2015 - Volume #BFS, Issue #15, Page #87
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Feed-Saving “Hay Manager”
“We’re feeding 100 beef cows two big round bales a day with absolutely no waste thanks to our homebuilt Hay Manager,” says Ted Lacey of Trent, S. Dak. Developed over the last 18 years on the farm, farmers and horse enthusiasts have bought them for 5 years from areas of the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Nebraska with no complaints. “Customers buy the feeders, we do not sell them. Kind of like the saying, it sells itself,” says Lacey.
  “It was designed because the feeders on the market were poorly built,” Lacey says. “The hay would either spoil or be pulled outside the feeder Twenty percent or more of the hay was wasted and the feeders only last a short time.”
  Lacey’s idea was to use the same round metal band configuration, but use stronger metal, 14 ga. steel rather than 20 ga. as found on competitive units. Another distinction is that The Hay Manager holds a bale entirely off the ground to prevent spoilage. Twelve to 18 3/4-in. steel rods hook to the top metal band making the unit infinitely adjustable in restricting the animals intake. “The bale is supported between the rods and doesn’t touch the ground as designed to manage the animal’s feed in-take,” Lacey says, “Thereby putting the waste in the cattle instead of on the ground. They eat the loose hay leaves that fall inside the ring and don’t pull it outside on to the ground.
  “We built them strong because we’ve got 100 head of cows and we know what animals can do to weak metal,” Lacey says. The Hay Manager for cattle weighs about 475 lbs. compared to competitive models that weigh 150 to 250 lbs. “I’ve used a couple of my Hay Managers for 16 years and they show use but not damage. We move them every day to let the cattle spread the manure in the fields.”
  The Hay Manager design has been tested on horses and sheep and the customers come back in shock that their animals don’t waste any hay. A horse lady was so surprised after buying one in the summer that her complaint was, “I’m concerned that my horses are going to starve when winter comes.”
  “We’ve had a lot of experience with our own cattle using the Hay Manager and we’re confident we’ve got a product that reduces waste to less than 2 percent and can stand the abuse of livestock,” Lacey says. Prices range from $815 to $1600 FOB Trent, S. Dak. Patent Pending
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ted Lacey, 24064 478th Ave., Trent, S. Dak. 57065 (ph 605 321-9226; info@thehaymanager.com)



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2015 - Volume #BFS, Issue #15