DIY Calf Feeder
Last week we asked if anyone owned or built a calf creep feeder. We did get one response from torquewrench1969 (thank you!) that had some good information on this subject plus other ideas so I would suggest checking the link out!
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/portals/our_offices/departments/biological-ag-engineering/extension/building_plans/calf
Since we had some information we started looking for materials on the homestead that can handle a beating from young and adult cows. We found some 1" and 2" square tube, bed frame, #3 and #4 rebar, 6" flat strips a 1/8" metal, tin left over from a portable chicken coop, a small trough feeder and a metal screen.
The critical dimension is the door width, which is 15". Since we had material and the critical dimensions it is time to start building.
To prevent the calves from feeling pressure from the adult cows and to give them visual separation we surrounded the top and side of the feeder with tin.
This one may not look like a creep feeder made by a manufacturer but it is serving our calves well plus it is going to be part of our homestead for many years because it is made from heavy duty stuff!
Thanks for reading and hopefull this will give you some ideas if you have plans to build a calf creep feeder! Shalom!
Great Idea. Nicely built also and should last forever. Just needs some paint. I'm thinking maybe a nice blooo......
I'm not big on painting, maybe you can help me next time you are in our area? LOL
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Interesting. What exactly is the purpose of a "creep feeder"?
It allows the small calves to get some alfalfa pellets in the winter (higher protein). The big cows will drive the little ones away from the big feeder. If we had a larger herb of cows it would need to be larger in size. Some of the big commercial ones hold 5 tons of grain but they cost 5-8K. I simple one like we built would run $1,000.
Good information. I didn't know qhat a calf creep feeder was. @ironshield
Glad you found it useful!
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