DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE CATTLE FEEDING GUIDE
Get your copy of over 30,000 hours of research into comparing every system for feeding bales to cattle. Inside you’ll find the complete comparison of how each system performs on the 23 issues they face.
- Chainless bale feeder
- Chain / slat bale feeder (Cradle feeder)
- Bale unroller
- Bale bed / Bale deck
- Hay ring / Hay trailer
- Bale Processor
- Bale splitter
- TMR Mixer
Here at Hustler, efficiency is at the heart of what we do. We believe that our livestock farmers and ranchers deserve a better way, to invest in a system that saves your time, bales, fuel, pasture and maintenance.
We compare systems, not brands.
To provide you with a balanced evaluation, instead of comparing brands, we’ve compared how each feeding system performs and compares in each of the 23 situations faced when trying to optimize performance when feeding bales to cattle:
- Investment cost
- Number of cattle that can be fed
- Feed Waste
- Feed Damage
- Hoof trampling
- Time to feed each bale
- Pasture damage
- Ease of access to feed for all animals
- Manure and nitrogen spreading
- Ability to use part bales
- Diesel consumption per bale
- Minimum tractor size required
- Approx maintenance cost in the first 3 years
- Can feed hay bales
- Can feed baleage bales
- Can feed round bales
- Can feed square bales
- Mix with other ingredients
- Open field feeding
- Indoor feeding
- Bunk, trough, feed-pad feeding
- Straw bedding capable
- Single tractor operation
What our farmers say
“Everything we got from Hustler is well built and simple and we won’t have to replace it for a very long time”
“The best feature on the Hustler is the time saving”
“The machine has saved me a lot of aches and pains”
“We earn an hour everyday”
“I save about 45 minutes to 1 hour a day with my Hustler bale feeder.”
“Before the Hustler, I had a traditional style bale feeder. The driving system was always derailing, especially at inconvenient times like Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve!”
“Using our compact loader we can do both, load the bale with the tynes and feed out, without having to switch machines or change equipment.”
“We feed out two bales daily and three shovels full of maize mornings and nights with the Hustler SL360X” “We chose the Hustler Bale feeder because the floor of the bale cradle is closed it allows us to feed maize a lot easier and with no wastage. We loved t
“I’m very happy with the bale feeder, I use the machine everyday. For my farm this is the perfect solution”
“This machine is perfect for us. It allows us to work in small, low stables”
“We save 20 minutes every time we feed out.”
Why should I mechanise my feeding system?
The feeding system is on your farm is essential. Making sure you have the right quality feed, fed at the right time and in the right quantities, is fundamental to the profitability of the farm.
Time saved – Feeding livestock by hand can take hours of hard work, with a high risk of injuries and fatigue compared with feeding with a mechanised feeding system that takes just about 7 minutes per bale unrolled. Reducing your labour hours for feeding would mean you can spend more of your time on profitable work. Feed that has been un-wound with a bale feeder tends to be more open and fluffier, meaning the animals take less time to get their fill. This means they can move away from the feed fence sooner and start ruminating.
Quality feed & More efficiency – There is a tendency to dump a big amount of feed and let them ‘get on with it’. This saves us labour but does not actually give the animals the best use of the feed. Often the bottom of the feed is going off before they eat it, especially in a very tight and full ring feeder. Mechanical feeding is quick and easy, so you can afford to do it more often and the animals will always have fresh feed.
Some farmers commented on better condition animals using less feed – where they increased the frequency of feed and reduced the total amount fed.
If you want to increase your herd health, reduce your hay wastage, labour and therefore increase profitability, maybe now is the time to rethink your feeding methods!
