Hay racks - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Saturday 17 December, 2011

by Rosemary at 6:42pm in Equipment & Machinery Comments closed

I bought two hook-over hay racks yesterday from another  TAS forum member - we had an "assignation" outside the village shop in Saline to hand over the goods.

I'm going to use them for the cattle but before I do, we're going to put some weldmesh inside them because the holes are quite big and the cattle will waste loads of hay.

New hayracks for cattle

The wheeled and covered hayrack that I have for the sheep is great in every respect except that the holes are too big - so come Spring, it will also be modified in the same way. I must make a note to myself to do it - I noticed this last year, then forgot about it over the summer.

The ewes are now getting through 12kg of hay every day, between 13 of them. I'm feeding hay ad lib, because the field they are on is bare. Their job is to eat hay and fertilise the field for spring. They also have access to a Crystalyx bucket and they're getting a bit of hard feed - mostly because it's in the feed store and it's near its best before date. They'll be getting weaned off it over the next week or so, though then I'll buy fresh to start feeding them about six weeks before lambing.