Home made poly hay rings

[coachg]

Anyone ever made homemade poly hay rings . Former student is giving me a pretty good size coil of 3-4 inch poly tubing . Used for a natural gas line it was left over and now can't be used because of some regulation . Wondering what to use for the upright posts and how to connect the pipe/rings ?

 

[bbirder]

Give the bull one day and you'll wish that you didn't waste your time. Your student got it out of his place now its your turn to pass it on and go buy your hay rings. Time saved is money earned!

 

[daneg]

Good thing he’s gentle

He was patiently waiting for me to get him out, he carried it about 100’ from where it was.

www.cattletoday.com

There is a pic of one in post#3 looks like the uprights are 4" abs saddled to accept horizontal pipe?

 

[coachg]

Give the bull one day and you'll wish that you didn't waste your time. Your student got it out of his place now its your turn to pass it on and go buy your hay rings. Time saved is money earned!

I have 14 bought ones , just toying with the idea of making instead of buying . Thanks for the encouragement !

 

[M.Magis]

The ones I've seen, the uprights are just pieces of the same poly, but some are large diameter. Bolted together with stainless hardware. Don't use ABS, it won't be able to take the bending stresses like HDPE does and will break at the holes eventually.

 

[gcreekrch]

A friend of mine has about 75 of these feeders he uses for bale grazing. Much like me he wants the feed through the cow before going on the ground. They are light and cows can move them too but the work well for the most part. Two things he liked the most were that they never froze down and the crew could roll them to the next bales by hand when the time came. He had cows in groups that 20 feeders serviced so they didn't all need moving the same day.
He rented a fuser for the rings and made a jig to cope the uprights.

 

[coachg]

A friend of mine has about 75 of these feeders he uses for bale grazing. Much like me he wants the feed through the cow before going on the ground. They are light and cows can move them too but the work well for the most part. Two things he liked the most were that they never froze down and the crew could roll them to the next bales by hand when the time came. He had cows in groups that 20 feeders serviced so they didn't all need moving the same day.
He rented a fuser for the rings and made a jig to cope the uprights.

Thanks gcreekrch !

 

[tex452]

I don't know much about poly rings other than seeing them, a friend has some but I never checked to see how they held up.
On another deal, I bought 18 rings from a guy in north East Texas, he delivered them for $260/, they are made out of sucker rod, he done a very good job on them, they are heavy, well built, I think this is our third year using them and there hasn't been one break in them. I take the loader and move them when necessary, and dump the roll into them.

 

[Lucky_P]

Have some that are close to 20 yrs old, and still as good as on Day One. Bolts need tightening up from time to time, and we had one that cows somehow managed to break the 'weld' in one of the rings where the two ends were fused.
Lightweight, compared to any metal ring we ever had... they don't freeze to the ground. My wife can flip one up and roll it to the next bale, on her own, with no problem.
I don't think we ever had a metal bale ring that lasted longer than about 3 years before it was rusted out, or the cows/bull had broken out upright bars. When purchased, they were about twice the cost of the cheapest metal bale ring I could buy, but they've more than made up for that cost in their longevity.

 

[sstterry]

I have a couple and as long as you keep the bolts tightened, they are darn near indestructible.

 

[TCRanch]

If you have Facebook, they're bull-proof. This was Johnson, our Village Idiot.

 

[Brute 23]

That's the correct way to do it if you can get the fusing machine. If it's the stuff we actually use for pipelines it will say like SDR 7 or 9 or some thing of that nature and be pretty thick stuff. It should be in sticks or joints. It's tough. If it's on rolls it's just basic poly in a large size and was likely use for temporary water lines and such. It may still work but there is a huge difference between the two. One has a #200+, 100 deg rating and the other does not.

 

[Chuckie]

I have never owned a metal hay ring, only the black ones poly rings, and I have the same rings that I started with and none have broke. They are nice and light, and roll so easy if you need to move one by hand. I highly recommend poly rings, but never have used the metal, so it might not be a totally fair comparison.

 

[cfpinz]

I have a couple and as long as you keep the bolts tightened, they are darn near indestructible.

I buy them unassembled on a pallet, and put blue Loctite on each bolt - never had one loosen up.

 

[WFfarm]

If you have Facebook, they're bull-proof. This was Johnson, our Village Idiot.

It's his social distancing device.

 

[gman4691]

Anyone ever made homemade poly hay rings . Former student is giving me a pretty good size coil of 3-4 inch poly tubing . Used for a natural gas line it was left over and now can't be used because of some regulation . Wondering what to use for the upright posts and how to connect the pipe/rings ?

I have a couple that have lasted two winters, so far. The uprights are 4' pieces of the same material. Saddle cuts where they join the rings. You'll need a fusion welder kind of thing to make the rings. Another thought is the spool that it is on - typically 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" square tubing. I am currently making a round bale feeder out of metal taken from two of those spools…got a little more welding to do, then prime & paint…but in answer to your question, just use 4' pieces of the poly tubing…stainless or galvanized bolts to connect…may be a little tricky making those saddle cuts…you'll have to cut pieces a little over 25' long to make a ring 8' in diameter.

 

[TCRanch]

It's his social distancing device.

I thought he was channeling his inner gerbil by repurposing the ring into a giant exercise wheel! And he didn't learn his lesson. Don't know how many times he actually drug that thing around, but I caught him twice. Idiot!

 

[redcowsrule33]

I love my poly rings but I had one bull figure out how to flip them and pretty soon all of them knew how to do it. Had to start feeding the bull pen in a wagon since they started flipping it off as soon as we fed one a destroyed the bale. They haven't broken one yet! My oldest which is 6-7 years old has been losing some bolts from wear but they are simple to replace.

 

[coachg]

Had calves to get inside but never a bull or cow .

 

[cfpinz]

View attachment 40775I love my poly rings but I had one bull figure out how to flip them and pretty soon all of them knew how to do it. Had to start feeding the bull pen in a wagon since they started flipping it off as soon as we fed one a destroyed the bale. They haven't broken one yet! My oldest which is 6-7 years old has been losing some bolts from wear but they are simple to replace.

Do you know the manufacturer of that ring offhand? It's got a lot more bars in it than the Century brand units I've been using. I spoke with a manufacturer somewhere in the Midwest at one point about some nicer made units but they were cost prohibitive at the time.