Poor mans feed bunk renos

Our feed bunk was 7 1/2' inside so we could clean it out with a tractor. The pushing and reaching they were doing was causing neck bumps and increased sore feet in our cows. We decided we'd like to narrow it in to 6' give a wider alley on both sides new smooth raised surface and new ifarm green flexible feed rails. The concrete quote was 10 thousand to remove and rebuild an 87' feed bunk they can eat from both sides. The new green flexible feed rail was an extra 15 thousand and a Lely Juno robotic feed pusher was an extra 25 thousand. So we scraped that idea and a year ago raised and put our existing feed rail in more and built a wooden trough so they can always reach their feed and reduce lameness and eliminate neck bumps. A dairy supplier suggested we put rough rubber strips down each side 2' wife to the tune of 5 thousand. So instead we cleaned out a vacant barns rubber mats for $600 to do the trick and it goes most of the way up the plywood. Gives a nice smooth surface raises the floor a bit creates a smooth swooping trough and if a cow gets flipped inside by another bully cow she can get footing to get up after she flips herself over (seen it happen). It cut out spoilage from 2-4 skid steer buckets/day ($5000/yr) to 2 a week (that I fork out 30 min/wk job) and instead of costing potentially $50 000 it only cost us $1600 and gives just as good of results.

Looks good!

Way to go, Mr. Philip! Looks good, should work well for a long time. It's a sign of using your noggin, not your credit card or checkbook for an 'easy' fix.

My neck got bumps and my feet were starting to slip on the floor looking at the pic. lol gobble

Lol sorry about that,I have to remember to hold the phone sideways to the left so it doesn't do that,don't notice it when looking on the phone but it goes sideways on the computer

That sounds like all the experts were overthinking the matter. Let common sense prevail.

Try again

Way to save money.

I have been feeding to cows in a H&S fed wagon for several years and they waste too much, was just thinking about a month ago to just use bale rings with the bottom panel. The feeder wagon doesn't have enough room for all of them any way, well not even half! LOL I can get 18 around a bale ring and I can easily move to clean in the yard, get several of them and that is my poor mans way of feeding the cows.

That works good too!

Looks good, Philip. One concern- were the mats clean??? You've got nice big Holsteins... I'd hate to see something like Johnes spread through them because of the recycled mats. Maybe i'm just being crazy. (I used another word, but the forum kicked it out!)

Is manger plastic available near you?

Thank you! I know what you mean,they haven't seen a cow in close to 20 years so should be good. Guys here are starting to use rubber here on feed bunks. They still provide a smooth surface won't pit from silage acid and are safe to walk on compared to Teflon.

Philip: If you want to make more of this type of thing with rubber. Look into used conveyor belting. It is economical and would not have the ends/edges to catch feed. I deal with two different companies. I bought 3 foot wide 3/8 thick for $1.5 a running foot. Even with freight it was not a bad deal.

That sounds really reasonable!

Also if you have a concrete plant or a quarry in the area they always have lots of used belting around they'll probably give away.