[Jacob-list] Hay from Heaven

[Linda]

I sure agree with Thom.  You will lose about half of your fleece if you feed have up high. For a good, quickie hay 
feeder, I put a hog panel against the sheep fence and drop hay in the space, up to about 18 inches. I am about half way 
through building a hay feeder from plans I found in a book.  It's abit hard to describe, but it looks like it will work 
very well.  It's basically a hopper the size of a hay bale standing on end.  The hopper stands on legs about 9" above a 
feed trough.  The sheep reach across the trough and pull out the hay at about knee to chest height.  What they drop 
ends up in the trough and not on the ground or on their neighbor. It looks like it will be more efficient than the 
grate box feeder and more accessible to lambs.

I'm not sure if you will have more of a parasite problem feeding on the ground - isn't that alot like grazing, which is 
basically eating on the ground?  I'm abit south of you, Gary, in NE Georgia and we don't really have much of a parasite 
problem.  The ground does freeze here in the winter and I think that helps alot.  The parasite problem is alot worse 
south of here.

Linda


On Thu, 26 Jul 2001 07:21:56 -0400, Thomas Simmons  wrote:
>Well, welcome back from hiding, Gary!
>
>I suppose down in where the seasons are long wet and hot, yuo
>probably have
>more of a parasite issue than I do in New Hampshire.....but, having
>tried
>every possible permutation of haying known to mankind (and some
>unknown), I
>have learned two important rules in my flock:
>
>First, any hay placed habitually at or above shoulder level will
>result in
>several humdred thousand pieces of chaff and seed dep down in the
>fleece of
>the sheep.  If you plan on using your fleeces for sale to
>handspinners or
>processing into roving, this may slow down the process just a tad :-)
>
>Second, any hay placed lower than shoulder level which is not
>well-constrained will end up at least 50% wasted, trampled on,
>defecated on,
>etc.  I have several sheep whose favorite pasttime is to "paw" at
>the hay
>bale in order to get at the one stalk of hay deepest in the middle
>of the
>bale.  They kick the rest all over the place and then wonder where
>all their
>hay went....
>
>So, for me at least, the key to haying is to keep it low (though "on
>the
>ground" is probably not the best, expecially in hot climates), but
>not
>"loose" either.
>
>Hope that helps.
>
>thom
>
>
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