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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