Post by daisyhill on Nov 24, 2017 11:05:35 GMT -5
Well, we had to buy hay this year (more cows, dry summer and less hay), and it worked out for us to buy big rounds from a neighbor and from the guy who farms some of my grandparent's land (adjacent to us). The location was handy, the price was right, and the hay is adequate. The thing is, we've always fed small squares from our hayloft directly into the hay bunkers in the loafing shed below (so easy and handy in winter).
We bought a hay ring--the brand name is "TARTER", it is red and advertised as being suitable for horses and horned cattle (we have both).
The cows smashed it.
It cost almost $300.
I'm disgusted.
When I say smashed, I mean crushed, destroyed, unusable, wrecked. They broke off the U shaped tubular steel legs, and one third of the ring is so mangled and mashed that it is completely concave instead of convex. No cows were injured in this amazing gymnastic feet.
This happened after the three steers went to the locker, so the cows eating from it consist of five cows, one six month old heifer, and three four week old heifers who don't eat hay to any extent yet. They are in a pasture that is between 3 and 4 acres (the scrubby area we cleared of multiflora roses this summer), so there is plenty of room around the feeder. When I go out to the pasture, I usually see one or two cows at the feeder, the calves running and playing (or sacked out flat in the sunshine), a couple of cows lying down chewing, and someone sniffing around eating multiflora rose shoots. There surely doesn't appear to be any undue competition around the feeder. I've been trying to imagine how they did it--Daisy does weight tape around 1500 pounds. She is a really large and pretty fat Angus/Devon cross, polled and top cow of that group. She might mash someone else, but no one would mash her. She is also really, really gentle, and never does mash anyone. She maintains her top cow status by being really big, and quietly insisting on doing as she pleases.
I feel like this feeder should have lasted better than it did. What do you all experience? How long do your round bale feeders last?
We bought a hay ring--the brand name is "TARTER", it is red and advertised as being suitable for horses and horned cattle (we have both).
The cows smashed it.
It cost almost $300.
I'm disgusted.
When I say smashed, I mean crushed, destroyed, unusable, wrecked. They broke off the U shaped tubular steel legs, and one third of the ring is so mangled and mashed that it is completely concave instead of convex. No cows were injured in this amazing gymnastic feet.
This happened after the three steers went to the locker, so the cows eating from it consist of five cows, one six month old heifer, and three four week old heifers who don't eat hay to any extent yet. They are in a pasture that is between 3 and 4 acres (the scrubby area we cleared of multiflora roses this summer), so there is plenty of room around the feeder. When I go out to the pasture, I usually see one or two cows at the feeder, the calves running and playing (or sacked out flat in the sunshine), a couple of cows lying down chewing, and someone sniffing around eating multiflora rose shoots. There surely doesn't appear to be any undue competition around the feeder. I've been trying to imagine how they did it--Daisy does weight tape around 1500 pounds. She is a really large and pretty fat Angus/Devon cross, polled and top cow of that group. She might mash someone else, but no one would mash her. She is also really, really gentle, and never does mash anyone. She maintains her top cow status by being really big, and quietly insisting on doing as she pleases.
I feel like this feeder should have lasted better than it did. What do you all experience? How long do your round bale feeders last?
