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Feed Manger Built From Feeder Panel
When we decided to keep a couple of bulls in our main corral for winter, we wanted a place to feed them where they wouldn’t waste a lot of hay. We had an old metal feeder panel that we could put across a corner and make a feed manger, but it didn’t have anything on the bottom to keep hay from coming out beneath the slots for cattle to reach through it. It was also bent and had some weak spots starting to rust along the main frame. We were afraid the bulls could break it if they pushed on it too hard, so we needed a way to reinforce it.
We set up the old panel in the corner next to our loading dock, which had poles we could secure it to, and improvised to make it into a sturdy feed manger. We had some old boards taken off a corral fence in our “salvage pile” of materials for future fix-it projects. We used a thick board that was long enough to put across the bottom of the feeder panel to keep the hay inside the manger corner, after we secured the panel to the corral fence.
To reinforce the frame, we secured a pole along the top of the “stanchion” area and another pole along the bottom, which were the pressure points where the bulls would be leaning into the feeder to reach the hay. The poles were strong enough to take the weight and help protect the old metal panel.
We needed to move the bulls into that corral quickly. At first, we simply tied the poles in place with baling twine. Then we came back and used long screws through the poles to secure them firmly to the fence.
Putting flakes of hay through the corral fence was easy. We also kept a few bales stacked there, outside the fence covered with a small tarp. Since it was hard for the bulls to reach back into the farthest corner, we placed an old tire there.
The feed manger has worked nicely. It keeps the hay in a clean place, rather than just throwing it over the fence and having it walked on, pooped on, and bedded on, and the bulls don’t pull out any hay and waste it. This is the second winter we’ve used it, and it seems durable enough to last a long time.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Heather Smith Thomas, Salmon, Idaho.


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2024 - Volume #48, Issue #2