Your feed out carts will become your best friend on your property. They make feeding out and carting in easier and more efficient. Investing in a good hay feed out cart will save you time and money, and reduce feed wastage. To get the most out of your feeder, you can customise the equipment to ensure the functionality is practical in your setup.
There are many different features on feeders that will make feeding out and carting in a lot easier. The best feeders on the market will be designed with this in mind, and will understand the requirements of Australian farmers and Australian conditions. Our feeders are built strong and durable, ensuring they have a long life and can withstand harsh elements.
Here’s the 5 best features of good-quality hay feed out carts that benefit farmers across the country.
1. Bale rippers
Bale rippers are mechanical teeth that rotate, pulling the outer layer of the bale out and dropping it onto the ground as the feeder moves along. The rotating rippers ensure that the hay is evenly distributed, depositing the hay or silage into loose piles for cattle or sheep to feed over a large area. This helps to reduce feed wastage and overcrowding, which can lead to inefficient feedings. Quality bale rippers will have both forward and reverse directions, which helps to feed out the entire bale evenly and ensures all remaining hay or silage gets picked up.
This is particularly important for large square bales, which should be fed out one biscuit at a time. If the rippers catch two biscuits at a time, you can reverse them to stop them being fed out. This helps to reduce feed wastage, which can end up costing farms a lot of money.
Our Pa-Mick feeder is ideal for feeding out efficiently, as the curved chamber face on the rippers meets many feeding requirements, like both feed pads and hay feeders.
2. Feed out tray
The feed out tray is where the bale sits, ready to be fed out by the rippers. The tray is then tilted into the feed out position, meaning that the rippers can be turned on and the bale begins to feed out. The tray then returns to its flat position for transportation and carting in. All of this is done mechanically, meaning there is no heavy lifting or repositioning of the feeder by hand. Not only does this reduce labour requirements, it also saves time in what is likely an already busy schedule.
On our Pa-Mick feeders, the feed out tray can be expanded to fit big square bales. To do so, you simply pull the levers on the side of the tray and the extension slides out. You can then slide it back in to accommodate large round bales. This helps to make the Pa-Mick the most versatile feeder on the market.
3. Bale chamber
The bale chamber is found on larger feeders and holds multiple bales in preparation for feeding out. The Albybone multi-bale feeder has a long bale chamber to accommodate up to 8 bales of hay or silage. As the bales get fed out, they move down the chamber automatically on a roller system and are stopped at the end by a mechanical arm. When one bale has been fed out, the arm lifts and the next bale enters the feed out tray.
This kind of bale chamber is perfect for large property owners and large heads of livestock. You can cart in multiple bales at a time and feed out across a large area, ensuring that livestock don’t overcrowd or compete with each other for feed.
The real benefit is that all of this can be done by one operator, which saves you time and money on labour.
4. Forks and fork tray
The Pa-Mick feeder has a great fork feature that allows you to pick up the bales from the ground and load them onto the tray without the need for any other equipment. All you need to do is back up to the bale, inserting the forks, and then the mechanism lifts up the bale and slides it onto the fork tray. From there, the bale slides into position onto the feed out tray.
All of our feeders are made with farming needs in mind, with our manufacturers gaining insights from our customers and years of experience to design the best possible farm equipment. Each farm operation is unique, and so should their equipment be, which is why we work with our clients to deliver true tailor-made solutions. You can customise our hay feed out carts to suit your specific needs, such as making them larger or smaller to accommodate different amounts of bales. Talk to our team today about your feeder options and whether you require any customisation.
Call us on 03 5560 5713 or email sales@wmifeeders.com.au.
