This works great for horses and sheep, no idea about cattle though. We use sheep ring feeders rather than the tombstone type. http://www.coastalnets.co.uk/hay-nets.htm make a whole bale net but it's £50ish
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feed ring wastage.
- Thread starter hill billy
- Start date
All baled + chopped with a mchale
I'd be concerned that I'd get there one morning to find one with its hoof caught up and dragging whole lot about.
DHI77
Member
- Location
- Meath, Ireland
You need a tub feeder, no need for elevator, just use front loader tractor. Lift feeder, discharge enough for up to ring level, and replace feeder. If out wintering use loader tractor on feeder. you can mix wet and dry bales, add minerals, add cake.
Yes we do mostly clamp silage and maize and mix on floor with handler bucket, have considered tub before. Just with suckler cows we give them a bale of dry haylage in ringfeeder to raise DM a bit and calves chew on it. Pull a lot through for some reason
Forever Fendt
Member
- Location
- Derbyshire
i borrowed a tombstone feed ring as my bull kept getting his head stuck in the heston bale feeder and had to cut him out i,it was a surprise to me as there was hardly any pulled out and wasted, watching them eat it seams like they can pull at bale by lifting there heads up and not having to step back and drop it on the floor but certainly a lot less waste to my surprise
- Location
- East Sussex
Spot on. We see a lot of waste if there is a bully in the pen or the feeder is the wrong height/size to be comfortable. The cattle will continually back out to face the bully or to eat what they've dragged out.
We've found that the box type feeders with the narrow side against a wall/gate work much better for some reason. I guess others aren't milling round and pushing and shoving as much.
Forever Fendt
Member
- Location
- Derbyshire
box type feeder?
- Location
- East Sussex
Forever Fendt
Member
- Location
- Derbyshire
here is the one i am not using now and had the wastage in
made it myself may be thats the problem 
- Location
- East Sussex
here is the one i am not using now and had the wastage in
Did you post pics of that before, really nice job. No, I don't think the box is the problem, it's the positioning of it. We always put the narrow side against a wall or gate in the buildings we use them so we can dump shear grabs of silo in from the outside. We do also use two roundbales in each one at times so I can appreciate the potential losses of a longer forage. The wider one from iae is just big enough to take a grab width narrow end on. I think it is the fact the cattle feel more secure because it's not like a giant roundabout and they feel more secure.
Probably wrong though.
Forever Fendt
Member
- Location
- Derbyshire
may have put pictures on when i made it
Forever Fendt
Member
- Location
- Derbyshire
I understand this but am still confused as why the tombstone feeders are better than rings with straight bars
DHI77
Member
- Location
- Meath, Ireland
The can't go straight in and out of the tombstone, have to go over the top.
I seam to get a hell of a lot of waste from ring feeders. seen an hear a lot of ideas to stop sheep pulling it out.. bigger feeder... 3 sections etc but all these stop the sheep getting to feed in the middle I saw a feeder on eBay once it had a 6 foot solid ring about a foot high at the bottom then a feeder at the top mesh square 3 inches or so with a cone in the middle looked good but was about 5 times the price of a normal feeder any one used one of these ? Can't seem to find a pic of one
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
If you use 3 sections, you can take one out and close it up when they've eaten the outside. If I'm feeding bales out with ring feeders (which I don't often) then I use 2x 3 section rings, so that the 2 'spare' sections can be pinned together when I take them out.