Cheap Mini Feed Bunk

Cheap Mini Feed Bunk LIVESTOCK Feeding Equipment 26-2-20 When Tom Howard, Garards Fort, Pennsylvania, needs a feed trough or a place to drop a salt block for his cattle, he heads to his junk pile. "I make feeders from old tires and wheels," he says. "It's simple and inexpensive." Howard starts with a tire still mounted on the wheel. He cuts all the way around one side where the tread meets the sidewall. "Then you just fold the tire up inside out to make a big bowl or pot. The dish of the wheel adds to the depth of the trough. Then I mix up half a bag of concrete and pour it in to make a solid bottom and to keep feed from running through. It also adds some weight so cattle can't move them around as easily." He says he's made at least 15 tire feeders over the years for his small cow herd. The concrete sometimes comes loose in the wheel so he suggests putting wire in them before you pour in the concrete to help anchor it better. And if you use a steel-belted radial, be careful not to cut into the wire. "These feeders work well, they never tip over, and they're cheap and easy to make," he says. Howard says you can use the same procedure to make æredneck flower pots.' "You can make a scalloped cut in the tire to make it a little more attractive," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tom Howard, 680 Mapletown Rd., Garards Fort, Penn. 15334 (ph 724 943-4320; E-mail: bnchmark@charterpa.net).

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