# Plans for sturdy hog feeders?



## farmergirl

It has finally started raining again in Texas!!! Yeah, hooray! The one down side though is that my breeding hogs, 2 Berkshire sows and 1 Hampshire boar, all weighing between 400-550 pounds, are making mud everywhere I put them. We tried feeding them in various feeders last year and finally just switched to feeding them on the ground, since they destroyed in short order anything we used to feed them. Now with the mud, I'm entertaining the idea of building some brick solid wooden feeders for them. Anyone have any success with homemade feeders and hogs?


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## stanb999

farmergirl said:


> It has finally started raining again in Texas!!! Yeah, hooray! The one down side though is that my breeding hogs, 2 Berkshire sows and 1 Hampshire boar, all weighing between 400-550 pounds, are making mud everywhere I put them. We tried feeding them in various feeders last year and finally just switched to feeding them on the ground, since they destroyed in short order anything we used to feed them. Now with the mud, I'm entertaining the idea of building some brick solid wooden feeders for them. Anyone have any success with homemade feeders and hogs?


You can do what we did.
You take a large truck tire and wedge a plastic garbage can lid into it. they will bump it, shove it, stand in it, But can't really break it.

When you first start out it will seem that they can't get all the food you are putting in but it will soon fill all the nooks and cranies. We made one two years ago and is still in the same shape.


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## BobK

take a water heater and cut the core tank in half.....now you have two feeders....welding a couple of cross members lets more than one hog feed without too much interference from its neighbor.........most pain in the butt part is cutting off the outside 'white' metal covering. We've used ours for over 20 years and while they can move them they can't destroy them!!


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## js2743

water heater works great, also if you have any plastic barrels they work good also cut them into length ways and you got two feeders. these things are tough as can be had some for 10 years now and still using them.


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## TNHermit

I'm just a new guy at this with no expertise but this is what I did cause I got tired of all the mud. They have a round bottom in them. I can fill them from outside the fence My pigs are only in the 100-200lb so you might have to make your bigger.


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## Rogo

Free ranging keeps me from having the problems that confined critters have.

When I had the farm hogs, I had an 8 foot round tank, 1 foot tall, for them to cool off in - avoiding a mud hole.

I'm considering downsizing since there's just me, and raising Potbellies for meat. Would use the same feeders, but a kiddie pool will keep them cool in the summer.

I fed/feed in horse feeders (photo from the web, not mine).










The bottom is about 3 inches off the ground. 

I use these for waterers for all my stock. Mine each have a float so the water refills automatically.

Photo from the web. Not mine.










I've used them for years for horses, mules, donkeys, sheep, goats, steer, pigs, poultry, etc. and haven't had any problems.

I've had all my equipment for many years and haven't seen a need to change.


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## chicamarun

We got an excellent stainless steel one off ebay for my son in 4-H - the guy made them (trying to find the link) it holds 150lbs of feed and then the pig lifts the lid to get to the feed - which of course keeps it cleaner.

Thing I liked best is that it was LIGHT WEIGHT! My husband hooked it up to the barn and then used strong tie-downs to hold it even more. 

I want to say it was about $185 including shipping - but it will last forever and won't rust.


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## farmergirl

chicamarun said:


> We got an excellent stainless steel one off ebay for my son in 4-H - the guy made them (trying to find the link) it holds 150lbs of feed and then the pig lifts the lid to get to the feed - which of course keeps it cleaner.
> 
> Thing I liked best is that it was LIGHT WEIGHT! My husband hooked it up to the barn and then used strong tie-downs to hold it even more.
> 
> I want to say it was about $185 including shipping - but it will last forever and won't rust.


Our local feed store sells a model similar to what you describe. The problem I see with those is that it looks like a 400-500 animal would tear them apart! Also, I don't think our breeding boar needs to eat free choice, or he'll grow to be too enormous to be useful.


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## mundamanu

I was thinking about cutting a discarded rear tractor tire in half (around its circumference) to use to feed ten pigs. 

I am going to rotate the pigs around a pasture, so I thought it would be a good portable feeder. If they get pig enough to shove it around, I was thinking that four t-posts driven in the center will hold it in place.

The tires were filled will calcium chloride, but I think rinsing them out well would get rid of it all.

Any reason this isn't a good idea?


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## farmergirl

When was the last time you cut through a tractor tire? LOL
Sounds like a great idea, one I've had myself, but cutting through the tire will be ALOT of work. Let me know if you find a way to make it a little easier. For now, I'm trying feed pans nestled down into my old truck tires. So far it's working. I got several rubber feed pans that are an exact fit for the tires! And the whole project cost me $18  for three large and separate feeders.


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## agmantoo

A 55 gallon plastic barrel is a slip fit into a 24.5 truck tire. Just cut the barrel at the height you want the container.


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## farmergirl

agmantoo,
Is the 24.5 size standard for a ford f250 truck? that's where the tires came from. 

Also, what do you think about just pouring quick-crete cement into the tires, filling about 1/2 way up. Seems like that might work cause it would make the feeders nice and heavy. My last idea, nestling the feed pans into the tires didn't work! The hogs just pulled them out


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## agmantoo

The 24.5 size tire is from a road tractor. My cattle, including the bulls cannot overturn one of these without any concrete.


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## Rogo

=== We tried feeding them in various feeders last year and finally just switched to feeding them on the ground, since they destroyed in short order anything we used to feed them. ===


You might try something simple that will add to the good health of your pigs - food grade diatomaceous earth (DE).

Results from field tests:

No internal parasites were discovered in the test group at any time after seven days of the DE.

All hogs on DE stopped rooting and destroying the wooden feeder after 10 days.

By the end of the third week the odor of the test group was noticeably less offensive than the control group.

At the end of six weeks the fly population decreased markedly.


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## farmergirl

Rogo,
I might try feeding them DE so I don't have to deworm them with Ivermectin, but how will that help the mud situation??


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## highlands

We use 50 gallon heavy plastic barrels cut in half and bathtubs. Both work great.

Cheers,

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/


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## farmergirl

highlands said:


> We use 50 gallon heavy plastic barrels cut in half and bathtubs. Both work great.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -Walter
> Sugar Mountain Farm
> in the mountains of Vermont
> http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/


Seems like the half barrels would be light and easy to knock over??


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## Rogo

=== Rogo,
I might try feeding them DE so I don't have to deworm them with Ivermectin, but how will that help the mud situation?? ===


Heh heh! Move to the sunbelt! It rarely rains where I live.


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## farmergirl

That explains how you've ever managed to have hogs without MUD! LOL They are like compact tractors at my place. But....we moved here BECAUSE it rains more than where we were before. I'll out-think the hogs one of these days and figure a way to keep their food out of a puddle.


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## Junkmanme

MAYBE you can out-think a hog.......

BUT....My Father told me, "Son, keep your head about you. No matter how hard you try, you cain't "out-waller" a hog!. You'll just get a lotta crap on you!. Don't bother tryin' to outdo a "low-wallerer".

After a LOT of YEARS....,I THINK I know what he was talkin about..........

Ha-Ha!
Bruce


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## highlands

farmergirl said:


> Seems like the half barrels would be light and easy to knock over??


We drill two holes on the upper rim of the half barrel dish (actually more like 1/3rd?) and then tie the barrel to a fence or post. The pigs can flip it up all they want when it is empty. When it is full they don't.

For smaller pigs cut the walls shorter.

Another trick is to set the bottom of the barrel a down in the soil. This makes it so they can't get their nose under it and flip it. This works well for waterers. Drop a big rock in the bottom of the barrel for maximum effect.


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## Beeman

Hey TN Hermit,
I like your feeders but I have a question. Do you have lids for them and what about a cover where the pigs eat. i have seen plans like yours but they had a hinged cover the pigs had to lift and get their snouts under to eat. If the feeders weren't under a roof i figure the rain would ruin the feed.


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## TNHermit

Beeman said:


> Hey TN Hermit,
> I like your feeders but I have a question. Do you have lids for them and what about a cover where the pigs eat. i have seen plans like yours but they had a hinged cover the pigs had to lift and get their snouts under to eat. If the feeders weren't under a roof i figure the rain would ruin the feed.


Well I'm a newbie at this pretty much. And my hogs don't seem to be the norm. They won't eat anything out of the garden. Neighbor brough over greens and turnips and its still laying in the mud and if I had a feeder full of feed they would stay right there and eat till its empty I think.
Anyway I don't have lids. reckon one could be put on. I feed twice a day and they'd like to come over the fence to get at the bucket if they could. The feeders have a round bottom in them and a hole so any rain water drains out.. They stay pretty clean. I have a drawing I made and sent Aboutime" if you want a copy . Nothin special.


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## Beeman

Sounds good, the ones I've seen plans for were like a dog feeder, just bigger, I guess they will eat until it's empty which is what makes them hogs. The part about eating greens always makes me think of the old Jerry Clower bit. One hunter asks the other hunter what he feeds his dogs. He tells him he feeds them turnip greens. The other hunter says his dogs wouldn't eat them. First hunter says mine wouldn't either for the first week.


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