfortunate cow not getting her head out before getting a horn to the side. Probably not. Nice find Sheril!

[wvdexters]

Wow! My builders's mind is working too. I like the idea, design. It makes sense and looks like it could do the job. This is getting printed off to show Dad. The brains of the outfit!!

[wvdexters]

Alright. Dad's got the photo and we're thinking on it. He's going to a big farm machinery show/sale in Indiana next week. (visiting family) Maybe we'll get lucky. How'd you haul it? Could you use a pickup or would you need a trailer?

[lakeportfarms]

This particular feeder we hauled on a car trailer, about 7' wide x 16' long. I can just barely move it around with the front end loader and pallet forks on my John Deere 4320 compact tractor (about 45 hp) I don't think a smaller one would handle it. Of course if it's just coming off you could probably drag it off the back end of the trailer. Most of them seem to have skids for the feet so I would think that it could be towed around, though I'm not sure I'd want to do much of that for fear of stressing the joints where it's welded to the base.

[lakeportfarms]

I spoke to a local distributor regarding the feeder that I saw at a local fair a couple weeks ago that I liked a lot.

dillerag.com/8800-series.php

The regular feeder is $1600 and the covered one is $2500. The covered one appeals to me so I could possibly feed weaned calves the round bales and it would protect the hay better in the winter since they don't eat it as fast, but I'm not sure they're large enough to reach the hay very well, it may be too high. I'll have to look into it further. I'm not sure the covers would keep the snow off, though it would probably keep enough off to preserve the bale a while longer.