Round bale grinder mixers

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TSR

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Which of these would be the best for the money for a cattle operation with 100-150 cows? Your opinions, experiences,etc. I have 0 experience with them but am looking at a used NDE. I have enough tractor power I believe (175 hp). Opinions, pros-cons?
 
Have the hay ground if you want to put it in a ration with a vertical mixer. They aren't very good at grinding hay.

We're on our fourth year of feeding 200 calves and ~50 heifers on a TMR with a vertical mixer.

First two years we had hay ground up and used distillers grain with other ingredients.

Last year and this year we have switched to a baler that pre-cuts the forage (no need to have the hay ground). We feed almost all haylage now, and the calves do extremely well on it.
 
What I'm trying to do is, using round bales, wdg, and gin trash to make a mixture that will work in a truck mounted feeder ( ours is a 3C feeder,I think). We just bought this truck and feeder and I'm hoping I could get a round bale grinder/mixer so I could use all these ingredients to make a mixture I could use in the truck feeder without it clogging up. Up until now I've never fed anything but hay.
 
TSR":1ghbpxpy said:
What I'm trying to do is, using round bales, wdg, and gin trash to make a mixture that will work in a truck mounted feeder ( ours is a 3C feeder,I think). We just bought this truck and feeder and I'm hoping I could get a round bale grinder/mixer so I could use all these ingredients to make a mixture I could use in the truck feeder without it clogging up. Up until now I've never fed anything but hay.

Like a trip hopper feeder?

I'd be surprised if you'd be able to choke hay through one of those. Heck there's some days I have to fight just to get it to feed out of the mixer.

Why not just feed out of the mixer wagon? That's what they're made for.

I don't think a truck mounted feeder will hold much either.
 
I'm trying to cut back on the amount of hay I use and hopefully have a mixture that is dry enough and fine enough to work in the truck feeder. Problem with feeding out of the mixer wagon is distance-2 groups of cattle 4 miles apart.
 
In 2011, we used a tub grinder to grind up some overly mature switch grass. We then, by hand, forked it into a hammer mill. That emptied into a mixer wagon with feed and other things, :lol: . it was mixed and fed. Got us thought 2011 when hay was over 100 a bale. Just asked husband if we should sell the tub grinder, the switch grass fields are sold and the home of the egg factory now. So we'll never do that with switch grass again...but, he wants to keep it just in case..
 
TSR":25c1c56e said:
What I'm trying to do is, using round bales, wdg, and gin trash to make a mixture that will work in a truck mounted feeder ( ours is a 3C feeder,I think). We just bought this truck and feeder and I'm hoping I could get a round bale grinder/mixer so I could use all these ingredients to make a mixture I could use in the truck feeder without it clogging up. Up until now I've never fed anything but hay.

My experience with auger feeders is they bridge over too bad to feed anything but dry loose feed. You might look into a Herd Boss feeder they're made to feed pretty much anything. If my understanding is right you need to feed way too much mixed feed to make it work with cube feeder. I'm not sure how many cows you are feeding though. Also if I remember right you need to add 200-300 pounds of water per bale to mix the feed and get it to flow through the mixer chute.
 

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