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Bulk Bin

3

3 M L & C

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 8, 2010
Messages
1,182
Location
Kansas
For those of you that use a lot of cake or pellets what type of bin do you use. I'm looking to get one and looking into pros and cons of them. Over head with gravity feed. small grain bin with cone bottom and a small auger any others? Do you need aireation for when it warms up and sweats to keep from getting moldy? Any suggestions or comments will be appreciated
 
I use a hopper bottom with an auger but an overhead looks pretty nice. I have never had mold but also live in a deep freeze. A bigger problem is if you are close to the plant like I am it can come to fresh and then cake up in the bin because it never had time to cool and dry down. One year I had to make an gas powered auger to bore it out from the top to get it to flow.
 
About all I can tell you, is if you buy a Welker bin, from this country, take your time hauling it home. I have hauled 3 of them, and they pull HARD. As to using a bulk bin for pellets, they told me that I needed to kinda use the pellets up according to what the weather was doing. No good way to prevent sweating.
 
I have a 30 ton bin from Bar 6 Manufacturing at Protection Ks. Couldn't be happier. I can order a full load in before I run out.

IMG_2410.jpg


I set the bin on guard rail, and added the braces, because I am paranoid about wind, but I think it was an overkill.[/img]

First, I tried a conveyer, like a corn elevator, lift from a hopper bottom, and it just tore the cake up. Way too many fines. Wished I'd just spent money once and done it right the first time. Bar 6 has smaller overhead bins also. My bin has a turbine on top, and cake will set in there over the summer just fine.
 
I don't have cake storage, but neighbor has a hopper RR car, up on concrete abutements.

When I did feed cake, what i had was a pull type fertilizer spreader, modified to just dump out the back in a row.

I didn't like it in a row, cattle tended to walk right down the row, so made a kinda open ended box that tripped about every 40'. About a heaping scoop shovel worth. You could hear it clang and count it, I eventually started using odometer--a 2/10 mile circle was right for one bunch of cows as i recall.

Cake plant was 25 miles away, cows were about 1/3 of the way there from my house---feeder never made it home till cows did, a fill was good for a couple weeks, plant had overhead storage, just pull a rope. Think i paid $800 for spreader.
 
Oh--one added touch---with snow on the ground, little drive wheel had to be "chained up"---a modified garden tractor tire chain--looked pretty cute, stayed on for duration
 
We do the poor man way either a tote bag or we put it in a small grain bin with a flat floor. The old grain bin has a spot on the door that will let the cakeout when its above the door. Either way its moved out with buckets. Keeps you in shape and warm on those cold wintery days.
 
LazyWP said:
About all I can tell you, is if you buy a Welker bin, from this country, take your time hauling it home. I have hauled 3 of them, and they pull HARD.
Click to expand...

I'll second that! I bought a 28 ton model a couple of years ago near Dunning and pulled it home. It's not so much the weight, but the 15' that it's up in the air. It barely fit under the railroad overpass on Hwy. 2. To be legal you need a permit from the Dept. of Roads.

2ufxbux.jpg
 
ranch77rocket said:
LazyWP said:
About all I can tell you, is if you buy a Welker bin, from this country, take your time hauling it home. I have hauled 3 of them, and they pull HARD.
Click to expand...

I'll second that! I bought a 28 ton model a couple of years ago near Dunning and pulled it home. It's not so much the weight, but the 15' that it's up in the air. It barely fit under the railroad overpass on Hwy. 2. To be legal you need a permit from the Dept. of Roads.

2ufxbux.jpg
Click to expand...

Who did you get it from. I graduated from highschool in Dunning.
 
I don't know how 77 rocket raised his, but I hauled mine home the same slow way. We slid it off the back until the legs touched the ground, then chained the bottom legs to the trailer. We then tied a chain as high as reasonable to the top legs (about were the brace is below the bin), and pulled it up with the bucket as high as I could on the loader tractor. Pretty simple actually.
 
3 M L & C said:
For those of you that use a lot of cake or pellets what type of bin do you use. I'm looking to get one and looking into pros and cons of them. Over head with gravity feed. small grain bin with cone bottom and a small auger any others? Do you need aireation for when it warms up and sweats to keep from getting moldy? Any suggestions or comments will be appreciated
Click to expand...

Your local LOOMIX dealer can supplement your cows a LOT easier and cheaper than you having all the work & expense of a bulk bin, augers, etc, and then a feeder on your pickup. All that stuff wears out and will need replacing on down the road.

FWIW
 
loomixguy said:
3 M L & C said:
For those of you that use a lot of cake or pellets what type of bin do you use. I'm looking to get one and looking into pros and cons of them. Over head with gravity feed. small grain bin with cone bottom and a small auger any others? Do you need aireation for when it warms up and sweats to keep from getting moldy? Any suggestions or comments will be appreciated
Click to expand...

Your local LOOMIX dealer can supplement your cows a LOT easier and cheaper than you having all the work & expense of a bulk bin, augers, etc, and then a feeder on your pickup. All that stuff wears out and will need replacing on down the road.

FWIW
Click to expand...

I believe using cake or pellets makes it a lot easier to handle the cattle. It's way easier to get them to follow you with the rattle of a bucket than trying to chase them. So the price of that has to be figured in there as well. Also when feeding this way I know their getting the protein they need not to much or not enough.
 
No argument on the cubes making the cattle easier to handle, but, a cube or pellet that is 20% protein or 30% protein is basically a one size fits all strategy. The boss cows will get more than their share and the timid cows will get less...the protein content doesn't matter, they will eat it whether or no because there is competition for the cubes. Cattle will tell an experienced dealer what their protein requirements pretty much are by the percentage of the bitter in the trough to hold them at the desired consumption per head per day. No competition at the trough, either. They come and partake as they please on their schedule.

Just sayin'.
 
Setting them up is easy. My trailer is a tilt deck, with a 12000 pound electric winch. Titled the trailer so the legs could be chained to the "anchor points", pulled the trailer forward, until the bottom leg was on the ground. Tied a tractor to the top leg, and my winch line to the top of the bin, so it wouldn't go "on over", and the tractor pulled it up.
On one of the bins, I couldn't get into where they wanted the bin. On that one, we anchored the bottom leg to the trailer, stood it up, then drug the bin into place with a tractor.
They aren't near a scary as they as they look. Just take your time, and use common sense. Don't try to stand one up with a M Farmall either. Don't ask
 
loomixguy said:
No argument on the cubes making the cattle easier to handle, but, a cube or pellet that is 20% protein or 30% protein is basically a one size fits all strategy. The boss cows will get more than their share and the timid cows will get less...the protein content doesn't matter, they will eat it whether or no because there is competition for the cubes. Cattle will tell an experienced dealer what their protein requirements pretty much are by the percentage of the bitter in the trough to hold them at the desired consumption per head per day. No competition at the trough, either. They come and partake as they please on their schedule.

Just sayin'.
Click to expand...

Are you telling me there is no way that some cows eat to much loomix and others not enough. I find that hard to believe. you might get the right average but they all have their own taste as to what they think is good. Some will eat weeds and some won't. Also when out on stalks mine always come in to drink together so compitition isn't as bad as cake but still is there. I think it is a good product I'm good friends with the local dealer, just don't think it's the answer for all problems that you do.
 
My brother and I set up a Welker bin about the same way as Lazy WP mentioned. We were told it was quite simple, still we had our anticipation. That was 25 years ago so I don't remember all to well. We were only 13 miles from where they were built. I believe we brought it home with the stack mover. We had made two concrete pads to set it on and to chain it in place.
Really wasn't much to getting it set up. Chained legs down on one side tilted stack mover up. may have lifted and blocked the bin a little higher tieed a chain or cable partly up on the bin, a tractor to pull it up another so it wouldn't go on over. Wondered how it would make that first lift but there was nothing to it.

WE were feeding a medicated weaning feed along with hay to our calves and then supplement feed to the calves and the cows the rest of the winter. We had one of the divided bins could put a full semi load in it at a time. Things were cheaper then. Nearly paid for the bin in one year by getting feed in the bulk.
 

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