Although we are currently raising cows on our homestead, I know that most homesteads prefer to stick to the smaller livestock such as goats and sheep. It makes sense, they tend to be easier to handle in small numbers of course. I ran into this diy cattle panel hay feeder, and thought it would be a great to share with my blog readers.
If you have ever tried going out to buy one of these small feeders, you will understand why most people now prefer to make their own. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars buying one you can make this 4 foot long one for less than $80 with all new material. For those of us who always have left over materials lying around the homestead, you can actually build yours for way less.
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Here’s What You’ll Need:
- 1/2” drill with No. 2 bit
- 3/4” drill bit
- speed square
- hammer
- reciprocating saw
- tape measure
- pencil
- bolt cutters
- 2” nails
- 1 1/2” and 3” Phillips head wood screws
- 1 1/2” staples
- miter saw
- 2 x 4 boards
- standard 50” cattle panel
- thick plywood
- 4” x 6’ beam
The first thing you will have to do of course is lay out your plywood. Then you move on to marking and measuring using the pencil as well as the tape measure. The miter saw will be ideal for cutting the wood boards, as for the plywood use the circular saw. Do not forget to wear your safety gloves and glasses when working with these power tools.
The cattle panel has to be cut in two phases. First you cut the bigger panel, and then you follow up by cutting it in half. Then the tricky part is aligning the panel to the boards, and stapling it in place. After all of that you still have to build the bunk feeder as well as the foundation.
You can follow step by step instructions on the Grit blog, here…
How To Build A Hay Feeder
For Smaller Livestock
You can watch the video below on How to Make A Free Animal Hay Feeder out of Pallets …
You can watch the video below on How to Build an Easy, Cheap Manger For Feeding Goats…
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