Skirted hay rings

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504RP

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Does anybody know where you can buy some new skirted hay rings within a 100 to 150 miles of Fort Smith Arkansas ? Good ones, heavy built.
 
There's some at atwoods here. A bit further than 150 tho. Maybe tulsa?
 

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Thoes hay monsters look real nice, last forever but waste hay like crazy. And because they are so heavy built. The ones I have seen in use. People don't move them until the wasted hay piles up nearly waste high. And you need a hundred hp tractor and up to move them.

That other skirted ring feeder is for horse's so that they don't tear their main up. Not certain but would guess cows would tear that kind up trying to reach the in the middle of the ring.

I was at a auction last fall where they sold alot of thoes monster and horse feeders.
 
I have a sialage baler and the auger chops the hay up before it gets rolled up. I can feed thoes kind of bales in a good skirted ring feeder and have way less than 10 % loss of hay during the winter.

There was a company called mulberry aggregates or something like that who made them here for years but went out of business. Can't buy them no more.

Saw a similiar design made by tartar buy looked like poor quailty workmanship and light gage materials.
 
I could see my cows and calves finding unique ways to get themselves hung up and in trouble in one of those.
I but they could. Cattle has a nack for getting in stuff like that. Last winter i found my 2500lb bull laying in the center of a skirted ring feeder chewing his cud. Took the tractor and flipped the feeder over while he laid there chewing his cud.

Somehow he had moved it a hundred yards I think after he had got in it. He wasn't hurt or cut.

It might have been a different story if he had of gotten inside a big heavy duty feeder like a go Bob pipe monster feeder.
 
I really like the regular skirted round bale feeder that has the slanted bars. They are the most hay saving efficient feeders I have ever used. But even then they wouldn't be that efficient if the round bale hadn't been baled with a silage baler that chops the hay before it's rolled.
 
This has been discussed here before, and as I recall, the most efficient feeders are the cone type with the skirt. But, I agree, haylage vs dry hay makes a difference too when it comes to waste.
 
Thoes hay monsters look real nice, last forever but waste hay like crazy. And because they are so heavy built. The ones I have seen in use. People don't move them until the wasted hay piles up nearly waste high. And you need a hundred hp tractor and up to move them.

That other skirted ring feeder is for horse's so that they don't tear their main up. Not certain but would guess cows would tear that kind up trying to reach the in the middle of the ring.

I was at a auction last fall where they sold alot of thoes monster and horse feeders.
I have 3 of those GB hay monsters. I absolutely love them! I don't have the extra bale attachment and I move them every time I hay cows. Our baler makes 5x6 bales and doesn't process the hay. My cows maybe leave 10% of a bale.

Two years ago I had the cows wintering in 80 acres of corn stalks. Had a cow get a piece of electric wire wrapped around her foot. 3 legged lame, no corral or chute. I used the tractor and set a hay monster over her. Held it down with the loader and fixed the cow.
 
Do you know the name brand and price on those? They look a lot heavier than the Century ones I've been using.
They just call them a poly hay feeder Hopedale Agri Center look under the cattle equipment. John told me a price about 6 wks ago, but I don't remember. Give them a call. Family owned, great people to work with.
 
I like Titan West or a good quality skirted slant angled round feeder with a Bextra basket.
Horse feeders do not work for cattle in my opinion.
 
This has been discussed here before, and as I recall, the most efficient feeders are the cone type with the skirt. But, I agree, haylage vs dry hay makes a difference too when it comes to waste.
Now even though my hay bales were baled with a silage baler. I don't wrap them in the plastic material so that the hay ferments and becomes silage.

So other than the hay being chopped up in the baleing process. The hay is dry hay like any other dry hay.

But because my bales are chopped up like they are after being baled by a sialage baler and are feed using the skirted hay rings plus using the slanted bars spaced about 2 foot a part is the only reason i have very little hay waste.

The three key things that makes this way of feeding is the chopped hay, slanted bars and spacing, skirted bottom around the feeder.

One other thing matters too is the weight of the ring feeder. These feeders made from plastic tubing or light gage metal tubing gets scooted around of flipped over easy by the cows allowing them to trip the hay into the mud or they lay on it, crap on it etc..., then they won't eat it and it goes to waste.

That's what happens too when you feed hay baled by a conventional feeder verses a silage baler. The hay baled by a regular hay baler becomes sort of tied together by over lapping and being wads of grass so the cow has to pull it loose as it gets a mouth full of grass. And is constantly pulling the hay outside of the ring feeder while it eats. Then that hay gets stomped into the mud, crapped on and is wasted, cow won't eat it.

The chopped hay from the silage baler just falls to peaces after the net wrap is cut off. When the cow takes a bite only what is in its mouth will come out of the ring feeder. The skirt keeps the chopped hay from spilling out of the bottom. The slanted bars has each cow at the feeder eating to the left in its own area. And the weight of the feeder keeps it from being scooted off of the hay. 90 % of the hay or better is consumed by the cow.
 
The texture of hay baled by a silage baler resembles grass clippings or hay that was cut and bailed when it was 4 or 5 inches tall. Thats why a cow doesn't pull it out of the feeder when it eats.
 
TMR wagon? Line bunks. Only feed them what they'll eat. No waste. Lots of start up expense, but long term money saving.
 

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