Re: Feeding round bales

Posted by redforlife on January 21, 2023 at 09:15:53 from (174.213.210.214):

In Reply to: Feeding round bales posted by indianabuckman on January 20, 2023 at 14:40:23:

I don't think there is a right or wrong way. But each way is a little different. And people might have thier own preference.

Flat side down allows livestock to get the hay a little easier. But there is ussually always a bad side on the round part. The part that was on the ground when stored. This bad side will be up if the flat side of the bale is down. Cows really won't eat from that side of the feeder if that bad part is very bad at all. In this case, the cattle will really only eat from 3 side of the feeder, leaving one side untouched until it falls over. Then they might nose through it a little. This side would already be down if fed the other way.

Feeding round side down, the cattle can eat from all sides of the bale. Although, on the flat end sides, it is harder for the cattle to pull hay out from the ends of the bale. This leaves all sides that they (can) eat from, but leaves a couple sides that are not quite as easy to eat from.

Never moving feeder, and just dumping bales in the top repeatedly, builds up trash in the bottom of the feeder. Trash that they aren't going to eat. Do this long enough, and you will have a half full feeder of trash that you are putting your bales on top of. This is not a good scenario. If you get a foot or two of trash in the bottom of your feeder, it's time to move it, or clean out that trash. Don't just keep putting bales on top. Or you will eventually just end up with a whole feeder full of trash.

Some of these cone shaped feeders such as hay savers and others, are designed to feed hay flat side down. If you have one of these such feeders, feeding round part down is not going to work very well.

Some feeders are to heavy to handle by hand. If you have heavy feeders that you move with your loader, be carefull how you do it. A poor loader operator or a careless person, will have a new feeder all bent to he?? in no time.

What ever you do, don't use feeders that have some of the bars knocked out, or don't have uniform neck holes. Especially if you have all sizes of livestock. Because if you do, you will sooner or later find the right sized calf trapped in one. Go in a big hole, and only make it half way out of a small hole.

I feed all my hay round side down. But I am using the old style three section feeders. Might feed differently if I had different feeders.

One more thing. What ever you do, cut and remove all string and net wrap. If you don't, you will ussually end up killing something in various ways if you don't. Get legs tangled up in it, and fight it untill death. Or eat a big ball of it and won't digest it.

Replies:

Add a Reply! You must be Logged In to Post Name: E-Mail: Subject: (avoid special characters) Comments: Optional Link URL: Link Title: Optional Image URL: Optional Video Title: Optional Video Embed: Advanced Posting Options Email Notification: If you check this box, email will be sent to you whenever someone replies to this message. Your email address must be entered above to receive notification. This notification will be cancelled automatically after 2 weeks. No political comments, hate speech or bigotry of any kind will be tolerated. Violations will be removed and posting privileges may be permanently revoked without notice.   Advanced Posting Tools   Select Gallery Photo  Attach Serial No List  Return to Post  Upload Photos/Videos Choose Files from your local computer Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo and video filesizes should be less than 5MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.

TRACTOR PARTS	TRACTOR MANUALS

We sell tractor parts!  We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]