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We love raising sheep, but when it comes to feeders, the average cattle feeder won’t cut it. Today you will learn how to build an easy self-feeding hay feeder for sheep (or goats!).
We have tried a lot of feeders over the years… an IBC cage for small square bales, cut in half plastic barrels, an upside down cattle feeder, even a modified cattle hay feeder with welded wire (so they couldn’t fit in), but nothing met our criteria. Even though, I will say the IBC tote was perfect for the small square bales and would totally recommend it if you don’t work with large round bales.
By the way if you’re just getting started with sheep, read this first!
Our Criteria of a Good Hay Feeder
1. Less Waste
The last thing you want is half your hay bale getting trampled and wasted. A lot of hay was getting wasted when were using the cattle feeders for the large round bales because the sheep couldn’t reach all the way to the centre.
2. Sheep Can Reach All Sides of Bale
As mentioned above the sheep couldn’t reach the centre of the bale, therefore we have to constantly climb up and pull a new layer down so they could eat.
3. Sheep Can’t Fit In
Yes, just when you think the opening is too small, nope. They still fit it! I am always amazed. It was always our concern that once they were inside the feeder, they wouldn’t be able to get out and would defecate in their the entire night, again wasting the hay.
That’s when we realized we need a self-feeding hay feeder that was meant for sheep!! We were going to spend lots of money on a pre-build feeder off Kijiji, but then we looked around at all the raw material we already had at the ranch. We have tons of gate panels lying around!! So we got to work and did a little plan of how we wanted this feeder to work and started building. Above is a picture of what we created. I’ll get to the super easy diy hay feeder tutorial in a sec.
This feeder is super great because the sheep can reach all 4 sides, and they can push the front and the back to reach the centre of the bale. We added cattle panel onto the gate to prevent wasted hay, but they couldn’t fit in as well, so we just left it on the non-mobile sides. Though, some lambs can still fit through – never the ewes. But if the bale is well dispersed when you first put it in they will have no reason to want to go in if they can reach the hay from the outside.
Another great thing is that it is light enough that with 2 people you can move it a little to position it. And if you have a tractor the bale spears will reach through to easily move.
DIY Hay Feeder
What You need:
- 4x gate panels 12’ long (the 12’ long panels fit 2 large round bales, if you dont need that, you can get smaller gates just be sure to measure the type of bale you’re using)
- 8x 10” carriage bolts 1/2”-3/4” diameter
- 8x nuts and washers to match your carriage bolt
What You’ll Do:
- Get your 4 gate panels and position them into a square. Make sure to line them up so that the pin holes on the front and back gate panels are resting in between the top bar of the sides gate panels. (The pic below will help me better explain).
- Grab your carriage bolts and stick them in the pin holes, adding the washer and nut at the bottom. Now your front and back gates will be resting onto of the side gates allowing them to move back and forth. And the bolt will prevent the front and back gates from falling off.
And thats it, your diy hay feeder is done! Super quick and easy. And pretty cost effective, I’d say. We’ve been using this feeder for about a month now and really like it! We don’t have to go in there anymore to pull another layer of hay, and the sheep can eat it all the way down to the last flake.
I’d love to know if you try this and what you think of it in the comments below, or if you have any questions.
Talk soon,
Abbagail
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