Changing goals and speed

[AClark]

Goat mouths fit well in the no climb horse wire - which is exactly what we used. It's about as close to perfect as it could get. I thought about using cattle panels as well, but this smaller square wire seems to work perfectly and the hay stays in very well -I had the same thoughts since their whole head fits in a cattle panel square. There's barely any on the platform, which I also covered with the same horse fence wire. The cheap welded kind - nothing fancy.
They can only get about a mouthful this way, I really have very little on the ground, and like you, once it's on the ground they don't touch it and it ends up in the compost pile since it's usually soiled.

I found the inspiring picture on pinterest - that's all the instructions that were with it, just the photo. Ours looks very similar, other than our little tweaks. I'll get a picture when I go out here shortly.

 

[Latestarter]

I'm gonna have to chat up @Baymule and see if she has a 4' or so piece of no climb horse fence she can "loan" me. I don't use it and really don't want to buy a whole roll just to make a single hay feeder. Out of curiosity (since I can't see) did you attach the bottom of the fencing to the collection tray, or is it free swinging, like a hammock? Also, my goats LOVE to climb and eat down in from the top... Are you covering yours (also for some weather protection) or did you adjust the height to keep the climbers out? Mine actually climb the cattle panels so they can get their heads down into the hay rack I have hung on the fence.

Thanks for your input! Greatly appreciated.

 

[Baymule]

Yes, @Latestarter, we have a open roll and will be glad to let you have a piece of it.

 

[AClark]

Here's mine. I made mine a bit taller to discourage climbing. Mine really only climb on the gate at feeding time.
The wire is not secured to the bottom, so it has room to drop onto the "tray" - it easily holds a 50-60 lb bale. Pretty sure you can see the daylight under mine. I do have to break the bale into flakes to fit that much. I figure if I need weather protection I can cover it with a tarp, right now it's so super dry it's not a concern.

That said, I saw one of the Boer nannies on her knees picking pieces off the bottom out of the tray when I went out to get this picture. You can see how little is actually spilled, most of what is on the ground is stuff I haven't raked up from before putting this bad boy in.

 

[Mini Horses]

Nice job! Anything that can save hay!!!!

 

[AClark]

Ok, how this works with climbing, we found out tonight.
Yes the goats can stand on the edge and eat out of the top of it. Only the Nubians can really reach, because they are giraffe necked, lol. It didn't seem to be a problem with dropping more hay, and you could easily deter that with a piece of plywood or something if you really wanted to.
I put an entire compressed bale of prairie hay in it broken into flakes. That's the first climbing I've seen, and I think it was only because they were interested in the fresh hay I was putting in. I was talking to the hay farm owner yesterday (as they were giving Lena some of the office managers birthday cake, lol) and he was asking how well my goats ate the prairie hay because he had someone complaining that theirs wouldn't eat it and preferred bermuda over it. Mine love it, and won't touch the horses coastal bermuda. The horses would prefer the prairie hay as well, but they don't have any left in the round bales. I don't "hoard" hay for the winter since I live next to a big hay broker and it's easier to buy as I go since we don't have the means of handling the big bales, but maybe I should this summer.

 

[Baymule]

We don't have a tractor big enough to handle the round bales, but our hay guy lives a mile away, stores them in his barn and brings them to us as needed. We pay him $10 a bale extra for this. It is well worth it. We pay him for the winter's hay when he cuts it and not one at a time. That way we KNOW we have our hay reserved.

Maybe since you live next to a hay broker, he would deliver a round bale for you. Get a horse hay ring and you're all set!

 

[AClark]

I did get a round bale feeder, and they drop them over the fence for me with their tractor - just I'm paying winter hay prices now. They're also out of the prairie hay the horses like in the round bales, and the small ones are too expensive to feed out - fine for the goats because they don't eat like horses lol. An entire bale lasts the goats at least a week, whereas it would last maybe 2 days with the horses. Right now, a big round bale is lasting 18 days between 3 horses with no other pasture - free choice. I'm just musing about saving up some round bales over the summer so I can roll them out as need be. I don't really have the space to store a bunch of them, but maybe can work it out with the broker to store ours outdoors by the back fence.
I spiked the last one with a piece of pipe and dragged it with the truck, so it gave me some ideas on how else i could maneuver them without a spike or a tractor. Most folks around here have hydraulic spikes on flatbed trucks, but I need the bed on my truck. Between 3 of us we can roll them by hand, they aren't too bad once you get them going.

It's supposed to get to 50 today, thank God. I tried busting the horse water this morning and only got a hole big enough to drink out of. There's dirt and stuff in there where they've tried pounding on it. They actually managed to break the plug off so all the water under the ice leaked out yesterday, but we had thawed the hose out and were able to replace the plug and fill it. The ice is at least 3 inches thick, we had to bucket water over to the goats since the longer hose was still frozen, and I used an ice fishing auger on the pig water last night. DH has had that since he lived in NY years ago, and I've been using it for a feed mixer, but it did come in handy. I stood on the ice on their waterer to auger it and I was kind of expecting to cut through and have it all split with me ending up in it, but no, it's that thick. That's from just the day time temp, I had busted it up that morning too.

I'm over winter, have been since November.

 

[Mini Horses]

I'm over winter, have been since November.

ME TOO !!! At least the snow we got yesterday was met we 50 today, so melted a lot. Roads are clear....28-35 nights and 55 days. I can do that if forced. Ice isn't toooo thick this way.

 

[Bruce]

If we got sick of winter in mid January we'd all be in the funny farm. Yeah -20°F is cold but if you want to hear DW whine about the weather, give her anything over 80°F and humid.