3 in 1 feeders

[yorkshire8]

How are people getting on with their feeders?
Really impressed with how ours are working especially the time saved in feeding and not getting knocked over anymore when feeding.
The real test will be when the ewes start lambing fingers crossed all goes well

 

[Bury the Trash]

there seems to be a new model now bit smaller one.

im feeding whole barley and small blend pellets atm. half tempted to get an 800 to try. price gone up a bit since i last looked into it thou

 

[yorkshire8]

I'm feeding whole barley oats and protein pellets.

 

[exmoor dave]

there seems to be a new model now bit smaller one.

im feeding whole barley and small blend pellets atm. half tempted to get an 800 to try. price gone up a bit since i last looked into it thou

The new ones are abit more heavy duty, think there's also more use of stainless steel

 

[Bury the Trash]

sounds good.

 

[exmoor dave]

I'm feeding whole barley oats and protein pellets.

I'm up to 9 feeders now,
1 x 1800 & 8 x 800 models,

Really pleased with them


Bit of a learning curve to get the most from them and what ever is being fed, a % of whole grain is really needed to still be able to restrict intakes.
Mvf multi lamb creep pellets is the only cake I've had any success with feeding straight but even then it's on ad lib basically.


Currently got all feeders out,

Ewe hoggs have got 2x 800's with straight oats

April flock have 4 x 800 's with oats and just a tiny % of ewe cake mixed in to get them interested, will increase cake % as we get closer to lambing.

Feb born twin ewes have rest of feeders with 50/50 oats/ewe cake (high quality 20%)


I find the feeders work best if the white guards are used and placed so the bottom adjuster is set by the gauge on the white guard, then to keep the feed slot clean you just pop the guard off and it's a bit slot to run a stick along then replace guard.

Ewes on 800's *seem* to be feeding at the level I've set the feeders at (400g/day)

The 1800 was the first one I bought years ago, it's got a few kinks in it now and the guards had a "incident" so are gone, I've had this feeder set at 500g /day, put enough food in to last the ewes 10 days....... it was gone in 6 days (870g/day consumed), so that's the difference using the guards make,
Closed it back to 350g/day and refilled so will see if I can get the intakes down to where I want them.



Big change for us was that we haven't bought any feed blocks or crystalyx buckets for the sheep for the first time ever, for the price of a ton of crystalyx you can get a old style 800 feeder and the first ton of feed to go in it!


Fed a fair bit of oats/ protein pellet mix to lambs last autumn which worked well.

Thinking of trying oats & hi-pro soya instead of protein pellets, anyone got any experience of this?

 

[Bury the Trash]

can you not make new 'guards' for the 1800.


the conc blend pellets im using on some atm have got hypro soya as part.

 

[unlacedgecko]

I had 140 tupping ewe lambs on contract October - January. They came down with 2 feeders. They were set at 100g, with a mix of whole grain oats and barley. They we're wintered on haylage aftermaths.

Teasers were used. All ewes covered in 42 days. 95% conception with 141% scanning, including empties.

I don't know how much the feeders contributed to that, but I'm sure they had some positive effect.

I was very impressed with the feeders themselves. Easy to use and could be towed with a quad.

 

[exmoor dave]

can you not make new 'guards' for the 1800.


the conc blend pellets im using on some atm have got hypro soya as part.

I should buy some more guards really,

Still got the problem of the whole feeder being kinked......... after it slipped of the forks.......While full

 

[Bury the Trash]

I had 140 tupping ewe lambs on contract October - January. They came down with 2 feeders. They were set at 100g, with a mix of whole grain oats and barley. They we're wintered on haylage aftermaths.

Teasers were used. All ewes covered in 42 days. 95% conception with 141% scanning, including empties.

I don't know how much the feeders contributed to that, but I'm sure they had some positive effect.

I was very impressed with the feeders themselves. Easy to use and could be towed with a quad.

more important that ewe lambs (twins) get enough energy after settling in lamb so that they ..and babies grow..... whole grains is excellent energy source

 

[unlacedgecko]

more important that ewe lambs (twins) get enough energy after settling in lamb so that they ..and babies grow..... whole grains is excellent energy source

They were kept on the whole grain, with a protein pellet added after scanning. Due to lamb now.

 

[Chris123]

Looking at getting a few just a few questions for those that have them already.
Price wise is the price you see the price you pay or did you get them cheaper if ordering a few?
Is the build quality the same throughout the range are the 800's as strong as the 3800's?
Also do you find they feed what it is claimed (800 does 75-100ewes)

 

[Al R]

I'm interested in why are they so good and how can you restrict intakes on something that is ad-lib? How are they any better than a normal creep feeder?

 

[Bury the Trash]

I'm interested in why are they so good and how can you restrict intakes on something that is ad-lib? How are they any better than a normal creep feeder?

im feeding some ewes half a kilo in one feed atm,not ad lib ....

.... as in exmoordaves post above.400grams..per day not ad lib.... even at that amount in one feed i would rather they had it over longer period to keep the ph of rumen steadier


even not full on acidosis ...it can still give them the guts ache. and rush at the feed stressing
.....

 

[yellowbelly]

I'm interested in why are they so good and how can you restrict intakes on something that is ad-lib? How are they any better than a normal creep feeder?

Because they have to 'lick' the feed through a narrow slot (adjustable) they can only get it out if they have saliva. Once they've been there a bit the saliva dries up and they can't lick any more. They then go off grazing and can only return when their saliva has built up again.

We've got ewes with lambs on a 800 at the moment eating whole barley and protein pellets. All was well until hurricane Doris dumped all that fudging rain on us last week and made the ground conditions round the feeder like the Somme - a bunch of ewes to-ing and fro-ing soon paddles up round a narrow feeder. Had to take a round bale of wheat straw to make a bed for it to stand on.

 

[exmoor dave]

I'm interested in why are they so good and how can you restrict intakes on something that is ad-lib? How are they any better than a normal creep feeder?

I'd say they are better than a normal creep feeder because being a creep feeder is only of on the functions they can do, they are also a restrictive feeder.
So can be used to feed all over classes of stock besides creep lambs.

The other benefit is the range of feeds you can use through them.

 

[S J H]

I had 140 tupping ewe lambs on contract October - January. They came down with 2 feeders. They were set at 100g, with a mix of whole grain oats and barley. They we're wintered on haylage aftermaths.

Teasers were used. All ewes covered in 42 days. 95% conception with 141% scanning, including empties.

I don't know how much the feeders contributed to that, but I'm sure they had some positive effect.

I was very impressed with the feeders themselves. Easy to use and could be towed with a quad.

How many empties if you don't mind me asking @unlacedgecko

 

[exmoor dave]

Looking at getting a few just a few questions for those that have them already.
Price wise is the price you see the price you pay or did you get them cheaper if ordering a few?
Is the build quality the same throughout the range are the 800's as strong as the 3800's?
Also do you find they feed what it is claimed (800 does 75-100ewes)

In my opinion the 800's are the strongest.
As they are like a solid little cube.

We started with a 1800, but now I'd rather buy two 800's rather than one 1800.

I found the 1800 being 8ft wide is abit of a pain to move if gates are mostly 10ft you have to approach them straight on.
You have to lift the creep panels before picking up as you pick up from the side, if the ground is un level it's sometimes hard to line the forks up with the guides.
Needless to say my 1800 is fairly beaten up now.
Also being a exposed farm, the 1800 having 8ft of feed space each side is much less weather proof than the 800 which being 4ft doesn't let the wind driven rain in.
Both models are fine for heavy falling straight down rain.


800 doesn't have the above problems, you pick it up from one end, it's easy to tow with a quad or landy.
Two 800 are much more flexible than one 1800- you could feed one big mob or two small mobs with two 800s,
One 1800 only does one mob regardless of mob size

800 is much easier to assemble

800 being 4ft is much easier to set and change adjustments, just kneel in front and there's only 4 bolts to losen all in arms reach.

1800 has 6 bots to undo not in arms reach.

Only problem is if you have more than one feeder to move on a tractor you would need forks front and back or use a trailer.
I use forks on front and link box on back.

Or if using landy I just tow them with a strap.


Feeders seem to feed what is claimed, but as with all types of feeder the less animals per feeder will always be better.

 

[unlacedgecko]

How many empties if you don't mind me asking @unlacedgecko

7

 

[case 5140]

Has any one got a 500? different shape.
We are thinking of trying one flock with creep and getting them gone earlier.