CAUTION with round bale feeders-Please read

Help Support CattleToday:

VtMapleGal

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
181
Reaction score
0
Location
Vermont
I rent my 150 acre farm which is about 7 miles from my house. The person who owns the farm lives at the house at the farm. Basically i rent barn and pastures. Anyways, I got a call from him last night that one of the cows was stuck in the round bale feeder. I was at a drs appt over 45 min away. I called my friend (a neighbor about 1/2 mile away) and he headed thier to help. I got the call a few minutes later that the cow was dead. We live in vermont were there is no such thing as flat ground. The round bale feeder was on a slight slant, and apparently from what we can figure out the cow (an 16 month old grass fed angus/jersey cross) tried to enter the feeder (last year as a calf he went in the middle ate hay and went out), got in ate, and tried to get out, pushing from the inside against the "low" side of the feeder, tipped it up and broke his neck. He died instantlly. Has anyone else had this happen? Should i anchor the feeder down somehow? I dont really know how i would. I had this style feeder... http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp/wcs ... ue&cFlag=1

Do you think this style would be better?

http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp/wcs ... ue&cFlag=1
 
sorry that you lost a heifer.but plainly put what happened was a freak accadent.an there wasnt much way of preventing it.i would not ancher the hay feeders down.because a cow or calf could catch their foot in theman break their leg.
 
I agree with bigbull, just a freak accident. Sorry you lost your heifer.
Tom.
 
Freak deal but having cattle will lead to a lot of freak deals. Only way to keep stuff from happening like this is not to have cattle. Not much of an option I know. You can also break their necks and/or suffocate them when you drop a 1200 lb baleage roll in the feeder late at night if their head is stuck up through the grates. Seems this happened to someone I know last winter.
 
if it had some sort of floor in it, he couldn't tip it when he gets inside it... be heavy as the dickens if you want to roll it around though.

I think the second style might help since there's no top bar, which means his neck would slide out... Also, might help if they were angled inward, though that might entice them to go inside it


can you make it so they just can't get inside it?.. cows with horns are going to hate you for that if you have any
 
This has happened to me more than once, in fact 3 times I have lost cattle in the feeders. I also live where there is no lever ground. I have found out unrolling on the slopes the cattle will not sleep on the hay or trample it into the ground. What little is wasted will more than pay for the loss in live stock. The loss was when I had a day job and was feeding after dark or early morning and had not time to really care for the stock.
 
My boss went to these types a couple years ago... cows moved them around less and were less likely to bang them up. I haven't seen any cows crawling inside yet so I guess they weren't very anxious to get inside with this design.

Horse_round_bale_feeder.jpg


His have bars that are slanted, but it's the same concept. No top rail.
 
I don't think using a different style ring would help. Stuff happens, you know. We have one of the second type for the horses, and it works pretty good. BUT, it's built a lot lighter than cow feeders. I don't see one of them standing up to cows for long. I figure my cows would total it in less than a week. :lol:
 
milkmaid":3s7nueg9 said:
My boss went to these types a couple years ago... cows moved them around less and were less likely to bang them up. I haven't seen any cows crawling inside yet so I guess they weren't very anxious to get inside with this design.

Horse_round_bale_feeder.jpg


His have bars that are slanted, but it's the same concept. No top rail.

This is what the horse owners around here use.

Another option that is getting popular is to not use a bale feeder at all when using net-wrapped hay. Stand it up on the end and they will eat it from the top down. Not much waste doing this either.
 
Cradles are the best answer to round bales.

Don't pay $900 each for them. Build them out of old trampoline frames.

No wasted hay. No injuries. Life is good.

You do have to be able to lift the bale onto the cradle.
 
grannysoo":3df8tris said:
milkmaid":3df8tris said:
My boss went to these types a couple years ago... cows moved them around less and were less likely to bang them up. I haven't seen any cows crawling inside yet so I guess they weren't very anxious to get inside with this design.

Horse_round_bale_feeder.jpg


His have bars that are slanted, but it's the same concept. No top rail.

This is what the horse owners around here use.

Another option that is getting popular is to not use a bale feeder at all when using net-wrapped hay. Stand it up on the end and they will eat it from the top down. Not much waste doing this either.
You mean stand it up tall and leave the net on?No problems with the net getting eaten?
 
i know my cows would try to eat the plastic, ive seen em do it. The other problem with that is my horses and cows are pastured together right now. I was going to buy a horse one like posted above, but now i have to try and figure out how to pay to get my cow butchered and buy a freezer to put it in...
 
jj216":2uoo7mlt said:
grannysoo":2uoo7mlt said:
milkmaid":2uoo7mlt said:
My boss went to these types a couple years ago... cows moved them around less and were less likely to bang them up. I haven't seen any cows crawling inside yet so I guess they weren't very anxious to get inside with this design.

His have bars that are slanted, but it's the same concept. No top rail.

This is what the horse owners around here use.

Another option that is getting popular is to not use a bale feeder at all when using net-wrapped hay. Stand it up on the end and they will eat it from the top down. Not much waste doing this either.
You mean stand it up tall and leave the net on?No problems with the net getting eaten?

Yes, stand it up tall and leave the net on. No one is having problems with the net getting eaten. They start at the top and work their way down.
 
grannysoo":t6v7q2ql said:
Another option that is getting popular is to not use a bale feeder at all when using net-wrapped hay. Stand it up on the end and they will eat it from the top down. Not much waste doing this either.

Until you get the first impaction,,I don't think that is a very good idea.

Get a feeder that they cannot get into ,they make great feeders now that cattle cannot step into no matter the size and they waste very little feed..
 
backhoeboogie":1dm8m06e said:
Cradles are the best answer to round bales.

Don't pay $900 each for them. Build them out of old trampoline frames.

No wasted hay. No injuries. Life is good.

You do have to be able to lift the bale onto the cradle.

Where do you find all those old trampoline frames??
Hardly anyone has trampolines around here anymore..
 
Is a pet peeve of mine seeing people leave net or twine on hay bales it litters up everything and like HD said until you have seen an impaction from net or twine it maybe great

If you are that lazy or concerned with wasting a little hay then find an alternative ways to feed

Sorry if I offended anyone but seeing the net and twine on a bale just really gets me pi$$ed
 
Sorry to hear of your loss. I have been wrestling with bale feeder questions recently too. I have not been happy with weaned calves trying to eat hay from very dense 5 x 6 bales out of an 8 ft dia conventional round feeder.

They can't get to much of the hay in the center. They are not able to push the heavy feed ring (frozen to the ground). Even when I move it there is just a lot of waste in the center.

Finally decided to bite the bullet and just buy another cradle type to keep the hay up out of the snow. This is the single bale version of the double bale feeder I use for the cows and have posted pics of before.

Here is a dumb picture but the only one I have that really shows the feeder. I had just put a bale in and calves were sort of nosing around it.



I would not feed bales without removing the netwrap. jmho.
 
for calves that looks much better than a conventional feeder.. I was wondering how you'd build it out of trampoline frames since I couldn't visualize it, but I could see it working nicely now


I would remove the netwrap as well
 

Latest posts

Top