Fence line feed trough

[Atimm693]

One more pic from last summer. For years I fed calves out in the pasture with the same troughs and it worked fine. This setup works much better with my work schedule though. I can easily spot one that needs to be watched and can count them really quick. When your dumping the feed you can pretty much look every calf in the face and see how their eyes and ears look. Down side is it takes twice as many troughs to feed same amount of calves. I plan on building one for the cows next.

Looks good. I've often wondered if you could just pound pipe posts close to a row a bunks of make your own "fenceline bunks." That confirms it.

My primary worry would be that they would try to sort and push feed outside the bunks, J bunks are offset to counter that, but if you have good feed it probably isn't an issue.

We have gone to 20' steel bunks. Glad to see the concrete ones go, the steels are way easier to move, clean, and hold more feed, less on the ground.

The concrete ones were okay if you were feeding pellets or grain, but didn't hold all that much roughage. We feed silage with a mixer, if you mound it up high they will sort and push and a lot of feed ends up on the ground.

I also broke a few of those concrete bunks flipping them over to dump the old feed out.

 

[4x4dually]

View attachment 1756

That's dang nice right there.

 

[Lucky]

Around here most people use overhead bins and feed boxes on a pickup to feed with. Really not familiar with what other parts of the country do, but am interested in knowing. This setup definitely wouldn't work for a mixer wagon or feeding balage.

 

[Rydero]

Bottomless

 

[Rydero]

2 styles of these w/ bottoms. This one is steel, other style is rubber belting but virtually identical.

 

[scvfd_7241]

Does anyone have experience with a fence line feeder setup such as this. I found this on the website of the company I will most likely buy bunks from.

 

[sstterry]

Does anyone have experience with a fence line feeder setup such as this. I found this on the website of the company I will most likely buy bunks from.

Is that one continuous bunk? Would it be poured in place?

 

[scvfd_7241]

Is that one continuous bunk? Would it be poured in place?

No they are u bunks either 8 or 9 foot sections.

 

[C-Ranch]

Does anyone have experience with a fence line feeder setup such as this. I found this on the website of the company I will most likely buy bunks from.

There is a guy here that uses something like the ones in the pic. They are a precast and slide together. I believe they weight aroun 2800-3000lbs. He gets them from a concrete place that uses their concrete waste/overage to pour them as well as the square blocks. I think he said they cost around $240 ea. Said it was cheaper to buy them than a continuous pour.

 

[scvfd_7241]

Does anyone have experience with a fence line feeder setup such as this. I found this on the website of the company I will most likely buy bunks from.

I am more curious about the hi tensile fence above the feeder, how well does it work, is there a problem with calves getting out with this setup vs the feeder with a run of guard rail or such above it.

 

[Larzbarz]

We've got a couple short bunk runs that have a single hi-tensile hot wire over top. Get along pretty good with it. Don't recall any weaned calves going through it. Have had some bulls shoved through the bunk when they got to fighting.

We also have a hot wire "manger" system where we feed on the ground between the wires. They will go through it at first, but generally after the first week they've adapted to it and the stray animal that is on the wrong side becomes fairly rare. The drive side is fenced with gates at either end, so it isn't a big deal if one is out. We keep the gates shut until they get it figured out, but then usually just leave them open to save hassle getting in and out of the truck twice at each end.

I'll try to get some pics of both systems today.

 

[Lucky]

These are from Corbin Steel. Probably the nicest I've seen but was afraid to call and get a price.

 

[C-Ranch]

Those look nice, I bet they aren't cheap!

 

[Larzbarz]

The two runs of single wire over concrete bunks.



The 2 wire manger system.

 

[C-Ranch]

Is the wire on the ground hot or just a psychological barrier?

 

[Larzbarz]

Both wires are hot. This system was installed before I started, and I've never measured, but I'd guess the outside wire is ~20" off the ground and offset with the insulators that you mount on woven wire stapled to the post. The inside wire is maybe ~40" off the ground and just on wood post insulators. You feed over the outside wire and under the inside wire. Works pretty well for us.

Here's a little closer picture of it.

 

[Bigfoot]

The troughs are just the 8' concrete feed troughs the local feed store sells. I wanted to use J troughs but it was just too costly to have them shipped. The main frame is 2 7/8" drill pipe on 8' centers with a 2 7/8" top rail. I bought some 6 bar continuous panels and cut them into 2 bar sections for the neck rail. This gave me 60' of neck rail that went up really fast. I'm feeding 65 450-650 weight calves now and have plenty of room left. Been using this for 2 years and haven't had one attempt to get out yet. I'll get measurements more tomorrow.

I'm reading your post right? 65 head eating from an 80' trough?

 

[Lucky]

I'm reading your post right? 65 head eating from an 80' trough?

After reading that post it was misleading. 4-5 600# calves per 8' trough is how it worked out. I'm thinking I did 16 troughs on that feedline but not positive. I really wasn't sure how many head would eat out of one trough when I built it. I start feeding in November and stop mid March. It's interesting to watch them slowly take up more troughs as they grow.

Edit: I did a count this morning. There are 15 8' troughs on the line. I've got 65 500-600 weight calves and they were using 11 troughs.