Update: hay feeders for horned cattle

When your animals have horns, having proper hay feeders is a concern... you don't want to have injuries, it needs to be easy to refill, and it needs to be stout.  We also get lots of rain in the winter, so rolling out hay on the ground just isn't feasible.  

We frequently get asked about our feeders.  We've tried several things over the years, all home built because that's just what we do. 

The original version of this feeder had a roof.  The metal square tubing was repurposed, some flat metal strapping, and a roof to help keep the hay dry, but hard to feed big bales....

.... so the roof was removed and it works great.  We can fit two round bales in it.  The bottom bars help keep animals from getting into the feeder; occasionally they still do, but they can also get themselves back out.

Then we made a smaller version of that feeder, perfect for one big bale.  Full size cows can reach the middle just fine, but smaller animals can't so we just fluff the hay out when it gets that low.  These feeders are heavy... great that the cows can't move them very easy, but not so great when you want to move them.  A small tractor bucket fits right inside for moving, or a chain with a larger tractor.   

Another dry hay feeder that we used for several years, that recently was sent to the scrap pile when a 6 month old calf got their head stuck in the bars. 🤦‍♀️ I'm not even sure exactly how, but cutting out a cow is no fun.  Just glad we found her when we did.  This one was made out of rebar and round metal tubing.  

We still use this feeder at the back of the barn when feeding out of the loft, and it works good.  It hasn't been revamped since we added the wire paneling inside the rebar to help keep animals from pulling big chunks of hay out.  

This wooden feeder is currently in the goat pen but works well for weanlings...just not enough volume for large animals.  We've tried wooden versions of our current large round bale feeder, but they just don’t hold up to large cattle rubbing on them.  

Covered portable hay feeder for horned cattle

Necessity is the mother of invention... though not an new invention, just another project to build!

The cows down at the woods have done a great job clearing everything edible and we had been haying them by tucking flakes of hay around the trees to keep them from trompling it.  We wanted a way to feed them a little easier, especially if we wanted to get away for a few days and not have to worry about them.  

The new covered hay feeder is made mostly of salvaged material.  It is movable, but heavy enough that the cows can't push it around.  There is a gate at the end to make it easy to add more hay.  Even the gate was repurposed; it was swapped out from our daughter's goat pen for a more goat friendly mesh style... a win-win!  The next test will be to see if we can fit a large bale in it and how many days it will last the coos.

Horned cattle hay feeder

This is the first winter season that we are using our new hay feeder.  In years past we have hayed the cows on the ground and in old tractor tires, but they always wasted so much of it.  We already had a hay loft in the barn and thought it was finally time to make winter feeding easier and more efficient for us and to hopefully cut down on the amount of hay trompled and wasted.

We covered the back wall of the barn with tin to help protect it and my handy husband built a feeder out of long metal bars that look like rebar.  We cut a hole in the hay loft, and now we can drop a bale of hay right down into the feeder... no more carrying them across the yard!

There is still some waste and we wonder if the bars shouldn't have been slightly closer together​, but it is a vast improvement over ground feeding.  The cows can reach their noses and tongues right through the bars. Cleanup has been easy this winter too with the addition of concrete in the barn area.  

UPDATE: We added a wire cattle panel to the back side of the metal bars and it helps prevent even more waste!