Square bale feeder

[kentuckyguy]

Anyone have a picture or drawings of a good small square bale feeder. I'm looking for something that's covered and keeps waste to a minimum.

We feed round bales mainly but this year we filled the barn pretty early with rounds. Looks like due to storage issues I'm gonna have 12-1500 small squares.

I would like to feed these to our fall calving heifers we keep in the pasture by the house so we can keep a close eye on them.

 

[pricefarm]

I feed out around 800 bales last year. The best was is to spread them out in the pasture. Only feed as much as they can clean up in a day. By the next day there was no waste.

 

[Ryder]

Have fed this way a-many a cold morning in times gone by.

 

[greybeard]

I'm gonna have 12-1500 small squares.

I would like to feed these...

That many sq bales and the word 'like" should never be used in the same post.
I'd be inclined to feed as many as possible to the largest # of head as early in the cooler weather as possible and more quickly be done with the troublesome little bales.

 

[kentuckyguy]

A lot of people may see them as trouble but to be honest if our barns were set up in a way that I could use a Kuhn grapple to handle the bales I wouldn't get the round baler out.

Square bales allow you to control your feed with much less waste if fed properly.

In the past I have always used a feed trough to put the bales in but am looking for other options.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Old school was slats. Vertical boards on a 45 degree (or so) angle with a trough below. Drop the bale from the loft into the slats against the wall. I've seen the same design with a small A frame overhead free standing in pastures. They've built them with tube steel. Some built with pipe slats.

 

[backhoeboogie]

https://www.google.com/search?q=hay+fee ... 2199926385

These look kind of cheesey. You could build something way more robust but this is the idea

 

[BK9954]

........

 

[Kjfred]

Here's what I recently built. Im sure it could be improved upon but it's worked good for feeding the calves. Wouldn't take too much to add a roof or make it two sided

 

[Kjfred]

Or this setup on the fence line. The corner posts could be kept taller to support a roof

 

[skyhightree1]

Growing up we fed 10-15k bales a year and the most minimal waste was to only spread out enough they could clean up that day anything outside of that there will be more waste.