Cost of New Bale rings $$$

I went to buy 3 New Bale rings/ feeders $1,200 after tax

So I bought a $150.00 trailer frame and built a 3 Bale feeder bunk.

I'm going to see how the herd uses it the next two weeks before making "cut outs" for them to feed lower. It might be too high.

Thats thinking with your dip-stick, Jimmy!

The height looks good what you may have trouble with is the center not having something to push the hay to the edge but if nothing else let them eat it down and just leave the old hay in the middle.

About the only problem may be when they are about out of hay. Calves may have more trouble too.

I would guess calves will jump into it. Cleaning out middle could be a problem especially after feeding 30 or so bales from it.......maybe you could drop the back gate, hook it up and run 80 mph down the road for a mile or two....

Looks good . Use bale spears or pallet forks with loader to flip it over when it needs cleaning

Good Idea DHH , shouldn't hurt it any.
I have a single feeder ring for shorter animals, calves .

Can calf's hoofs fit through the bottom if the get on the feeder? May be a broken leg or other vet bill if so.

Looks pretty decent to me.

Calf cannot get on it...

I would still cover the bottom with something solid.

I think your calves are gonna surprise you

If they don' get on it, it's only because they got their leg stuck in the side panels. I would cover those sides with some plywood or something solid. Those have broken leg written all over them.

I'm not sure about cows but I have seen horses get hooves caught in the crotch of tandem tires like that. I would cover them as well just to be safe.

Hate to feed those high dollar bales on the ground. Lol! But seriously, you’re gonna have some busted legs with that bottom.

I agree with the above posters about covering up the leg catchers.

That Hay looks terrible. Did it get burned

Agree with others about possible leg problems, Cows are going to waist a lot of hay being fed that way. i got tired of replacing the round bale feeders and took the hit on some hay saver type bale feeders. Down here that's what our 3-4 year old hay looks like. You don't have any mold problems with it?

https://www.gafeeders.com/hay-savers

When Hay is $90 to 110 a bale and you're in Need you buy that hay offered you at $25 a bale. I feed it with New Bale next to it. And when there's a 4 month drought and You don't have to sell off the herd $25 dollar poor hay supplemented with some Grass and good mineral is OK.

I Run a Small herd (12 to 16) of Solid Black Baldies not Dairy.

Thanks for the Advice, I'll take it on the floor and sides of my bunk feeder.

*** incidentally a 93 year old Farmer down the road who sold me a bull , two bulls ago said his secret to fat solid beef was " old bales" he said go look in the back if you don't believe me.
He said Dairy cows he milked for 40 years need good Fresh hay.
But beef do fine with mineral and older hay.

So yeah it looks terrible. I have this year's 100 bales saved for Winter.

330, I deal with cattle proofing stuff daily. Put metal valve stem caps on each tire. It won’t stop one from chewing it off but it really helps. If I don’t put metal caps on and a electric fence around our pivots when we graze wheat in the winter. I end up with missing valve stems and flat tires. Trailer looks good! Nice job

Thanks Pawnee

I think I would have made my sides about 1-2 foot higher and welded pipe about every two foot and not even put the cattle gate wire on the sides. To me they are going to pull an awful lot of hay out of the trailer as they have to feed higher up. I have seen less waste when they can put their heads inside the feeders.

Bryce