What's the absolute smallest you can grind it and what are y'all using? I'm trying to find something I can grind hay down to 1" or smaller. Needs to flow through a bulk feeder in a heavy grain ration.
A grinder mixer can do that. I have a New Holland 357 ( I think that number is right). I have ground square bale hay through it before but it is kinda slow go. Not sure how much your needing to do.
I have a new holland 354 it's too small for what I'm needing. Going through 2 tons a day preconditioning calves. I want to get a vertical mixer but I need the hay to be able to get down that small to flow through bulk feeders
A vertical mixer will grind it pretty fine, but they are not all that timely about it. Square bales or pre-chopped rounds process a lot quicker. It would take 15-20 minutes for our vertical mixer to process a round fescue bale just down to where it would run through the gate.
I don't know if you'll ever get hay to flow through a gravity feeder, if that's what you mean buy a bulk feeder.
From what I've seen a vertical mixer will not get hay fine enough to flow through a self feeder. I'm not sure a bale grinder would either. A hammer mill, grinder/mixer is the only thing I know that will grind that fine. That's why it takes so long.
Hay is not suppose to be ground extremely fine. Cattle need long stem roughage to stimulate cud chewing and production of saliva. Grind it too find and you lose all of this. This is why soyhulls, beet pulp etc. although roughage, are limited when included in a diet.