Big Feeder Saves Time & Hay

Big Feeder Saves Time & Hay LIVESTOCK Feeding Equipment 33-4-20 Eric Blanford saves hay and time with the feeder he built for his Black Angus cattle. He came up with the design when he built a 40 by 80-ft. building for his 30 cows, which includes a manure storage area in the back. "I had an easy dump trailer that dumps hay off the side and wanted to come up with a design to put hay in a manger. I drew up my own plans," the Slaughters, Ky., farmer explains. He didn't want the hassle of moving bale rings around when he needed to scrape manure. Instead he built a 30-ft. long 6 1/2-ft. wide bunk down the center of the building that allows him to fill it with bales from the open side of the shed. "There's very little hay waste because it's all self-contained," Blanford says. He and his brother used 2-in and 1 1/4-in. square tubing and MIG welded the side sections of the feeders in place. Instead of permanently bolting the feeder to the floor, he anchored it into 6-in. PVC sleeves that he set into the floor. He welded the side walls to horizontal 2-in. tubing every 8 ft. with vertical legs for support in the middle. Finally, he welded two old 30-ft. oil pipes on top, 18-in. off the floor. The feeder holds six 1,000 to 1,200-lb. bales. Blanford simply drives up to the feeder and pushes them in, one at a time. He removes the twine after he sets the bales on the rack. The width allows cattle to reach all the hay. "The advantage is the cows can even reach the hay that falls on the concrete floor," explains Blanford, who also works full-time as a coal mine engineer. He also saves time by not having to run the cows out of the barn to bring in hay. He appreciates the feeder most, however, when it comes time to clean. "I can scrape manure off the floor and I don't have to move rings around," he says. "I just make a couple of bucket runs on both sides and the barn is clean." Blanford added a horizontal pipe at the back end of the feeder large enough to slip in an axle from an old mobile home that Blanford split in two. If he ever needs to move the feeder he can jack up the back, slip in the axles, bolt them in place and pull the whole thing out with a tractor. Blanford has used his feeder since 2005, without any problems. He recommends using sturdy materials. He spent about $1,000 on the 3/16-in. wall tubing and other materials he used. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Eric Blanford, 2558 State Route #1835, Slaughters, Ky. 42456 (ph 270 884-3441; eric.blanford@arlp.com).

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