This is Part 2 of an ongoing discussion of how to reduce waste in feeding hay to goats. Part 1 gives all measurements for the manger pictured below. This manger is built on exactly the same vertical measurements. It is 3 feet long by 2 feet wide in the horizontal dimension. Note that the place you put hay is only 9” deep!
The reason that this manger got built is that our barn is designed to be highly flexible, and there are times when we quadrant off sections that don’t have our wall mangers.
Additionally, there are seasons where we have more goats in a space than there are linear feet to a manger, and so the weakest get pushed aside.
I wanted to make a manger like the ones we have on our walls, but that was portable and accessible from all four sides.
This has fitted the bill admirably. I’ve seen as many as three adult goats on each side. For smaller herds, this design would prove ideal!
As with the wall version, the key to NOT having wasted hay is to NOT fill it above the level where the goats put their heads through to eat. If they don’t put their heads all the way in to eat, and stay there, this manger is no better than a slatted one, in terms of waste. The whole point of this design is that you drop a leaf of hay horizontal in the 9” bottom, and let the goats pull up on mouthfuls while leaving their heads inside the feeder.
See the demonstration below!
Ours is currently on our goat porch, so it is protected from rain and snow. However, one could easily extend the height of the four corner posts and affix a roof above this feeder if it were used primarily outside.
Using the lumber that we did, this manger is stable: it’s pretty heavy, but I find that two adults can move it easily.
