ATV Cattle Feeder

ATV Cattle Feeder ATV'S ATV'S 13-2-10 A home-built "ATV cattle feeder" lets Edward Peters, West Bend, Wis., easily load silage from underneath the silo chute inside his barn and feed it to heifers in a pasture 1/4 mile away. The feeder, built from sheet metal and channel iron, is 4 ft. high, 6 ft. long and only 38 in. wide, allowing it to fit through the barn and feedroom doors. Its 20-in. deep bottom section holds about 600 lbs. of silage. Bars above the feeder, made from 1 3/4-in. dia. pipe, are 2 1/2 ft. long and spaced 1 ft. apart. "We used a commercial 3-wheel, 24-ft. tractor-pulled feeder wagon as a model," says Peters, who built the feeder four years ago. "We had been using an old wooden 2-wheel trailer, but it wouldn't fit inside our barn door. We had to park it outside the feedroom and shovel silage out through the window. We can drive this feeder right through the barn door, unhook it, back it into the feedroom by hand and park it underneath the silo chute. There's no shoveling." The feeder is equipped with three snow-mobile trailer tires. The front tire, which swivels, can be locked into position by means of a spring-loaded pin to keep heifers from pushing the feeder around. The 3-ft. long hitch can be swung up out of the way against the cart and locked into place with the hitch pin and a bracket. Rounded fenders were built into the bottom of the feeder so the rear wheels are flush with the sides of the cart. Peters removed the cover from an old water tank and cut it in half, using each half as a fender. A 1/2-in. opening runs across the full width of the feeder to allow water to drain out. Total cost to build the feeder was about $200. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Edward Peters, 2933 Pleasant Valley Rd., West Bend, Wis. 53095 (ph 414 677-4200).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.