Plastic barrel mineral feeder

[Chuckie]

Dun, I cannot find the picture you posted of your barrel mineral feeder. I did a "search," but it failed to come up with a picture. Please, if you don't mind, post the picture again if you still have it, or maybe post the address to the article so I can pull it up. Chuckie

 

[dun]

 

[Chuckie]

Thanks Dun!!!

 

[dun]

If you need the dimensions of the hole and it's placement, etc., just let me know I'll go measure one

dun

 

[preston39]

dun,
an excellent idea. Thanks for posting...gotta do a few. How far off the ground do you hang them..1'...18"?

 

[dun]

When the calves are young I hang it so the bottom is about 6 inches off the ground. As they get bigger or they're gone and only yearlings and cows are around I raise it to about a foot to foot and a half.
Make sure the barrels are from food grade material and not oils or chemicals.

dun

 

[preston39]

dun,
I imagined they would have to be lower for the little ones.....use contents would be important.....gotta clean 'em good i guess. Good idea!!

 

[samm]

dun thats looks like a great idea, them plastic barrels are so handy to have around, we have used several of them and scrap iron to make feed troughs out of.......and next.... mineral feeders thanks to you..

samm

 

[dun]

dun,
I imagined they would have to be lower for the little ones.....use contents would be important.....gotta clean 'em good i guess. Good idea!!

The barrels we use run 10 bucks each and are used originally for shipping teriyaki sacue or rodent butts (mol-asses). The hardware for the hanger is about 3 bucks and it just takes the time to make them, about 10 minutes each. Some we leave in the same tree all the time, others we move around as the cows move depending on what minerals are in them. We usually you a sring latch type of a hook so we can take them down or put them up easily.
The actual hard part is getting the minerals in them from the bag with them hanging crooked like they do. I used to put the barrel in the back of the mule, still connected to the chain or rope, pour in a bag of minerals then push the whole thing off of the back. I've found it's easier to unhook it, place the barrel on the ground, put in the minerals then lift it up and put the hook back on the hanger.
But that's just the way that works best for me, others would have different ways of doing it.

dun

 

[ollie]

Dun do you not use a swivel in the top of the barrel? How about a fly bullet hanging from the center top of the opening?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We've been using the plastic barrels for years now. Same, about $10/each. Ours are usually from apple cider.
You can also use the small 25 gallon barrels the dairymen get their iodine in - for the calves when they are weaned. You can use them for mineral or grain - or you could use them as a creep feeder for the calves. Just hang it & fence it off from the cows. I have a little three sided shed that our newborns to go in, and I hang one in there for them

 

[dun]

No swivel and I've been thinking of trying the face flyps type of thing instead of the bullets. We don;t really have much of a problem with flys because of the wipers that they have to pass under/though to get to the water pointss, but there are alwasy a few here and there on them.

dun

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Dun do you not use a swivel in the top of the barrel? How about a fly bullet hanging from the center top of the opening?

We use the swivel hook, and we use the bullet.
But, if you run a bull, be sure to tie it as far away from the trunk of the tree as possible. Macho traps them against the tree & plays havoc with them. Sure different having a bull around. He gets into EVERYTHING.

 

[Chuckie]

Dun. I did get the measurements from a thread you wrote earlier. You wrote 4" from the top, 16" from he bottom and 16" arcross. When I got off of work this morning, I bought four plastic food grade barrels. This weekend, I will put them up. I appreciate your help.

 

[MY]

Been wanting to keep the horned roping cattle out of the minerals, looks like a great way with that sized opening. I don't imagine mature horned cattle could get into those very easily whatdaya think dun, any of yours horned?

 

[dun]

Been wanting to keep the horned roping cattle out of the minerals, looks like a great way with that sized opening. I don't imagine mature horned cattle could get into those very easily whatdaya think dun, any of yours horned?

Ours are all polled. But I would just wager that if there is anyway for a horned cow to get it's head in the barrel it will figure it out, unless they're grown longhorns. I'ld be concerned that they might get their heads in and hang a horn coming out and go nuts or maybe just stand there like they do when they're head caught.

dun

 

[MY]

Yeah, some rockheaded cow is bound to try and do what you say, and either break their neck going nuts or stay there and dehydrate to death.

 

[memanpa]

i recently got the chance to purchase some plastic barrels from a guy who had got them from the local PEPSI plant, don't know what he paid for them
but he had bought them a yr or so ago and kept them in a storage building.
he deceded to sell all he had 165 of them i took all of them at $4.00 each
the local feed store saw a couple of them on the back of my truck the next day and made me an offer i couldn't refuse for 100 of them $7.00 each
he is selling them for $11.00 a couple of neighbors saw them on my trailer
and bought 20 which lead to word of mouth sales of more for $7.00 to make a long story short i only have 10 left with no intention of selling them.
having made $410.00 for $25.00 worth of gas and 4 hours worth of work!!
that'll buy quite a bit of mineral and or some liquid refreshment for these hot summer days!!!
you folks might check with PEPSI OR COKE OR simular for a source, easy to clean, nothing harmful put in them ! and less than $10.00 each

 

[Tod Dague]

i recently got the chance to purchase some plastic barrels from a guy who had got them from the local PEPSI plant, don't know what he paid for them
but he had bought them a yr or so ago and kept them in a storage building.
he deceded to sell all he had 165 of them i took all of them at $4.00 each
the local feed store saw a couple of them on the back of my truck the next day and made me an offer i couldn't refuse for 100 of them $7.00 each
he is selling them for $11.00 a couple of neighbors saw them on my trailer
and bought 20 which lead to word of mouth sales of more for $7.00 to make a long story short i only have 10 left with no intention of selling them.
having made $410.00 for $25.00 worth of gas and 4 hours worth of work!!
that'll buy quite a bit of mineral and or some liquid refreshment for these hot summer days!!!
you folks might check with PEPSI OR COKE OR simular for a source, easy to clean, nothing harmful put in them ! and less than $10.00 each

Almost $100/hr. That is great.

 

[Bama]

Memanpa, You need to get in the business of raising barrels. It pays much better.