Horseless
Well-known member
Just finished building a bale feeder. Have made them before with belting around the bottom, but to much work and hard to get, so I'll try this. Have had some tell me I need legs on them? Undecided on that.
Bale Feeder pic
- Thread starter Horseless
- Start date
JF Ranch
Well-known member
'Looks like it ought to work fine, except it will rub the mane off your horses.
Northern Rancher
Well-known member
Sheet it in or you'll break some legs in those bottom rings. It's amazing how a calf can weave their leg into them.
Horseless
Well-known member
Horseless 
:wink:
HL
:wink: HL
tlakota
Well-known member
the bale feeder im making i put sucker rod on that bottom layer just goin vertical and space it about 5-6 inches apart...it keeps the in there very good and have no problems with feet...and also is a lot cheaper than sheet metal
Horseless
Well-known member
Good idea, I had not really concerned myself with an animal getting a leg caught. Might have to reconsider design again. Thanks.
cowsense
Well-known member
The feeder looks good; I'd put feet on it as it is a lot easier to break loose in winter to move. I'm with NR on skirting; bale feeders are a handy suicide device for some calves!
the_jersey_lilly_2000
Well-known member
cowsense said:
LOL so are Toyota Truck bumpers. :shock:
The only thing I see is...and this is just my opinion, cuz I don't know how big the bales are you'll be feedin, and I don't know the measurements of your feeder, but at the top where the bars curve inward, will that keep it from setting down over a round bale? Ours are all the same size from top to bottom. 5x5 bales are easy to slip the ring over......6x5's are a tight squeeze gettin the ring down over the bale.
Jason
Well-known member
the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
Lilly, farther North it is very rare to find anyone that slips the ring over the bale. I know that is common in the South, some folks don't have equipment that will lift the bales.
We drop bales in from the top, the design pictured here is big enough to circle a bale and the flare is designed to catch dropped hay and keep it from getting soiled.
New variations on hay savers are being built all the time, I saw one called the x box. They weld drill stem on a center support from both sides so viewed from the end it forms an x. The bales sit high and the cows eat from the underside, there is a catch box for the leaves etc that they pull down.
the_jersey_lilly_2000
Well-known member
don't know if you'd call it an X box....but our daughter built a hay saver feeder for her Ag Project in FFA last year, which she sold at the Fair. I'm gonna try n locate the picture for ya. The fella that bought it brags on how well it works everytime we see him.
MN Farm Girl
Well-known member
On our bale feeder, we took one about like Horseless's only on ours the bars don't curve in. But Dad took sheat metal and welded it on the bottom so the cows don't waste it by pulling it though the bottom skirt. The cows don't waste as much now. Works slick.
the_jersey_lilly_2000
Well-known member
Yer head aint THAT big Judith 
Sides that....if'n ya did git it stuck in somethin like that....we could always tie a rope on ya and just pull ya on thru the other side.......might sound like pullin yer thumb outta a coke bottle but.......I'm sure it can't be no worse than the noise a person would make pullin their head from between a banister. :wink:
Sides that....if'n ya did git it stuck in somethin like that....we could always tie a rope on ya and just pull ya on thru the other side.......might sound like pullin yer thumb outta a coke bottle but.......I'm sure it can't be no worse than the noise a person would make pullin their head from between a banister. :wink:Leader area
Member
We have built a few bale feeders out of logs they seem to work preatty good. We just notch the logs and stack them ontop of each other. the only problem is they are hard to move.
Shorthornguy
Well-known member
Now we just bale graze. When we had dairy steers we built a round ring on the top so we could move them with a bale spear on the loader.
Seemed like dropping them in from the top was always problems and extra work with net wrap.
Seemed like dropping them in from the top was always problems and extra work with net wrap.