We placed the boards inside the cattle panel square. We bent it so that it was four-feet tall and so that the boards we had found would fit along the sides. The curved corners worked just fine so we didn’t sweat it. We tried to bend the corners at 90-degree angles but ended up with 90-ish-degree curves. We bent the eight-foot section of cattle panel into a square. With this hay rack, we wanted to make sure that they would be able to reach all the hay. Also, with only three does, it took them so long to work through a round bale that the bottom was rotting toward the center, wasting a ton of hay. The goats were unable to reach all the way to the middle, leaving a lot of untouched hay in the middle of the bale. We had tried wrapping cattle panel around a round bale of hay in the spring. We chose cattle panel because the goats can stick their whole head through the spaces but can’t push their body through and end up standing on the hay (which makes it inedible by goat laws). This section of cattle panel is eight feet long and four feet high. We had a half of a cattle panel that was no longer in use. I suspect they were used to hold up signs in their past life. We had found these at the dump a while back and hadn’t used them yet. Wanting to block rain from getting onto the hay, we decided we wanted two sides to be solid wood. It turns out that we managed to make it without spending a penny! We also wanted to spend as little as possible on making this hay feeder. We wanted something that could hold about a half of a square bale of hay at a time. We currently only have three does, so we don’t need to feed large numbers of goats. So, we wanted to make sure that the hay feeder would hold plenty of hay for the day. I can’t imagine that it’s good for their digestive system to be completely empty at times. We don’t like having the goats run out of hay at any time.
The particularly like to jump up on the small platform at the bottom and you can see that I added some legs in the picture below.And we made it from scrounging items that were around the farm!! The feed was easy to build but did have to be reinforced over time as the goat climbed on it. By keeping the bottom tray small, I’m hoping it will discourage the chickens from perching here. My final design was 2 feet wide, and one foot out from the wall with a hinged door on top to keep the hay in and the chickens out. A goat feeder will help your hay go farther an reduce parasite loads since your your goats aren’t eating off the ground.Ĭheck out a few of my favorite goat hay feeders here:Ī Square Feeder from Goat World A Small Feeder Dallas Tyler Ranch (very similar to the one I built) Great Outside feeder for a bunch of goats or sheep An In and Out Hay Feeder from Swift Althea Simone Blackstock Small Goat Feeder Design So the mission was to build a feeder that kept the hay from falling, kept the chickens from getting inside and pooping in the feed, and kept the goats heads from getting stuck. What I quickly discovered was that goats will not eat the hay that falls on the ground, and when they do eat, they knock a LOT of hay on the ground. So it was time the goats stopped eating out of a cardboard box and got a real feeder. I know I should have gotten the feeder ready before the goats arrived, but I felt like I needed to see them before I decided on the best system – completely illogical I know. Lately I’ve been on a mission to build a new hay feeder.
Goat hay feeder with roof full#
There is still lots of fine tuning going on in their shed/barn, and I’m hoping to give a full tour soon, but for now I’m fairly excited about their new feeder. Most of the time I have the baby along and often a few other tag alongs, but occasionally I find time to head out by myself and simply sit, marvel, and soak in a little barnyard love. I’m already dreaming of more goats and love the times each day I find to steal out to the pasture. Our Pygora goats (Sam and Belle) are settling in to their new shed and the large fenced area we refer to as the ‘pasture.’ After watching how much hay they spill of the ground I realized I needed to build them a better goat feeder. As an Amazon Affiliate I may earn from qualifying purchases
0 kommentar(er)
