If you’re looking for a homemade goat hay feeder, here’s a wide range of DIY Goat Hay Feeder Plans to build one from scratch. I might incorporate that at some point but for now I have a very sturdy hay feeder for my goat girls.Many goat owners face the same problems when feeding hay: how to avoid wasting food? And how to keep the hay fresh? A proper feeder is a must. This would collect the finer bits of hay that sift out. Some folks will include a chalf tray on the bottom. With just me there to hold the pallet in place it was easier to just trim off extra later rather than trying to balance it up there, measure it and keep track of the measurements. If you wanted to do this more professionally with less waste, I would say you could measure and pre-cut the braces to fit the angle of the pallet. Using my circular saw I’ll trim off any extra protruding parts of the braces. Otherwise it’ll be a prime spot for little goats to climb in and make mischief. The gap on the bottom side is definitely still a little big so I plan to add in another brace. Then I added an another brace midway down the pallet on each side. I made sure to angle the pallet so it lined up with the arm braces I already installed. I lifted the pallet into place on top of the bottom support board and screwed it down. Next, I screwed the arm braces into the sides of the pallet. Using more scrap wood (I tried pallet slats but they split too easily) I screwed them into the sides of the vertical boards to make bracing arms. Sorry the photos are so fuzzy! Dim barn and low res iphone! Next, I screwed two boards on the wall vertically to line up with each side of the pallet. This step might not be necessary, but I wanted to make sure the pallet had extra support from the bottom. I screwed a board horizontally where I want the pallet to sit. Next I hauled my pallet into the barn and marked on the wall the height at which I want the pallet to sit, and where each side would be. Make sure to remove any loose nails, broken boards, sharp edges, etc. Instead, I whipped out the circular saw and cut the boards away in chunks. These nails have a spiral pattern on them that makes them impossible to pry loose. I thought this was going to be a simple process of prying them off. The first task was removing the slats on one side of the pallet. I say this because pretty much every time I go to work on a construction project I have to sit and wait for a battery to charge. The day before you plan to assemble your pallet, make sure your drill batteries are charged or charging. How to Make a Pallet Goat Feeder Prep the Pallet Several pieces of scrap wood (mostly 2x4s).To put together this feeder I used the following: If it does you can still use it, just remove or sand down those areas. Make sure the pallet doesn’t have any protruding nails, broken boards, sharp edges, etc. They shouldn’t be too wide or the hay will fall out and you risk little goats getting trapped in there somehow. You want to make sure the gaps are wide enough for the goat to poke their nose in and pull hay out. Thin slats that have large gaps are perfect. Gaps on a pallet are the main thing to look for when making a feeder. What kind of pallets will make a good feeder? By keeping hay off the ground you get rid of that contamination aspect. Hay that is loose on the ground can also come in contact with manure, which can and usually does contain a certain amount of parasites (worms). They are picky little eaters and a lot of perfectly good hay will go to waste if it is just strewn on the ground. Goats are notorious for being hay wasters. Why is it important to keep goat feed of the ground? Since my carpentry skills are about a 7 on a scale of 1-100, I wasn’t shooting for anything too fancy. Well these ARE real wood, but I do get it that sometimes pallet construction projects can look like… well… pallets. My husband hates them, saying we should be build things from “real wood”. If you don’t have the time to monkey with one it might be more cost effective to just go buy one.Īnother draw back of pallet goat feeders can be the look. Unlike buying a ready made feeder, a pallet goat feeder is going to require some elbow grease on your part. Are there any negatives to a pallet goat feeder? We happen to have just about unlimited access to pallets which makes them a ready resource for farm projects. A quick google search will show you there are a dozen ways you can use pallets to make an effective hay holder for your goats. A steel frame feeder will cost you upwards of $60 for a decent size one. This week I busted out my amateur carpenter skills and put together a pallet goat feeder. As our little goat herd grows, we are need of a more efficient feeding system.
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