Slick Way To Feed Grain To Cattle

Slick Way To Feed Grain To Cattle LIVESTOCK Miscellaneous 22-4-9 "I needed a faster, more convenient way to deliver chopped oats and grain to my cattle," says Dwight Flaman about the powered hop-per he built that mounts on his tractor's 3-pt. He calls it "The Thing". The Moosomin, Sask. farmer's 4-ft. long by 32-in. wide by 4-ft. high hopper was fashioned out of sheet steel. A 5 in. dia. drill fill auger, which Flaman cut down to 8 ft. long, mounts lengthwise underneath the hopper. A slot was cut in the top of the tube to let grain gravity feed into the auger, which is operated by the original orbit motor and hydraulics. The hopper holds 40 bushels and mounts on feet made of 3-in. sq. tubing. Flaman simply picks the hopper up with 3-pt. mounted forks. He controls the flow of grain with a hydraulic valve on his Deere tractor, typically augering out 1 1/4 gal. of grain per cow into 30-ft. troughs. "It's a lot quicker and easier than hauling 5-gal. pails in the back of my pickup," says Flaman, who carries a 5 by 6-ft. round bale on front of the tractor at the same time. He recently added a lid to the hopper to keep out rocks during transport and rain and snow when the weather's bad. Out-of-pocket expense was less than $500 (Canadian). Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dwight Flaman, Box 942, Moosomin, Sask., Canada S0G 3N0 (ph 306 435-3612).

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