See if this feeder holds up

rrlund

Well-known Member
I saw these advertised on CL. I called the guy. He said he's selling them way faster than he can make them,said it would be at least a week and a half before he'd have one made for me. It's all made out of well pipe. He said he made the first one for himself,kept redesigning it until he was happy with it,then the word got out and he can't keep up. We'll see I guess.
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I talked to the guy on the phone for quite a while. He said he dropped out of high school in the 10th grade and rodeoed for 20 years. Has done a little bit of this and that over the years. He said he went out one night in January in the dark with his log skidder to move it. He said it was froze down. He'd had a bad day and was in a rotten mood. He grabbed it with the grapple on the back that you use to lift the logs and it lifted the front wheels off the ground. He said he spun around and slammed in to it with the dozer blade,figuring it would just be a pile of twisted pipe. He said it popped right out of the ground without even a dent.

Gonna be interesting to see if my cows can do more damage than a log skidder.
 
The other day when you posted,I was surprised no one suggested a fixed,covered feeder set up.They are basically similar to a barn manger in that you have cows feeding from either side,and you load/set the bales in the middle and push them forward as you set them in.There is usually a roof over the hay,but not the cows.Your tractor never gets in the mud,as the cows can not go into either end and the side you load from is outside the pen.Both ends are gated so you can push all the way thru if needed,but you never have to drive in the pen with the cows.If I was younger,I'd build a couple for myself.Mark
 
What you describe is very common here , we call them fence line feeders. We built one at my brothers place about 20 years ago. Cows on one side ,you on the other. Keep the cow side scraped up till freeze up,and move the cows out in the spring to a calving field.
 
There aren't many around here,but I have seen a few here and there:most guys use rings though,myself included.I went to a demonstration farm this summer that U.K. used to sponsor,and they had a real neat set up.The feeder was separated with gates so it access from about 4 ways to separate cattle groups,and the tractor just backed out of the barn and turned and drove into the feeder.The bottom of the feeder had PVC pipe embedded in the concrete so the bales could slide forward easily.They also had a water collection system for the water fountains that worked well,using recycled stuff to make it.Mark
 
Simple in the finishing pens where they're on concrete,but where they're tearing them up is where the brood cows are out in the fields on dirt.
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I would have guessed it to be the other way around.In your pic,you could maybe have enough room to build a feeder as I described,but out in the field, while it could be done,you probably want to move them around a lot.I think I would have more feeders,maybe only set hay out every other day,and they would not push and shove so much?That is one advantage of the permanent feeder with the roof,the hay stays drier,you can load up when the weather is better,and they eat it better,and the don't try to lay in the hay because they can't.
I'd be nervous as heck trying to drive in and out of that pen,without cows escaping!How do you keep them in when feeding?Mark
 
The cows out in the field stay in OK. In the feedlot,I've got the gates hung so they close right behind me when I drive in. I carry an old fork handle on the tractor so when I back out,I reach back and open the gate with that,then it swings shut as soon as I'm out. If I have to keep going in and out with bedding,the wife stands there and opens and closes gates for me.
 

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