Premire1 style feeder

Good Morning Everyone!

A shadow dweller speaks at last!  

I have a small flock of sheep and due to being in a wooded area with very little "pasture", they are pretty much on "dry lot" which is great for controlling parasites but I have to bring hay in for them and the feeders that I have tried have been pretty miserable, especially this last one which is a converted horse bunker (with the steel "v" shape) and even with the 3" grates dropped in on each side to slow them down, they still manage to pull out so much and walk on it and wear more than they actually seem to end up eating. Very frustrating!

I am considering the expense and effort of building this Premire1 style feeder... (I hope the picture uploads!)  My question is has anyone tried this or something similar to this for their sheep and goats and is it worth the effort and expense to build?  I mean, it looks like it would be able to at least keep a lot of the pulled stuff from falling on the ground and it looks a LOT easier to load than wrestling a heavy bale up and into the one I have now.  I'm not getting any younger!  

Or is there something even better that I might not know about?

Thanks in advance for your time and any suggestions/experience anyone has to share!

Wylfenne

I built these in my barn that worked good...folded out when feeding hay, and closed against the wall when I needed to drive by with the tractor.

I like the fold up option!  I did something like that in my little chicken coop- the perches up and in so I can clean it out easier.

Here that feeder is tilted out, and then back in.

That's pretty cool!  

How does it work for keeping hay from being pulled free and dropped on the floor to be walked on?
The slats look to be about the same distance apart as the horse feeder I have and then I even put in 3" grid panel and they still are pulling it out and walking all over it.


Maybe your sheep are more respectful!  

Wylfenne Darkling wrote:That's pretty cool!  

How does it work for keeping hay from being pulled free and dropped on the floor to be walked on?
The slats look to be about the same distance apart as the horse feeder I have and then I even put in 3" grid panel and they still are pulling it out and walking all over it.


Maybe your sheep are more respectful!  

I think the spacing is 7 inches wood to wood, but I would have to check.

They wasted some hay, but then sheep always do. My biggest waste was actually with the animals climbing up on the haybales and wasting it that way, so for me, the racks worked well. What we would do is roll out the haybale. and then fill the racks. This saved quite a bit of hay over just giving them the round bale.

Ahh yes I have had the same issues with the standers/jumpers wasting hay too.  
Your hay racks make good sense!  
You don't happen to have plans for these handy, do you?  Or can you tell me measurements and I can try to figure it out from there?

Again my thanks!

Wylfenne