Posted by GoatWorld on January 17, 2001 at 20:09:48:
In Reply to: Hay Feeder posted by Willie Thomure on January 17, 2001 at 17:00:20:
Hello Willie,
Man oh man am I sorry to hear about your goat. Especially after I was the one who designed it. It makes me think "product recall" immediately but you did mention it was because of her horns. I'd have to agree but I am definitely rethinking the design of the feeder because we too have had one goat (with horns) get her head stuck in there too - this was only after I had not filled the feeder back up again.
I think what I am going to do is redesign it so it has two 2" x 4"s running vertically along the face of each side. Where the three 2" x 4"s on the "long" side of the feeder run up and down, I am going to mortice joint these. In the long run it might be just as well to use 4" x 4" cattle panel wire or similar to where they cannot get their head in there at all - horned or not.
In its present design it does okay as a feeder but the big problem again is that if the hay gets down low enough where the goat(s) can poke their head in there, then it's most certainly trouble. I'm think that if the whole feeder were taller to where you could stack two bales that might be better.
If you have a bunch of goats feeding at the same feeder, it sure does not take long for the hay to go down and present that danger zone of being able to see through the feeder. I guess I've been very lucky so far.
Again, I'm very sorry that this happened. I do feel responsible for it because it was my design - an adaptation I had seen from a pallet feeder.
Best regards,
Gary Pfalzbot