Moving and fixing the wooden feeder

Monday afternoon I moved and fixed the large wooden feeder.  While much of the corral had dried up, the area around the feeder was still muddy and wet.  I've wanted to move the feeder for a number of days now, but with the colder weather the feeder was half frozen into the muck.  Also the feeder was loosey-goosey and leaning from the cattle pushing against it while eating. Some of the floor's support boards were partially broken from the bull climbing into the feeder.  As a result, after each feeding half or more of the floor boards had fallen down or were pushed into the muck.

Monday afternoon I had enough and I got a shovel and chipped and dug the mud and muck away from the feeder's legs.  Harder still to remove was the hay that had been pushed out of the feeder by the cows and stomped into the mud and muck. I then put the pallet forks on the tractor and lifted the feeder up and moved it over to a dry place.  The forks weren't quite long enough to lift both sides of the feeder up.  I held my breath and lifted the feeder slowly.  I half expected the feeder to come apart as I lifted or moved it.  But the feeder held together.

Once I set the feeder down I did some repair work.   I tightened up the feeder; replaced one corner leg; and fixed the floor support boards.  Strangely, the floor boards now had a two inch gap and so I replaced one board with another board two inches wider. Now the floor fit back tight both in length and width.   After the cattle ate their evening hay all the floor boards remained in place.  And since the feeder is no longer stuck in the muck the feeder sits a little higher and I didn't see Tobey the bull climb into the feeder.

Former feeder location

I forgot to mention in the previous post about Panda's new calf... but when Donna came over to help me ear tag the new calf, when Donna entered the corral with me all but one of the mother cows stopped eating hay and freaked out.  They called for their calves to come to them and mothers and calves quickly left the corral and walked far out into the north pasture.  Donna and I ear tagged Panda's calf.  Once Donna returned to her car and got ready to leave some of the calves finally started to trickle back into the corral.  Tonight, when it was just me the mother cows didn't bat an eye as I walked in the corral.