Wydale lamb milk feeders

[andybk]

Got a pen with some triplets in , ewes are pretty milky so are feeding lambs fairly well (good mothers unusual for charollais) , just a few need a top up before they get onto creep if others have got to ewe first , I usually put cades on a ewe 2 or similar , but want to avoid that if poss as i think with care the lambs will be better off with their mother when we eventually put them out (with creep)
i usually use a bucket (those hang over horse mangers) with teats for this job , but a friend let me have a little wydale feeder which i thought usefull as you can see what each lamb is drinking , but how the f do you put it on a hurdle ? the narrow design , everywhere you put it it swings to low and milk runs past the valve in teats , anyone made a hack so you can hang over a gate ,? seems the only way to use it is over a board or similar .

 

[neilo]

I've got one here, picked from a farm sale years ago, so I know what they look like but never used it (come in handy one day ).

Can you fix a bit of board on the hurdle to make it thicker where the 'hooks' go over?
Or on the back of the feeder, so that the hooks don't have as much clearance?

 

[andybk]

I've got one here, picked from a farm sale years ago, so I know what they look like but never used it (come in handy one day ).

Can you fix a bit of board on the hurdle to make it thicker where the 'hooks' go over?
Or on the back of the feeder, so that the hooks don't have as much clearance?

yea thats what i will try , problem with design is hooks are far to wide for a hurdle and bowl design is not deep enough to sit on next bar down ,you have to be careful fixing to feeder as you dont want to damage the bowls the milk are in , you would have thought wydale would have tried it out before marketing it , good little thing though for job i want it for though if i can get it working just thought someone had a hack as they have been about a long time .

 

[neilo]

yea thats what i will try , problem with design is hooks are far to wide for a hurdle and bowl design is not deep enough to sit on next bar down ,you have to be careful fixing to feeder as you dont want to damage the bowls the milk are in , you would have thought wydale would have tried it out before marketing it , good little thing though for job i want it for though if i can get it working just thought someone had a hack as they have been about a long time .

Probably designed to sit on a gate with 2" box section bars iirc.

 

[Enfoff]

I just made this frame. Basically four bits of small box for the legs welded to a horizontal bar which sits on top of the hurdle an two bits of gravel board bolted accross the legs.