Low-Cost "Culvert Feed Bunks

Low-Cost "Culvert Feed Bunks LIVESTOCK Feeding Equipment 27-3-2 "They didn't cost much and should last a lifetime," says Rusty Faubion, Blockton, Iowa, who turned 36-in. dia. concrete culverts into fenceline feed bunks. The culverts were given to him after a highway was rebuilt in front of his house. They're 6 ft. long and are designed to interlock tightly together. Faubion used a big cement saw to cut each culvert in half lengthwise. The culverts were then placed end to end alongside a home-built cable fence. "It was a lot of work but the effort was worth it," says Faubion. "All together I made about 176 ft. of bunks. I borrowed the cement saw from a construction company and paid $119 for a new blade. The culverts are 4 in. thick and have. rebar spaced 2 in. apart at the top and bottom. It took about 20 minutes to make each cut. "The bunks are free-standing and won't tilt. They hold a lot of feed." Faubion says a lot of counties across the country are switching from cement road culverts to plastic and steel. "You can often get concrete culverts cheap," he says. To make it easy to clean old feed out of the bunks, Faubion welded a round steel disc to a 6 1/2-ft. long piece of steel pipe. A length of chain bolts to the end of the pipe. To clean out the bunk, he hooks the chain onto the bucket on his front-end loader and then drives alongside the bunks. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Russell Faubion Jr., Rt. 2, Box 69, Blockton, Iowa 50836 (ph 641 788-3761 or 712 542-7006)

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