Cut Down Passenger Cars Make Great Cattle Feeders

Cut down passenger cars make great cattle feeders LIVESTOCK Beef 11-4-2 Old cars make great mobile cattle feeders, according to Saskatchewan farmer Leonard Digney who got the idea several years ago. "It's a cheap way to make a sturdy feeder you can move when it gets muddy," he told FARM SHOW. Digney hitches his car-feeders together in groups of three, towed behind a tractor. He removes the seats and cuts away the roof and trunk lid for easy access. Windows are removed, or rolled down into the doors. He leaves the front-end on the car-feeder directly behind the tractor but cuts away the front-ends and engines on the two feeders towed behind the front car. The front-ends are replaced with a heavy tongue - made from any scrap pipe he can find. The makeshift tongues hitch to the car ahead with a length of chain. By removing the front ends of the trailing feeders, Digney says he can make nearly 180? turns. He leaves the front-end on the lead feeder so it'll stand alone when unhitched. The only other modification to the car-feeders is to block up the rear springs with a couple pieces of angle iron to handle the extra load. Digney says he can put nearly a ton of silage, or the biggest round bale, in an average size car. "Cattle eat it all right down to the floorboards. We like the feeders because they're cheap and we can easily move them every day if we have to during wet months," says Digney, who notes that if you get stuck with some feed left in the cars, it's easy to clean them out by just opening the car doors. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Leonard Digney, Box 53, Raymore, Sask. S0A 3J0 Canada (ph 306 746-2013).

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