We have fed the large hay bales for years to help save money. We have always lost lots of hay to windy days, which made the guys' work more difficult as well as wasting money.
So, Todd came up with an awesome idea to build large bale hay feeders for each pasture using old, broken and discarded steel corral panels from our bone yard. It was a lot of work but they turned out incredible and the pasture horses love the new set up! Now we can add a big bale to each of the six feeders every five days. This saves so much time and work for everyone as well as extending our hay loads another month. Using the feeders we have figured out we will save almost 30 days of hay per load! That is a lot of money!
See the wind blown hay against the fence? This blew out of the pastures all the way up to the fenceline by the houses...
Todd welded old broken panels together...
Everyone pitched in on this big project...
Todd used old plastic from barrels, rubber mats and wood to line the bottom half of each feeder. This acts like a big feed bin to catch the hay as the horses eat and keeps it out of the wind...
The guys helped with each feeder...
Todd built a framework of panels...
Then each one was installed in the pastures. The legs were pushed into the ground to keep them from moving around...
The pasture horses love the idea!
The feeders are the new favorite hangout spots!
Once the pecking order was established, everyone settled down to eat...
See how the bottom part catches the loose hay? Genius!
A finished feeder before being installed.
Bringing it to Okay Corral.
The horses are very curious...
A big hay bale is dropped in...
This feeder is placed between Okay Corral and Big Pasture, allowing horses from both pastures to feed.
- Posted by Jill Curtis from the Ranch
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