Types of Sheep feeders

Green farmer

I'm feeding sheep silage through ring feeders. Fits very snug around bale and find that it works very well for ewes, but not so well for store lambs as the smaller lambs can climb in through the bars and stand in the middle of the feeder. Any ideas on how to keep them out ? Or anybody have any experience of a basket type feeder with the big round bale of hay or silage sits into it and is kept off the ground. does the silage fall through the bars easily ?

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

I'm feeding sheep silage through ring feeders. Fits very snug around bale and find that it works very well for ewes, but not so well for store lambs as the smaller lambs can climb in through the bars and stand in the middle of the feeder. Any ideas on how to keep them out ? Or anybody have any experience of a basket type feeder with the big round bale of hay or silage sits into it and is kept off the ground. does the silage fall through the bars easily ?

I've seen farmers using reinforcing mesh, made into a circle the size of the bale and welded up, don't know how it works,

AnFeirmeoir

i use one of the square feeders with the curved roof on it. I find it good. Not much gets pulled out and lambs can reach it fine. I put the bale on an old pallet to keep it that bit drier.

Username John

I know this is kinda taking the thread a little off topic, but tis kinda related... Hopefully Green wont mind too much

Would it be a bad idea to feed small bales of hay in one of those ring feeders?
I would be afraid there would be a lot a waste? (with ewes pulling hay out onto the ground?)

Have people done it?

(I'll let ye know in a few weeks how it goes, when grass starts running a bit too scarce, but interested to hear if others have done it, and if its a bad idea)

AntrimGlens

I use a variety of feeders, for feeding outside before housing. I have a couple of trailed feeders that I can drop two silage bales into, they are high enough off the ground and narrow enough that the sheep can't climb into them, but i have seen ewes jump on the backs of other ewes and get into them. Lambs can get into them no bother and soon the silage is in sh*t from them lying on it, I also used ring feeders but gave these up as there was always one or two ewes that could get into the middle and tramp over the silage. I made a couple of square feeders that the bars were horizontal and these worked far better and the ewes wasted little silage from them. Last year I bought a galvanised cradle feeder and it works a treat, the bale stays dry as its off the ground and the ewes can eat from the bottom and there's no need to graipe the silage out from the centre as is the case with ring or square feeders. Only downside is that for finely chopped silage quite a bit can fall under the feeder and get tramped on by the ewes, might need to put a finer 1"-2"mesh in the bottom of it when using chopped or precision chopped silage.
All in all trailed feeders probably works best for me as 40 ewes can feed at a time around them.

As regards your question UJ, I've seen ewes fed hay in ring feeders and feed racks and the racks work best to be honest as the mesh stops lengths being pulled out and the hay is not as prone to falling through the mesh as silage would be if it was fed in a rack. Feeding hay in ring feeders would be a temporary measure in my opinion, racks would be better if its a long term plan.

ihatewinter

I had a problem with feeding silage last year in round feeders. Ewes kept getting in and mucking it into ****. I welded lengths of steel to it to stop them, didn't work, they just started jumping on top of the bale. I put 2 bales of silage into a field with 70 ewes, had to go do something else, came back 1 hour later and bales walked into the ground. Wasn't worth trying to save any of it. ****ers :mad::mad:

Money was very tight as was in college full time as well so couldn't afford any new feeders. I had a load of gates so made feeders out of them. I put big steel bars down and tied the gates to them, I had a way of opening one gate so to put the bale of silage in. I put boards along the back and other size to stop silage falling out. Ewes ate the silage through the other two sides. Only downsize was I had to get in to fork the silage out to the front.

I had two set ups like this with the ewes, about 70 in each field. They ate the bale in about 3-4 days. Prob be doing this again ::):o

Green farmer

Thanks guys , glad to hear I'm not the only one having difficulties. Its only the lambs giving me bother. It works well with the ewes, I even noticed one hogget, who broke my heart as a ewe lamb, not climbing in this year. Couldn't keep her out last year. I also put a pallet under the bales to keep it off the ground. It's chopped silage so it's fine enough. I put half the stores into the shed today, all home bred , no bought in. Going to try and channel feed them. Really annoying to have good fodder waisted. Hit and miss trying to get a good system set up.

Also any else finding the land gone very soft over the last week ? It's tearing up easily around feeding areas, which means I'm continuously moving them around to stop any poaching taking place.

razor8

ihatewinter wrote: »

I had a problem with feeding silage last year in round feeders. Ewes kept getting in and mucking it into ****. I welded lengths of steel to it to stop them, didn't work, they just started jumping on top of the bale. I put 2 bales of silage into a field with 70 ewes, had to go do something else, came back 1 hour later and bales walked into the ground. Wasn't worth trying to save any of it. ****ers :mad::mad:

Money was very tight as was in college full time as well so couldn't afford any new feeders. I had a load of gates so made feeders out of them. I put big steel bars down and tied the gates to them, I had a way of opening one gate so to put the bale of silage in. I put boards along the back and other size to stop silage falling out. Ewes ate the silage through the other two sides. Only downsize was I had to get in to fork the silage out to the front.

I had two set ups like this with the ewes, about 70 in each field. They ate the bale in about 3-4 days. Prob be doing this again ::):o

Any pictures of the trailed feeders? Don't think I've seen them before?

Use rectangle feeders here with horizontal rails and find them very good

ganmo

We've a few kinds of racks here,
The best ones are red heavy ones with verticle bars ever foot or so. The ones with the horizontal rails are the ones the odd one gets through

This kind are de good ones
http://d1708944.ali12173.tuam.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/cor4.jpg

orm0nd

Green farmer wrote: »

I'm feeding sheep silage through ring feeders. Fits very snug around bale and find that it works very well for ewes, but not so well for store lambs as the smaller lambs can climb in through the bars and stand in the middle of the feeder. Any ideas on how to keep them out ? Or anybody have any experience of a basket type feeder with the big round bale of hay or silage sits into it and is kept off the ground. does the silage fall through the bars easily ?

try putting a ratchet strap around the feeder

find out the correct height by trial and error , maybe try about 12 to 14 inches above the top of the sheeting

AntrimGlens

Cradle feeder and trailed feeder