Well, normally we get our barn filled with big sqaure bales of hay that are obout eight hundred to nine hundred pds each and it last us for the full five to six months  between freeze up and into spring when the hay pastures are growing but we don’t want to run them on it much when the ground is still so wet and the grass so lush that it can cause bloat.

The problem with this system has been that the hay is stored in the back of the big barn, The big barn has cement floors in the full front half (the orginal barn) but dirt floors in the second half of the barn(the newer part of it) and with the ground so wet, it means on average despite breaking up and putting straw down before the hay bales, we lose about 15/20 percent of all our bottom bales to mold.. this is a waste that I really don’t like, now of course we use this in our compost piles to add carbon, so its not truly wasted per say but the man hours involved in hauling it and given that straw is that much cheaper, I would perfer not to have it happen..

So our hay guy recommend trying round bales of hay, with him bringing two at a time once a month, that way the hay stays at his place, and does not have the same loss in qaulity at it does in our barn,  the other perk in a way is that we only have to pay a small amount per month in hay, raither then a large lump sum.

So we gave it a try ordering two 900 pd bales of hay, and here is what I have learned to date.

a) the bales won’t fit though my main gate by the little barn so that the hay ended up lifted up and over my fence behind the little barn.. not ideal but not bad..

b) you can lay out 2 by 4’s and roll the bales onto them for great airflow and cover with tarps, and it works ok, the sheep just eat all around but personally, I felt that there was just as much waste in the end by the sheep feeding this way as there was in the barn..

So that brings to mind a proper steel round bale hay feeder, general cost 300 to 400, and while I can get the first bale placed in it, I don’t have the tractor required to put the second one in.. which means that I would have to hire my hay guy to come and deliver either every third week one bale, or come every third week to lift the second bale into the feeder.. neither of these appeal to me..

So I have put my thinking cap on, and have decided to give a hand at making our own homemade sheep feeder that can expand or collapse at will.. and I might have finally found a purpose for those steel fence posts that I bought four years ago that have never been used and are just up in the rafts of the little barn.

So the idea is to build two solid wood sides, and then create moveable eating sides with the smooth metal bars  that can then slide in or out depending on the size of the bale itself and that the four sides will give me points to also attach my tarp to..

This should keep the amount of wasted hay down, as the sheep can only pull out small bites with their heads though it, and at the same time, lots of room for all the sheep to get a spot to eat from. So will share how the design turns out with a photo of it in action.. wish us luck on a building  day!