Flaker feeder

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Silver said:
. Nice to be able to feed rounds or squares with the same outfit, especially as big square seem to be falling out of favour with the bto's.
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In this area and the larger area the dirt farmer standard rotation is potatoes, wheat, and alfalfa. Park out at the freeway and you will see lots of semi loads of hay going by. All the big squares. They simply stack and haul better than round bales. The only people making round bales are guys who are feeding it themselves.
 
I saw thousands of round bales in fields today Hillsboro to Commerce Tx. It does seem the big square bales you use would be easier to handle and stack better. And easier to feed.. So, what is the downside to the squares down south ? The fact that they need to be under roof? I can't recall ever seeing big squares in Tx or Louisiana.
 
There are alot of "big squares" around here, mostly dairies... and yes, they have to be stored under roof because of the amount of rain we get. Stack better, but the rolls are much easier to unroll with a "bale bed truck"... and we can carry 2 rolls to a place and put one in a round bale feeder and unroll one for the cows... Like @Dave talked about how to feed them.... here a tractor or something on low, creeping along, with the steering wheel tied or something similar would wind up with someone not being able to get back in the vehicle or something... and with the hilly ground and rocks we have, it just would be fool hardy to try that. Not me... I am not fast enough or nimble enough to do that anymore.
 
One of the advantages of living in the desert. With only 10 inches of annual rainfall you can stack them outside without much loss. A lot of the hay just gets stacked with no cover. Some gets stacked with a tarp just on the top. Some gets stacked in hay shed which are a big pole building with just a roof no sides. The hay sheds tend to be in areas where they get more snow.
 
greybeard said:
I saw thousands of round bales in fields today Hillsboro to Commerce Tx. It does seem the big square bales you use would be easier to handle and stack better. And easier to feed.. So, what is the downside to the squares down south ? The fact that they need to be under roof? I can't recall ever seeing big squares in Tx or Louisiana.
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One day this summer while B was wrenching on his baler he said, ' if this thing quits I will have to go old school and go back to a round baler." The big square balers are expensive to buy.
 
So I started using my flake feeder this last week. Just supplementing the cows. Mainly figuring out the feeder. Things weren't working right. I was on the phone every day to the man who makes them. He said the battery in the remote must be weak. Got a new battery. That didn't fix things. When I fed on Wednesday it sounded weak. The system is a battery powered hydraulics. When I got home from the sale I put the battery charger on the battery. The needle jumped way up. I am standing there looking at it scratching my head. It is plugged into the truck. The feed truck is a '97 F350. It has an old 5 prong trailer plug. I had an adapter to the 6 prong on the feeder. Hmmmmm. While looking at it from 20 feet away I notice the flapper cover for a trailer plug up under the back of the truck. A closer look the 5 prong had been disconnected and a 6 prong installed facing down up under the back of the bed. Standing up close the the back of the truck you can't see it. Removed the adapter and vertically plugged in the feeder. Now every thing works great. The wife bought this truck new in '97. I asked her and she said her son must have done this but she had no clue.
 
Dave said:
So I started using my flake feeder this last week. Just supplementing the cows. Mainly figuring out the feeder. Things weren't working right. I was on the phone every day to the man who makes them. He said the battery in the remote must be weak. Got a new battery. That didn't fix things. When I fed on Wednesday it sounded weak. The system is a battery powered hydraulics. When I got home from the sale I put the battery charger on the battery. The needle jumped way up. I am standing there looking at it scratching my head. It is plugged into the truck. The feed truck is a '97 F350. It has an old 5 prong trailer plug. I had an adapter to the 6 prong on the feeder. Hmmmmm. While looking at it from 20 feet away I notice the flapper cover for a trailer plug up under the back of the truck. A closer look the 5 prong had been disconnected and a 6 prong installed facing down up under the back of the bed. Standing up close the the back of the truck you can't see it. Removed the adapter and vertically plugged in the feeder. Now every thing works great. The wife bought this truck new in '97. I asked her and she said her son must have done this but she had no clue.
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I would have thought you would need more like an Anderson plug and heavier wire to keep that battery charged when using. Wire to those trailer plugs is usually pretty low gauge.

Ken
 
This flake feeder is the best thing since sliced bread. Cut feeding time in half. So much safer. Feeding is a pleasure not a chore. Doing it from the comfort of the cab with the heater turned up. No more dealing with snotty old range cows and having to have the dog save me. Or crawling up on to the bed of the truck. This thing might make me fat and lazy......... too late I am already fat and lazy.
 
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Dave said:
This flake feeder is the best thing since sliced bread. Cut feeding time in half. So much safer. Feeding is a pleasure not a chore. Doing it from the comfort of the cab with the heater turned up. No more dealing with snotty old range cows and having to have the dog save me. Or crawling up on to the bed of the truck. This thing might make me fat and lazy......... too late I am already fat and lazy.
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We are "low iron" here too, but there are a few key pieces of equipment that are worth the money to keep us in the game as we get older and slower.
 
I have figured out one down side to this flake feeder. It makes things so quick and easy that I don't check out the cows. Just pull out in the field and slam bam you are done feeding in 10 minutes and out of the field. When they start calving here in a couple weeks I am going to have to turn back and slowly drive by the cows to check things out.

One of the advantages to it will be being able to see and steer. B says with the tractor in low gear and climbing on the trailer method they generally run over one calf every year.
 
Silver said:
Holding up well, resale value and versatility are why we bought this one. So far so good.
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@Silver I missed seeing this one when you posted it. One of the neighbors bought one of these this year. I talked to the owner he says they are real happy with it. Their big squares are stacked 6 high and based on cow numbers I would guess they are feeding 5-6 bales a day. So they have to take bales down from the stack with the tractor and line them up to self load.
 
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Resurrecting an older thread. Finally went and picked mine up yesterday, got home last night after a 1000 mile round trip. Pulled great coming home, only challenge was getting through Sacramento where they have narrowed the lanes down to 10 feet and the feeder was on both lane lines with city drivers on either side. Price has gone up $1k, but I was really impressed with the build quality and Dan is a great guy. Looking forward to putting it to use!

Flynengr
 

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