It is adding nutrients to the soil and increases organic matter. Any hay the sheep pull out of the feeder without eating it is not actually wasted. I favor feeding hay in those parts of the pasture where I will make hay in the coming season or that are well-protected from the elements when it is cold and windy. I also use a new spot for each new hay bale, that way nutrients are as evenly distributed as possible. I always distribute that hay with a fork so that it doesn’t choke out any pasture when it starts growing in the spring. Whenever I feed hay outside in the pasture, there will be some wasted hay piled up around the feeder. Manure and especially urine, when it is directly deposited to the pasture as opposed to spreading manure form the barn, have more value that way because fewer nutrients are lost. When the weather and soil conditions allow, I prefer feeding my hay outside in the pasture. Straw, the bedding I would prefer, is too expensive in my area and more expensive than first-cutting hay. If I feed hay in the barn, I use that waste as bedding. The waste is mostly the stemmy parts of the hay. Also, there is waste - I estimate up to ten percent. Now the remainder of the bale is likely to sit slanted in the feeder, which makes the better parts of the remaining bale available again. Since my sheep are grass-fed and I wish to encourage consumption, I flip the bale over by flipping the entire feeder over with the bale inside it. When about half or two-thirds of the bale is eaten, the better parts of the hay become less accessible. That has not occurred since I have White Dorper sheep. My large-headed Texel sheep that I raised twenty years ago got their heads stuck on occasion, especially when two sheep tried to feed through the same hole. As they dig deeper into the bale, the better portions of the hay become available only when a sheep puts its head into one of the eight by eight holes. Initially, when the bale is just set up, the sheep can eat basically at all places throughout the mesh. If they are held together with bale strings you can go either way. If your bales are net-wrapped, I recommend removing the net prior to putting the feeder around.
You can then open the feeder up and put it around a round bale that is sitting on its flat side, or you can leave it closed and lift the feeder over the round bale. (I used to use smaller hooks but found out they bend too easily when they are under pressure and are also hard to open when you want to open the feeder with hay still in it.) I now have a feeder that costs about $30, which is far less than the several hundred dollars that most round bale feeders cost.Ī hay feeder with half a bale tipped over and the wasted hay around the previous spot spread out.
I use three three-inch snap ring hooks to connect the ends and the feeder is done. I then bend the panel that both ends touch each other. I use a disc grinder to cut the wholes and then smoothen the rough edges with the same. This will amount to three rows with holes that are eight by eight inches. The bottom may have narrower rows of mesh. The mesh measures usually four inches horizontally and eight inches vertically. Such panel is 16 feet long by 48 or 50 inches high, and costs about 20 dollars. It might be called livestock or cattle panel at your farm store. Many of you are likely familiar with a feedlot panel, these are the base of my design. I abandoned some designs as well, and they too will be part of this article. I’d love to give him credit, but his name has escaped me and I cannot find a listing of his farm. I received the original idea more than 20 years ago when I went to a Polypay sheep breeder in Vermont at the banks of the Connecticut River.
I have been using self-made hay feeders made from livestock panels for two decades. They all have one characteristic in common: they cost a lot of money. Various companies offer round bale hay feeders for sheep.
My current design of a hay feeder, made from a goat panel.
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