How to Build a Feeding Trough from a Barrel

These barrel feeders are easy to build, and often you can find old barrels for free that have a hole or crack in them that will still work for a feeder. You may have to hunt around a bit. Just be carefully that the used barrel is safe to use and can be cleaned up well. I will use any scrap lumber that I have around. I don’t use treated. The feeder will need repair from the calves jumping on it before it can rot. Do what you want- it’s your feeder.

 

You will need:

• 2- 2x4 8 foot long
• 1- 2x4 10 foot long (This will cut the two long supports and the two small horizontal leg pieces)
• 1- 1x4 4 foot long
• 2- hand fulls of nails or screws 3” long

If the barrel was used to house flammable or explosive liquid than you need to take proper precautions when cutting so it won’t blow up. Also you want to take precautions if the barrel had any toxic substance, you may need to research further on cutting barrel that had toxins or flammable liquids.

 

The first step is to split the plastic barrel in two. I use a circular saw with a regular 7 ¼” 24 tooth blade carbide tip wood blade.

 

 

 

 

Next build two set of legs make them as tall and wide as the barrel you are working with. The barrel I am working with is 22” wide and 34” tall. So the boards I will be using to make the legs are as follows:

 

 

To build two sets of legs

• 4- Vertical 2x4 at 21” high
• 2- Horizontal 2x4 at 22” long (top board)
• 2- Horizontal 2x4 at 48” long  (bottom board)

 

Next fasten the barrel two the legs with a 1x4 board on the inside of the barrel to the legs about 20” to 21” long

 

To finish fasten support boards under the barrel. Set them touch the barrel bottom to support the weight of the feed once filled in the new barrel feeder.

Giving a Calf a Bolus Pill

The first time I attempted to give a calf a bolus pill didn’t go quite to way I had seen it done. My father made it look so easy. Just place the pill in the tip of the applicator, and then place it in the back of the calf’s mouth push the ring on the applicator applying the pill down the little bovine’s throat.

Not thinking of all the practice my father had, I started getting pissed off when this calf kept spitting up the bolus. No lie that calf spit up that pill about thirty times on my first try.

Then a father said “Stand on the side of the calf, reach your arm around the neck and hold its lower jaw prying the mouth open with that hand, then place the pill in the mouth with the other go down to the back of the tongue.” Well, it worked on the third try.

Many years and many calves have passed since that first time, now giving cattle a bolus pill is like second nature to me. Every once in awhile a still get a pill spit out, but normally it goes down pretty easy.

I have had to administer a pill without the applicator. It can be done, but I recommend with an applicator. Much easier and a lot less chance of getting your fingers bit down on.

I like to run the cattle up a chute giving them little room to move around in to apply the bolus. You got to be careful when working this close to bovines they can fight back. Clam and slow, taking time to get it right is the approach I use. With a cow I like to stand on the outside of the chute up on the side boards at a safe distance giving myself room to get out of the away when they rear back.

I find much easier to give adult cattle injections than oral medication, thus I rarely administer bolus pills to adult cattle. Now calves are a different story, I prefer to give calf oral medications over injections. Most bolus work faster and longer than injections also is easier to apply in calves. I think because I have so much control over the calf when holding it by the lower jaw and placing the pill goes quickly.

Standing on the side, reaching around, and holding the lower jaw of a calf works well for administering all types of oral medication, drench, paste dewormers, bolus pills, and liquid antibiotics, you will have to pen or trap the calf to do so. If no chute is available you will have to restrain it in a corner of a pen or with a rope, sometimes you can get lucky and sneak up and grab it by a hind leg.

Cattle Colostrum, The Magic Moo Juice

First milk, the good stuff, top shelf, the best milk a calf can get. Otherwise this milk is known as colostrum. Colostrum is the milk produce by the cow in the first few days after birth. This special milk is full of vitamins and loaded with the cows own antibodies to fight illness. This milk gets a new born calf off to a great start in life, but not all calves are able to nurse on this magic moo juice.

The cow might die in the birth process or became too weak to stand up for a few days after birth. Sometimes the tits on the cow’s bag are too large for a newbie to nurse; there are many reasons why a calf could miss its colostrums. This does not have to be the end for the young calf. It still got a good chance of living with some help form a nursing bottle.

If I find the calf in the first ten hours after birth, then I will mix up the first bottle of milk replacer with a colostrum supplement. I will let the baby calf nurse as much of the bottle as it can. Only give this supplement for one bottle and then go with a regular milk replacer. If the newbie is older than ten hours, I feel that colostrum supplement does not do the calf any good, so strait with the regular milk replacer. I always like to use a natural milk replacer that is rated for one to ninety days old. I think it is important that the milk replacer provides enough nutrients of the age of the calf, so be sure you read the bag. Many times when a baby calf is sickly or recovering from illness, I like to use grade A ultra milk replacer, so the weak calf will have something extra nursing on.

We have raised many calves that were not able to nurse a cow’s first milk. These calves seem to have a bit more problems. They have the tendency to get sick much easier and once ill, they are slower to recover from the illness. The odds of these calves making it to weaning age differently goes down. There are several reasons that can cause a calf not to live ninety days and be old enough to get off the bottle. Most cows are unable to raise every calf they give birth to. In fact, the chances of a first time mother cow are only about half the time she will raise her first calf. Mother Nature is on the cows side while for us with a nursing bottle, were fighting an uphill battle for the first week or two.

It takes a lot of effort to bottle feed a calf. You’re committed to feeding twice a day sometimes three. This is not a situation most ranchers like to find themselves in. There were problems with the cow that that force the rancher to make this effort. If you find that you have calf that is in need of a bottle, the newbie will die without milk, and then roll up your sleeves, mix up some milk, and place that nipple in its mouth. In a few days, you might just find that this calf punches hard for not getting its first milk.