feed hay on the ground or in feeders?

[Anonymous]

Id rather unroll hay than have problems with hoof rot around feeders. Here is a link to people that wouldnt feed hay any other way than unrolling.
http://www.haybarn.com/messages/FeedingHay/message.asp?messageid=81

QuikRoll Websitehttp://www.geocities.com/quik_roll/QuikRollHomepage.html

Rodney

 

[MrBilly]

You do not have to have foot rot if you develop for pad properly. I totally agree, in the old days we had knee deep mud around the hay rings in the wet of the winter, that is why I then went to unrolling hay which was fine, but very wasteful - in fact I can still see spots where the unrolled hay from part of last year was never eaten and is still covering the grass. Anyway, if you put geotextile fabric down and cover this with crusher run, you will have a very hard surface on which the cattle will stand - yep some manure will accumulate and that can be removed periodically or if the pad is large enough (or you have an alternative pad in the same paddock) the ring can be moved to another spot.

Bill

 

[Anonymous]

We currently run 1400 pairs and about 2000 4 to 8 weight steers. We found that it was not feasible to buy enough hay rings and we were wasting to much by unrolling. Instead of doing either we put down pads of cement wash (free at most of your local concrete plants. It is where they wash their trucks out and in a few weeks sets up like cement) that were approximately 30 ft wide and 150 foot long. Now we unroll on the pad and do not have as much waste as we did either of the old ways. They can clean the hay up (we feed bluestem) and do not make a mud hole. This is also very cheap and will last for a long time.

 

[birdog]

we had our Industrial Trades/Ag class at our high school make our feeders. The students needed a project and we needed the feeders. They built them for the cost of materials no labor. About $40. Just an option.

 

[frenchie]

You could try feeding round bales with a hot wire and a fencer. We used to row hesston stacks as tight as we could get them and stick a fibreglass post in the stack end about 3 ft up and about 6inches away from the stack end.Then we just moved the post in further each day.Worked okay for us.Little tricky at the end of a stack.

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

You could try feeding round bales with a hot wire and a fencer. We used to row hesston stacks as tight as we could get them and stick a fibreglass post in the stack end about 3 ft up and about 6inches away from the stack end.Then we just moved the post in further each day.Worked okay for us.Little tricky at the end of a stack.

I like that system in theory. How far apart do you set your bales and how do you get through the frost to stick in your fiberglass posts?

 

[frenchie]

Cattle Rack ..... Posts go in the bale ....