Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder

   / Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder #1  

GPintheMitten

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I'm thinking about building a round bale feeder for the horses.

Something like this picture I found.

Anyone do this? Opinions or ideas?

The wall facing in the picture is hinged and opens to place the round bale in.
 

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   / Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder #2  
Round bale feeders waste a lot of hay, I think the loss offsets the cost of buying larger bales. Of course it's still easier to handle if you have a spear so there's time savings there.
My comment on that feeder is it looks too fragile. Also the roof might be a little low if you have large horses. They tend to tussle a bit by the food. You might consider modifying the plans so that you use a normal steel tube feeder, and add the decorative structure in a way that the steel protects it from being damaged.
 
   / Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder #3  
Round bale feeders waste a lot of hay, I think the loss offsets the cost of buying larger bales. Of course it's still easier to handle if you have a spear so there's time savings there.
My comment on that feeder is it looks too fragile. Also the roof might be a little low if you have large horses. They tend to tussle a bit by the food. You might consider modifying the plans so that you use a normal steel tube feeder, and add the decorative structure in a way that the steel protects it from being damaged.

I disagree. if the feeder is built properly with vertical bars so the anaimals can only get a mothful at a time and the bale is off the ground with a roof over it, a round bale feeder is a very worthwhile investment.

To that end, I've built 3. Two for my wife, one feeds her draft horses, the other feeds the steers and one for a friend to feed his quarter horses. Mine are all steel with hinged doors, gravity actuated feed grates (that fall in with the bales as they get consumed) and are mounted on skids so I can move them around.

I copied the Klene Pipe Structures round bale feeder and added a shed roof. I load mine with one of the big Kubota's using forks and net bales. a 4x5 round goes a week to a week and a half and the bale is out of the weather all the time.

I have zero waste. All the hay gets eaten, all the time.

If you can weld and cut angle iron and have rudementary design skills, you can build one.

Best thing I ever did. On ground round bale feeders are a total waste of hay.
 
   / Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder #4  
Here's one I built back in '05, and still using it. As you can see from the wasted hay around it, I now just put a half day's worth of hay in it, to keep a couple of them from wasting so much. My boy Percy there in the picture, along with my one Walker mare eat what they pull out. But the old gelding, and young mare, pull hay out on the ground, then pick through it. I have a couple times in the past hauled out 5 loads all I could pile on my 1-ton dump truck, of wasted hay to the composting bin.

I would advise making it mobile like on the skids, with a good hitch to move it, as you'll probably have to do some cleanup around it, or at some point in time want to move it for one reason or another.
 

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   / Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder #5  
Here's one I built back in '05, and still using it. As you can see from the wasted hay around it, I now just put a half day's worth of hay in it, to keep a couple of them from wasting so much. My boy Percy there in the picture, along with my one Walker mare eat what they pull out. But the old gelding, and young mare, pull hay out on the ground, then pick through it. I have a couple times in the past hauled out 5 loads all I could pile on my 1-ton dump truck, of wasted hay to the composting bin.

I would advise making it mobile like on the skids, with a good hitch to move it, as you'll probably have to do some cleanup around it, or at some point in time want to move it for one reason or another.

Your issue is the bars aren't close enough together though I admire your adaption of a round bale feeder. My door bars are exactly on 8" centers, 1/2" black iron pipe angle cut and welded to horizontal cross bars top and bottom, the bottom cross bar fits in a pipe hinge point that allows the door to fall by gravity as the bale is consumed and the 8" spacing only allows a mouthfull at a time.

I have no waste, I move them yearly because the stock mill at the feeders and wallow out the ground so I have to backblade the standing area every year. My feeders are very heavy, I spared no steel in the builds. They weigh around 1000 pounds each and are indestructable.

All stock has a bad habit, they like to pull forage out and whizz on it, then it rots. I don't have that issue because they cannot get but a mouthfull at a time.

Nothing but steel angle and PT CDX in flat sheets so there is no chewing either. The roofs and their PT wood structure is above their reach. They can chew on angle iron all they want to, if they are that stupid........

My wife can pull a round from the Clearspan with the tractor and load the feeders in any weather, alone if she has to. I sell loads of small squares to horse people (thats ny business, forage) but no squares ever get fed at our farm or at least haven't in the last 5 years.
 
   / Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder
  • Thread Starter
#6  
5930, could you please post a picture or 2? Thanks.

Edit - 5030.
 
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   / Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder #7  
I disagree. ... On ground round bale feeders are a total waste of hay.

So I think we're in agreement about round bale feeders. What you built is a small portable feed building. Other than perhaps the shape, it's not really anything like a round bale feeder.
 
   / Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder #8  
I have built 2 feeders into my fence line. I set 6x6s in a 10' square with the 2 inside the fence shorter. I put a simple shed roof on it with a gutter and downspout attached to the 6x6. And a trough under it. I used 6/4 oak boards with 2 on the 3 sides. I can get 2 5x4 roundbales in them. The front is open and it makes it easy to load and clean out. The one draw back is it is not movable and needs to be cleaned around. But it sure is easy in the winter to get to and you don't have to fight the horses getting a gate open.
A friend has experimented with homemade wooden ones that are portable. They have not held up well.
 
   / Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder #9  
Your issue is the bars aren't close enough together though I admire your adaption of a round bale feeder. My door bars are exactly on 8" centers, 1/2" black iron pipe angle cut and welded to horizontal cross bars top and bottom, the bottom cross bar fits in a pipe hinge point that allows the door to fall by gravity as the bale is consumed and the 8" spacing only allows a mouthfull at a time.

I have no waste, I move them yearly because the stock mill at the feeders and wallow out the ground so I have to backblade the standing area every year. My feeders are very heavy, I spared no steel in the builds. They weigh around 1000 pounds each and are indestructable.

All stock has a bad habit, they like to pull forage out and whizz on it, then it rots. I don't have that issue because they cannot get but a mouthfull at a time.

Nothing but steel angle and PT CDX in flat sheets so there is no chewing either. The roofs and their PT wood structure is above their reach. They can chew on angle iron all they want to, if they are that stupid........

My wife can pull a round from the Clearspan with the tractor and load the feeders in any weather, alone if she has to. I sell loads of small squares to horse people (thats ny business, forage) but no squares ever get fed at our farm or at least haven't in the last 5 years.

I'll admit, it is my copycat version of a Big-O bale feeder I saw at the Qtr. Horse Congress in '04. At that time, that's all I could find close to what I had in mind, other than the open top cradle type for sheep I saw.

I do like your design, and you're right about the small openings. Maybe when I get things straightened up around here, I may make another like yours. Just hope I can find this thread..!! LOL...
 
   / Considering Homemade Round Bale Feeder #10  
I'll admit, it is my copycat version of a Big-O bale feeder I saw at the Qtr. Horse Congress in '04. At that time, that's all I could find close to what I had in mind, other than the open top cradle type for sheep I saw.

I do like your design, and you're right about the small openings. Maybe when I get things straightened up around here, I may make another like yours. Just hope I can find this thread..!! LOL...

Just bookmark Hay feeders, hay rack, pole barn kits, diy barn kit, modular barns, livestock feeder, cattle feeders, round bale feeder, run in sheds, modular barn, and more from Klene Pipe Structures I copied their's and added my own roof design which was just an extendion of the uprights drilled for PT stringers and then I built a shed roof and sheatherd it with some scrap Fabral siding I had laying around.

I'm in the fabrication business so I always have lots of structural angles in stock. The wife has Percheron draft mares and they can't move it or hurt it in any way and they are huge.

The 'trick' if you call it that, is putting the vertical bars close enough so they stock can only get a mouthful at a time and no more.

I'm not sure how Klene can claim the grill's are 'patented'. Thats pretty far fetched IMO. You can alter the spacing slightly and get around that easily. Any dimension under 10" works actually. I don't much care for the entirely open design which is why I sheathed both the door and the backside. For weather purposes and for feeding purposes. I want the stock to feed only from the ends.

I load 4x5's and 4x6's in my feeders all the time, vertically (center up) with with tractor forks. Simply load, close the door, fold in the side panels to the bale and cut the net and pull out. It takes 4 mares or 6 steers about 7 days to consume a bale and the roof keeps it dry. It's actually a nice place for the cats to sleep too.

I have one side of the feeders sheathed in PT-CDX. Thats the prevailing wind side and it helps keep the bale dry. Opposite side is the door side and keep the door latches simple and stock proof. I welded 2 short lengths of 1/2" id pipe, one th the frame of the feeder, one to the door frame and I drop in a 'U' shaped rod to latch the door, simple and stock proof.

Sure weaned me from small squares quick. I make thousands of small squares for horse folks but they are a PITA to feed so long as you have the equipment to move and load rounds. You can, in a pinch, load squares in the feeder to and I have but I prefer not to.
 
 
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