just a tish NE of central ND | What I have found is cattle will eat from any feeder. They waste more with some designs than others. People get all razzed up over what a cow eats out of. If it's safe for cows'(heads getting stuck) and they don't destroy it, that seems to be my main concern. Different people like different things.
I like my home build square oil field tube and sucker rod feeders without any sheet metal on them simply for the fact that the sheet metal is the first part to fail even though it helps with the waste, but cattle will waste hay from all of them, and any feeder made with less weight and strength are only going to end up being welded up on over and over and in short order end up in the scrap iron pile. I have a homemade bale square feeder here that is 40 years old made out of the crappiest oilfield pipe and you can break it loose from frozen ground or deep manure and not worry about breaking them with a tractor and loader. It works for me.
....I find it doesn't well very well. It sort or burns together or boils over the top of the base metal and welding makes the oil field material brittle at or near the welds. other tube and round stock of other materiel than oilfield tube would be much nicer to weld together.
Although I have never tried it, I have heard that if the material is magnetic and is affecting your welds you can wrap the ground lead around the material one direction (creating a magnetic field in the pipe with the welder) and try welding to see if it contradicts the magnetism in the metal. If it doesn't help, you should unwrap your welding ground lead and wrap it in the opposite direction around the material to reverse the magnetism polarity of the metal.
Edited by School Of Hard Knock 1/11/2024 10:08
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Making a round bale feeder
