Ideas for a round bale feeder for goats?

[dianneS]

I'm thinking of giving my goats a round bale. My only concern is that they will climb on it, waste it and not eat it. They've done that with large amounts from square bales. Now I use old car tires as hay feeders. It keeps their feet out of the hay. I just have two tires in their pen and I stuff them with a flake of hay and pack it down really well. They can put their feet on the tire and it keeps them out of the hay! Its worked really well.

We just had a HUGE amount of snow and I'm carrying them hay all the time. (Since they waste it when I give them a large amount all at once) I'm thinking of just getting them a round bale, but I don't know how to keep them from jumping up on it?

I also think my goats would prefer the lesser quality round bale hay. That is what they like, the really stemmy stuff. They don't really care for good quality horse hay.

 

[helmstead]

I think you'd be better served to purchase a free standing hay manger with a lid/roof and wrap it in 2" x 4" dog fence, then place an entire bale (square) in it. The dog fence prevents them from being able to use their feet to rake the hay out onto the ground.

 

[no nonsense]

I agree with Kate. You really need to raise the hay up at about head level, to, among other reasons, allow for a goat's natural tendency which is to browse, not graze.

Premier1 Sheep Supplies used to sell a very nice round bale feeder made from stock panels, that would probably work OK for nonhorned goats. Still, they're going to be able to jump up and soil the hay with their hooves. Premier has some nice plans for good hay racks that you can build.

 

[mavrick]

IT would be better to put the round bale close to your goat pen and fork some in, you can put panels around the round bale but its hard to keep goats from climbing

 

[cmjust0]

We supplemented with a round bale last winter, set right on the ground and out in the open. Our goats did with it what I've seen every other goat herd do....they started in the center on each side and ate their way toward the middle, while using the outside as something to climb and play on. When it got really close to collapsing as they ate more and more out of the middle (I've heard of goats getting stuck and dying that way) I flipped it up on end and the outer layers basically fell off, leaving what was left of the clean hay exposed. They proceeded to eat most of that, but eventually they soiled it enough that it was only good for playing on.

I didn't care that they didn't eat 100% of it, though, because it only cost me $30. That same $30 would only have bought like 7-8 square bales and, believe me, they got WAY more than 7-8 square bales worth of hay out of the thing before they finally ruined it.

But hell...it's not like they don't waste hay out of square bales, too!!



If I had it to do again -- which I may do here in just a little bit -- I'd do exactly the same thing...just flop it right in the mud and let'em have at it. Worked well for us, but of course....YMMV.

 

[dianneS]

I didn't care that they didn't eat 100% of it, though, because it only cost me $30. That same $30 would only have bought like 7-8 square bales and, believe me, they got WAY more than 7-8 square bales worth of hay out of the thing before they finally ruined it.

But hell...it's not like they don't waste hay out of square bales, too!!



If I had it to do again -- which I may do here in just a little bit -- I'd do exactly the same thing...just flop it right in the mud and let'em have at it. Worked well for us, but of course....YMMV.

That's true. Round bales are going for $20 bucks around here this year. The winter was so mild last year that farmers had a surplus of hay. Really drove the prices down this year.

I actually have enough space in my run-in pen for the goats so the round bale could go in there, it would at least be out of the weather. I can just see Sandy and Patsy jumping on top of it!

 

[FarmerChick]

hay is no problem for me.....we bale hay. Tons of it on the farm.
Round bales for cattle, square for others...etc


I drop round bales in the fields with a tractor and let them have at it.
Waste is high but for me, I have so much it doesn't matter actually.

If you want to save money, fence off the round bale in a dry area and just grab armloads for feeding. You get your money's worth then--lol

 

[samplekasi]

We thought that using hogwire around the bale in a corner would work Nope will try to get pictures later today. We will be buying a couple of bales this weekend, 1 will be under a gazebo tyoe roof and tapred and taken from daily the other will be in the middle of the main pen and we think? we have figured out a cage for it our of cattle panels 2 stationary pieces along the sides and 2 that can be adgusted It will end up looking like an H when the bale is emptier We will be attaching a piece of plywood to the 2 side peices for protection. I just hope this way works as you are correct that my wallet perfers the round bales and I can get oat hay in the round bales for 40$ my goats adore the oat hay!!!