I feed round bales of hay in the winter but have never used a bale feeder before. I found a horse round bale feeder for sale for $100 and am considering purchasing it. I have heard good and bad about these. Opinions would be helpful.
If the openings are big enough to fit a horse's head through I would pass. Those are more for cattle. I believe the safe ones for horses only allow the horses to reach over.
For horses I prefer Big Bale Buddy,Round Bale Feeder. The metal round bale feeders offer all kinds of opportunities to get legs and heads stuck and some horses like to jump into the middle of them and then can't get back out. They also rub holes in their manes by rubbing against the metal frame.
Plenty of round bale feeders and all sorts of other equipment as marketed as "horse" but no-one with 2 ounces of common sense would actually use it for a horse.
Half the round bale feeders out there aren't actually *safe* for even cows IMO. I have a Hereford bull and a Hereford x Angus steer boarded at my place right now, their owner has a round bale feeder out there and I watch the poor bull get his horns stuck in the feeder at least twice a day. He always manages to get unstuck but he has bashed the feeder to heck and back doing so. I took the feeder out yesterday as he broke 2 of the 3 pins holding it together when he got stuck.... waiting on the owner to bring me replacement pins.
I prefer tire feeders, I have a cart for my ATV and I fork the hay into that, haul it over to the tire feeders and fill them up. More work but nobody can get hurt on a tire feeder and they hold enough hay for a few days (depending on size of tire and herd).
Thanks for all of the ideas! It means alot! I will def. steer away from this feeder!
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