round bale feeder

Anyone ever make a round bale feeder for horses? Any idea where I could find a pattern? Hay will be scarce this year and my father in law is constantly complaining about how much the horse waste, so I need to keep the peace. They are fairly expensive to buy, but we have lots of lumber so thought I'd check that idea out first.

Thanks

Tango, if you go to the bottom of the home page here, click on statistics.....and scroll through till you find the topic.....slow feeders.......in there are some ideas folks came up with for feeding without wastage......might be something you could use in there.

A Bale buddy would work well :)

I showed my hubby the pic of the bale buddy. He didn't think it was something he would want to fight with. I remember the slow feeder thread, I was looking for a more elevated bale feeder type thing.

Thanks though.

If I use round bales I use a slow buddy. I have one horse who can be a bit heavey but I can feed round bales with this because it is mesh and they cannot bury their heads in the bale. Zero waste - they eat every bit. It was pricy but worth every penny.

I woud think if you could find the mesh - old hockey nets maybe?? - you could make your own.

By the way - they are very easy to put on. I do it by myself all the time.

http://www.bigbalebuddy.com/slowbalebuddy.html

If you have a friend in the fish plant business , we use the fish bins (4x4x3) drill holes in the bottom so water can run threw. Works great for us! They sold the broken/ beaten up ones to us 15 bucks each.


Scratch that, didn't see the ROUND bale part.. On another note you can get plastic scrap pipe from city workers if they have leftovers.. 4 ft in diameter. Just a matter of getting the round bale in it! Very thankful for use of a loader and boyfriend on workterm with city :p

I wrap my round bails with snow fence. I'll see if I can find a picture around here somewhere.

I also use snow fence. It works really well! It is cheaper and I think safer then a round bale feeder.



Compared to feeding round bales with nothing around them, this cuts down waste alot!!!

Thanks, I think I'll try this first. It doesn't look too complicated. They don't tangle up in it as the bale gets eaten?

I have been using the snow fence for about 6 years and never had a bad experience with it. If someone gets caught up in it, the fencing just breaks or tears a bit. I usually get about 3 months or more out of the fencing. For strength, I thread a piece of wood on each side of the fence and then weave the rope in to close it around the bale. Then once the fence is place, I remove the string around the bale.

I use the green fence and one roll of it lasted me all last winter, I had to make a second one half way through the winter. Mine have never been caught in it, but also with mine once it's in there, I take off as much twine off as I can and inspect it every couple days and take the rest off about half way through the bale.