We tried metal cans for feed and realized that the feed at the bottom never got used, and over time, it would start to rot. If you go with the metal cans, be sure to empty it completely before filling it again.
When I build my Goat Barn addition to my current barn, I am going to figure out a way to dump the sacks of feed into a silo type thing that I can fill a coffee can up by opening a handle and the feed comes out the bottom. I've seen a few for sale that might work, but I wont get into buying or making it until I'm ready for it.
My water line is half inch PEX that's about 2 feet in the ground. It's fine. My issue is that when I built the barn, I wasn't sure where to put the spicket. We decided to put it on the side of the barn kind of central to where the animals are all around it. This was a bad idea. Since building the barn, we've fenced off feeding areas to keep horses and goats apart from each other, and also allow the chickens to have their area so the horses and goats don't eat their food. Everyone steals from everyone else.
Being that I have this plan to add on, I haven't fixed the water issue. Instead, we have a hose that goes to the horse water trough, and a hose that goes to the back chicken coop. Both freeze solid. Both hoses are on a three way split from the single spicket. That freezes too. The PEX in the wall is sealed in closed cell foam, so it's probably fine, but where it comes through the wall, it freezes solid.
I need to have a spicket inside the feed room, and when I add on, there will be frost free spickets at each area of the barn for the different types of animals. I'm also thinking that I need a way to have a generator in the barn just to keep the heaters doing for their water when we lose power. It will probably just be a shelf to put it so the exhaust goes outside, it it's inside from the elements, and all the wiring is in place to just start the generator, plug it in, and know that their drinking water will not freeze solid.
When we had that big freeze two weeks ago, I was carrying water out to the barn in a bucket and breaking out the ice that had formed in their water bowls before putting more water in their. I did this twice a day for the chickens. I had one heater in the tank for the horses and goats, which was all the extra power I had from my generator that was also keeping the lights on in my house and our cell phones charged.
It's going to be 77 degrees today, so it's hard to think about water freezing issues right now. But it will be something that I will address before winter hits again next year!!!
