Round Bale Feeders

brownswiss

What are you using for feeding silage bales outside ? Are the ewes wasting much ?. Have any of you used the plastic Bell feeders from JFC ?

I have a roofed feeder but unless I leave the plastic on the bale they will waste nearly as much as they eat.

I need to buy another feeder soon so would appreciate your advice . Thanks

AntrimGlens

I've tried all sorts of feeders for feeding ewes outside and ended up coming up with a design and got a local lad to make me these last yr. Put a couple sheets of tin on the roof and they keep the bale bone dry.

The only downside is that you would want to be seeing the sheep every day as feeding good dry silage it won't split and fall to the sides like in a ring feeder, so you'll need to pull the centre out.
There's the tinniest amount of waste with them as the mesh prevents much of it falling through. The height and cross members means there's never a ewe or a hogget standing on top of the silage which i found a great bugbear with all other feeders, these are ideal for ewes, hoggets and ewes with lambs too.

He's just finished converting another couple of cradle feeders i had into them last night, but i'm not getting them galvanised.

brownswiss

AntrimGlens wrote: »

I've tried all sorts of feeders for feeding ewes outside and ended up coming up with a design and got a local lad to make me these last yr. Put a couple sheets of tin on the roof and they keep the bale bone dry.

The only downside is that you would want to be seeing the sheep every day as feeding good dry silage it won't split and fall to the sides like in a ring feeder, so you'll need to pull the centre out.
There's the tinniest amount of waste with them as the mesh prevents much of it falling through. The height and cross members means there's never a ewe or a hogget standing on top of the silage which i found a great bugbear with all other feeders, these are ideal for ewes, hoggets and ewes with lambs too.

He's just finished converting another couple of cradle feeders i had into them last night, but i'm not getting them galvanised.

..

Thanks for the photos and info . Great looking feeders . Where is he based and has he any in stock ?

roosky

I have the same style feeder bought off lockharte eng sligo.....

Things i would advise:

I have a sheated roof and sides, apart from the front door bit, this is brilliant because now for example i have the feeder in a field with 3 rams they will take weeks to eat a bale of hay so at least there is no way for the bale to get wet

The issue with mine is that the spaces are too wide so i would go with the mesh floor and would even advise smaller spaces on the front and back panell

brownswiss

roosky wrote: »

I have the same style feeder bought off lockharte eng sligo.....

Things i would advise:

I have a sheated roof and sides, apart from the front door bit, this is brilliant because now for example i have the feeder in a field with 3 rams they will take weeks to eat a bale of hay so at least there is no way for the bale to get wet

The issue with mine is that the spaces are too wide so i would go with the mesh floor and would even advise smaller spaces on the front and back panell

..

Thanks for the info . Sounds like good advice