Help me with concrete bunks/troughs

[Bigfoot]

Not even sure what type I need, and never dreamt there were so many options

Rambling details:
1. I'll be fence line feeding
2. 400-775 Lb calves
3. Welding is out, gotta be 6" x 6" post and pressure treated 2" x 6". Unfortunatly had a tornado and have those 2 materials running out my ears.
4. I assume the H troughs are for eating on both sides, and the J is for fenceline?
5. Wont be feeding any type of total ration in them. This is strictly to stay out of the mud while feeding grain to calves I'm backgrounding.
6. Say your feeding 80 calves. How many feet of space do you need? Surely I just double the space I'd need for calves eating on both sides of a trough.
7. 6' or 7' or maybe 8' concrete pad on their side, and gravel on my side? Sit the trough on concrete or the ground?

 

[shaz]

J bunks are for fence line feeding. A 10ft concrete apron should be ok. It's what I'm using. Either sit the bunk on the concrete or gravel. Both work ok.

 

[SBMF 2015]

J bunks for line feeding. Feeding ground roughage? The company I talked to has 3 different depths depending on the size of cattle and volume of feed stuffs. Most come with irons to hold a cable instead of using a head board.
I would place them on concrete they can't settle that way. Just a 6x6 on the ends braced to keep the cable tight.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

J bunks for line feeding. Feeding ground roughage? The company I talked to has 3 different depths depending on the size of cattle and volume of feed stuffs. Most come with irons to hold a cable instead of using a head board.
I would place them on concrete they can't settle that way. Just a 6x6 on the ends braced to keep the cable tight.

Good post and welcome to Cattle Today!
:welcome:

 

[Dave]

The one here on my place is metal feed panels with a board bunk. It is 48 feet long. There is 25 heifers about 550-600 pounds. I don't think there is room for more than one or two more. The concrete apron is about 5 feet wide. That is enough for the heifers but too narrow for the tractor to scrape off the manure. I end up with one side on the concrete and one side off. This summer I plan to pour some more concrete to make it 10 feet wide.

 

[Dave]

I went out and took pictures. You said you have lumber which is the main part of these.





I feed grain in these. Cheap and easy to build. Darn near indestructible. I had 6 of them when I was raising bred heifers on the place over on the coast. Fed 60 head of bred heifers.

 

[Lucky]

Built one right before feeding season this year and it's been great. I used pipe on 8' centers with a pipe top rail. Then I took 6 bar continuous fence panels and cut them up into 2 bar panels so I got 60' length out of a 20' panel. I welded the 2 bar panel so the bottom rail was 15"-16" above the concrete trough. The troughs are 8' long and 5-6 650# calves can easily eat out of each trough. I have noticed that I'm having to spread the feed out longer as the calves have grown and use more space per trough. The troughs are regular 8' concrete trough. I wanted J troughs but they were too high and I've had these for years.

I've been backgrounding for several years now and this year it's been so much easier to feed and look for problems. No mud or fighting and running around the troughs. You can also look each calf in the eye everyday and count them easily. Wish I could figure out how to post pics for you. I haven't had one calve even attempt to crawl through the bottom rail and the bunk, I really figured they would.

 

[Lucky]

 

[Bigfoot]

The one here on my place is metal feed panels with a board bunk. It is 48 feet long. There is 25 heifers about 550-600 pounds. I don't think there is room for more than one or two more. The concrete apron is about 5 feet wide. That is enough for the heifers but too narrow for the tractor to scrape off the manure. I end up with one side on the concrete and one side off. This summer I plan to pour some more concrete to make it 10 feet wide.

Great info. Thanks.

 

[Bigfoot]

I notice each of your sections are capped off on the ends. The ones available semi locally would be open and sandwiched one on the other. Any benefit you've noticed to yours. My first thought on these was they better sit on concrete, or they will settle to different heights.

 

[littletom]

I have the same bunks as lucky. I have wood post and cable, post every sixteen foot 2 cables. First one is 20'' up from bunk. Thing to remember with the j bunks that go all the way to ground the smaller weight calves may push feed to back and have hard time reaching. About 5 calves eat out of one 8 foot bunk. When they get bigger they spread out and eat four. On my calf side i put filter fabric under 57 stone. On drive side just #4 rock. We leveled them 4 years ago when put in they moved very little. I have 18 those bunks in a line.

 

[Lucky]

I don't think for this type of setup it matters if the troughs are capped or not. I would rather have the 24"-30" pipe troughs for this deal but like I said earlier I already had the concrete ones. I was worried about the gravel under the troughs settling to but so far it hasn't been an issue. Been feeding in this spot since October and still haven't had to blade the gravel. It's been nice compared to the last 6-7 yrs of mud. I'm planning one for the cows but it will need to be built slightly different.

 

[gcreekrch]

I had a friend who back in the 60s was one of the first in Alberta to build a feedlot to fatten cattle on barley. 50 years later the old feedlot was dismantled and 15 years previous to that they started ranching following the holistic practices.

I had an idea to pour some cement for some kind of project when Dennis told me that if a cow man had an idea to pour cement that two Aspirins and a good sleep would relieve the condition.

 

[greggy]

I went out and took pictures. You said you have lumber which is the main part of these.





I feed grain in these. Cheap and easy to build. Darn near indestructible. I had 6 of them when I was raising bred heifers on the place over on the coast. Fed 60 head of bred heifers.

Hi, Can I ask...

In the first image, what is the space between each angled slot ?

And the height of the top most bar, the bottom looks like about 20 inch from ground ?


On the last image.....grain would be all over the ground, no ? I feed everything in tubs, pellet, wet feeds and hay....although I may see how they go ad lib with hay, it is too much work really.

 

[Dave]

I went out and took pictures. You said you have lumber which is the main part of these.





I feed grain in these. Cheap and easy to build. Darn near indestructible. I had 6 of them when I was raising bred heifers on the place over on the coast. Fed 60 head of bred heifers.

Hi, Can I ask...

In the first image, what is the space between each angled slot ?

And the height of the top most bar, the bottom looks like about 20 inch from ground ?


On the last image.....grain would be all over the ground, no ? I feed everything in tubs, pellet, wet feeds and hay....although I may see how they go ad lib with hay, it is too much work really.

Without going out there with a measuring tape..... About 16 inches between the slots. At 400 pounds sometimes two will get into the same slot. That doesn't work for them at 600 pounds. The top bar is around 60 inches. I am basing that on the ones I brought over from the old place. The ones pictured were in place when I bought this place. Teh feed panels I brought with me are heavier duty than those pictured. I have one (not in use right now) that is over 72 inches. There is a little waste from those grain troughs but not much. I would say well under 5%.

 

[greggy]

Yeah...ok......I have about similar spacing for heads....

Am I on the right track that the vertical height is not so important.

So horozontally they have 16 odd inches, vertically, they have basically 3ft of height to lift head.....is there an issue giving them that much vertical movement.....