Feed-Saving Covered Bale Feeder

Feed-Saving Covered Bale Feeder LIVESTOCK Feeding Equipment Chris Prewett Kingston Ga got tired of watching hay go to waste inside his bale feeder “Horses would eat out the center of the bale which eventually caused the bale to collapse and then when it rained the entire bale got wet from top to bottom and became moldy ” he says “So I came up with a portable covered bale feeder that keeps the bales dry yet is light enough to be pulled by a 4-wheeler ” he says The feeder is 6 ft wide by 10 ft long and has a sloping galvanized metal roof that measures 9 ft 8 in high at the peak The unit’s 28-in high sides consist of 1 by 6-in deck boards screwed onto steel uprights which are tach-welded to a pair of skids made from 4-in dia galvanized tubing A hinged gate on front of the feeder can be lowered to the ground allowing Prewett to roll bales by hand up the ramp and onto the floor “I’ve used it for two years without losing any hay to mold at all ” says Prewett “I don’t need a tractor to move the feeder around or even to load it I just roll the bale up the ramp or drop it out the back of my pickup bed The entire bale stays dry so my horses eat it all the way down to the floor I also use it to feed small square bales I stack 12 bales at a time in 2 layers cutting the strings off as I set each bale down ” Prewett made the floor by tach-welding lengths of wire panel onto a galvanized steel frame “I wanted to leave the floor open so that hay seeds will fall through onto the ground and grow after I move the feeder ” he says “To move the feeder I attach chains to metal loops welded onto the front end of both skids I cut the front end of the skids at an angle so they’ll slide over the ground without digging in ” The gate hinges on a length of 1-in sq tubing that runs inside a 1 1/4-in dia pipe “The design means I don’t have to worry about the hinge gumming up with mud and rusting or breaking like an ordinary hinge would ” says Prewett He says his total cost was close to $900 including time and labor “I already had the square tubing that I used for the frame the galvanized tubing for the skids and the wire panel for the floor ” he notes Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Chris Prewett Kingston Ga 30145 ph 678 409-3251; chris@protechmechanicalinc com

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