Our Free Pallet Goat Hay Feeder
Years ago - at the beginning of our goat journey - we built pallet feeders that worked really well and are great for people on a budget - since they cost us nothing.
The overall design was simple. We had a pallet on the bottom, added some legs, framed it out on the corners and top with some 2x4s and pieces of wainscoting left over from our kitchen demo. We used fencing left over from our garden to build a cradle to hold the hay, and pallets on the top. They were free to make and have held up well.
Here is the original build - we made two of them.
We did find a few flaws.
This was the first attempt at a hinged top - we used a thin sheet of ply which didn’t last long.
The low design was great for young goats, as they got bigger it was too low for them. They didn’t like kneeling to get the hay. Easy fix - we raised it up a little on longer legs.
They love to lay on the floor of the feeder, under the hay cradles, so hay that falls down is ultimately wasted and we had a huge amount of hay spread on the ground around the feeders. We put a piece across the front so that the hay wouldn’t spill out, and it would be less comfortable for them to climb in.
The pallets on top were heavy and hard to lift - even without a goat on top of it - which most of the time there was. We made some lids to replace the pallets and put them on hinges. Now we can lift them up to toss in the hay.
The pieces of wood covering the pallet tops, being flat, had to be replaced a lot because they would delaminate and bust apart, so when we decided to keep them, we just put the tops on a slight slope to let the water run out and used a thicker piece of plywood.
The fencing we used inside lost its shape and started to break apart. We replaced the welded garden fencing with some stronger twisted wire fencing left over from building the goat pen.
We thought long and hard about redesigning these feeders to something more upright, or perhaps something between fences, or something we can access easily from outside the pens - but it just didn’t make sense! In fact, this is the design I came up with, but when I priced it out, it was just under $250. It would go between two pens, but we would still need two…
The pallet feeders we built at the beginning work really well, and have still cost us nothing. They were made from all scrap materials, didn’t take long to build nor to maintain and they are really comfortable to use! So, we have decided to keep them and use the money saved on some “playground” equipment for our herd!
Feeder with new hinged plywood top and 4x4 to keep hay from falling out. (Before we raised the height.)
