creep feeders - anyone built one? have plans

[CircleA]

I would like to get a build a creep feeder for this years calf crop. Any and all ideas would be appreciated!


Alex

 

[Ellie May]

We're fixin' to get one. They are suppose to be good, I just hope they are worth the money!
Ellie May

 

[Anonymous]

Alex -- you obviously could visit a farm & ranch supply and equipment retailer, make some drawings/diagrams of what you see, and then make a self-constructed version of what they sell at retail. Alternatively, if you go to google and type in something like "how to build a creep feeder for calves" you'll get a number of hits. Try the Oregon State site --- after a lot of writing they show three useful diagrams, and I think they will send you plans for free. (I assume you've considered the pros and cons of creep feeding)

Texas A & M also has a very simple couple of diagrams for a foal creep feeder (online) that just might work as well for calves.

Of course you can also use creep gates for setting up creep grazing in select pastures, planted forages, etc. if you are into that sort of thing. Arnold Ziffle

 

[eric]

heck, Arnold, that's where I get 99% of my fabrication designs from! I am a great fabricator, just don't have the logic nor the patience to engineer most things. Maybe that's why I became a machinist, because I feel I can make just about anything someone else can draw up, I just don't have the desire to do the drawing/paperwork. I've spent many a sunday morning outside the TSC just sketching and measuring for my sprayer carts, my squeeze chute which I am working on now, my round bale rings...made me a dandy bale spear for my front end loader! I threaded the spears so that I could take them off, put on the forks, and use my tractor as a forklift, since most of my equipment is on pallets, now I just take the pallet off the shelf and move it to the center of the shop where the hoist is, and I can hook up my post hole digger, box blade, spreader and such by myself. I started putting my round bales on pallets also, probably doesnt help much, but at least I am getting them off the ground and not getting all muddy on the bottom. I stand them upright and they fit on big pallets. My neighbors probably think I am anal, but I've never been one to put much stock into what others think, and it keeps my place looking neat!

 

[Anonymous]

Hey, i dont no if i can help you much on building one but a guy i work for has a great setup but i do not no if this would work for you. i dont no if you have ever seen this but a lot of ranch supply places sell like calf panels that are exactly like the front on a creep feeder like what keeps the cows out and the calfs in. well they sell those like in a size of a gate so instead of a gate you put one of those panels up and you can just put a simple feeder or you can construct one and try to put a roof over it to keep the rain oout of the feed. just somethin else you could think about. he has his feeder in a little fenced in area and has that panel on one part and the feeder is in the middle of the pen. it works great for what we do.


joe

 

[MrBilly]

If your place is wired with electric fence, all you need to do is tap in with some polytape and 4 posts. Place the tape high enough so the kids can get under and low enough that mommas can't. Put a lick and a small trough in there and you got yourself a very inexpensive and functional creep feeder. It works, and it is portable too. :cboy: :clap:

 

[sillco]

I would like to get a build a creep feeder for this years calf crop. Any and all ideas would be appreciated!


Alex

Heck, go to a local farm auction and you may be able to pick up a used one for half the price of a new one.

 

[dun]

One of the gfreat things about these forums is the off-beat solutions that are so painfully obvious that you never think of them. Our calves alwasy forward graze on the other side of the wire. I had never thought of setting up a creep feeder that way. Boy do I feel like a dummy!

dun

If your place is wired with electric fence, all you need to do is tap in with some polytape and 4 posts. Place the tape high enough so the kids can get under and low enough that mommas can't. Put a lick and a small trough in there and you got yourself a very inexpensive and functional creep feeder. It works, and it is portable too. :cboy: :clap:

 

[MrBilly]

Dun don't fret, I am just very cheap and didn't want another piece of equipment setting on top my pastures. Have fun!
:lol:
Bill