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maryjane
7074 Posts
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 Posted - Jun 03 2016 : 09:15:28 AM
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For years I've had a head-lock feeder in my milking parlor that I built out of wood. I wanted to improve upon it because food fell through the cracks on my clean floor and the sides weren't high enough to keep them from lifting their heads up while eating and dropping slobbery food beyond the box. Plus, I couldn't clean it easily and I'd like to be able to serve Chaffhaye in it. The wood had warped over time from too many tongue licks.
So, I got to thinking.
I found a stainless steel sink that had high sides and was just the right height to work with my existing headlock. In the end I didn't have to make a single adjustment.
I took it to my local machine shop and they cut one side out for me (leaving a two inch rise at the bottom). They also welded a stainless steel rod along the resulting sharp edge.
In the bottom of the sink, I didn't install the drain mechanism because I wanted to easily put my hand up through the hole to lift out a piece of Corian (think cutting board). It was a piece I had left over from a countertop cabinet install in my kitchen (cut to fit the bottom of the sink on my band saw). I can easily put my hand up through the hole to lift the Corian up and out for weekly deep cleaning. To clean, I put a five gallon bucket beneath it and run water down the sides and bottom of the sink to clean it.
Here's what it looks like to a cow approaching it.
Miss Daisy hated it the first day. She had to sniff everything and balk and object. The second day, she went right in.
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MaryJane Butters, author of Milk Cow Kitchen ~ striving for the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain ~ |
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NellieBelle
11217 Posts
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Posted - Jun 04 2016 : 03:22:24 AM
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| Quite clever MaryJane. Easy cleaning. Here with cold winters I would worry about their tongues getting stuck on the metal, but in the new parlor, it should be okay as it will be warm enough I would think that would prevent something like that happening, and perhaps it wouldn't happen anyway. But I like the aseptic and ascetics of your stainless steel feeder. Your parlor set up and Cindy's is so nice and clean in appearance. I'm still hanging on to hope that mine will get done yet this year. All in good time I guess. ;) |
To laugh is human but to moo is bovine. Author Unknown |
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txbikergirl
3197 Posts
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Posted - Jun 04 2016 : 04:17:36 AM
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| ok, that is just fantastic. one of those "why didn't i think of that moments". this will be a definite modification some day. thanks for the great ideas. |
_(199x300)_(66x100).jpg?v 93697001) Firefly Hollow Farm , our little farmstead. Farmgirl living in the green piney woods of East Texas on 23 acres with a few jerseys, too many chickens, a pair of pugs and my Texan hubby (aka "lover boy") |
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Milking Parlor Feeder
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