OT - Hog feeder with shell corn?

WhatToDo · Apr 14, 2009

OK, so I pull a gravity box wagon of corn with my 1962 560 gasser from the co-op back home...now that should make it legal to put on the Farmall board...and I auger it into my bulk bin then spend the next month using the bin auger to put it into 5 gallon pails to carry around to the various pens of feeder cattle that get shelled corn and pelleted supplement as their main feed.

Well, since we don't feed hogs outside anymore, and I have several of the round galvanized feeders around, I had a wild idea (usually the best kind, right?)

What if I built a really sturdy platform and bolted one of those feeders on it at feedbunk height with the doors wired open in one of my pens of cattle that are on full-feed anyway? Would shell corn feed through it like ground feed does - as long as I open the innards up enough? These are about 80 bushel feeders and by my ciphering that figures out to a BUNCH of 5-gallon pails I wouldn't have to carry...

I am asking for advice because I don't want to fill one of them half full then have to climb inside and scoop it out if it doesn't work.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

IaGary · Apr 15, 2009

Yup that has been done around here.

Don't open it up too much as the shelled corn may feed thru faster then ground feed.

Pallets nailed together make a good platform for it to set on.

Some have even trained the steers to lift the lids by slowly lowering them day to day. This helps to keep rain out of the corn if this is a problem with low numbers on a feeder to keep up eating it.

Gary

LMack · Apr 15, 2009

I still like crushed corn better. The lost corn that gets though as whole grains is large since the cattle tend to take the grain in whole to begin with. They burp it back up to chew later and much of the whole grains short circuit and do not get chewed. Has anyone seen reports of the benefits of crushing the corn vs feeding whole grain? And to make this post legal, I would suggest considering a portable IH feed mill behind your 560. I am sure the Co-op would sell you crushed corn as well as whole grain. Then again a number of free range chickens might make this a moot point.

IaGary · Apr 15, 2009

Once that kernal goes out the back end it doesn't matter. The cow has gotten all the nutriants out of that kernal even if it comes out whole.

That's what I have been told.

Gary

OT - Hog feeder with shell corn?

WhatToDo

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LMack

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