Drum Feeders
Howdy D. Powell,
Your request was interesting because, while I’m not into architecture or parks and wildlife management, I am a genuine Texas powderhead (that’s an expression for an old solids handling guy from way back). Intrigued by your offer, I have an idea that might work.
Why not fill the 55 gallon drum feeders at the bulk silo? Carry the full drums wherever they need to go and unload them with a Tommy Lift (an unloading device attached to the back of your 4WD vehicle). Put the empty drum feeder on your truck and proceed to the next location.
This would eliminate the bags, the filling of the bags, and ten-trips-per-feeder emptying of the bags. I don’t know what a Tommy Lift costs but I should think that $2,000 should easily cover it.
The ideal arrangement for filling the feeder drums would eliminate the auger, specifically, the material would flow by gravity into the empty feeder drum that is sitting on the back of your 4WD vehicle. It may be necessary to elevate the bin but that is inexpensive and easy to do.
With this new method the only possible drawback would be that the feeders would have to be located on the driving path for your vehicle.
What do you say?
Regards,
Dennis Hauch ■
Re: Help Moving Grain In Quail Management Area
Thanks for the reply and the idea.
The problem is that the drums are in the scrub, and set up with the feeder attachments so they can't be easily moved. They are hidden in the scrub to provide pretection from the raptors. So the truck often is more than 100 yards away from the feeder.
Other ideas?
Dennis ■
Re: Help Moving Grain In Quail Management Area
Dear Mr. Powell,
For anyone to give you suggestion, he needs to understand your problem and requirement in its exact form. Kindly describe your working requirement with some sketch etc.
Experts in material handling will certainly give suggestions, however engineering industry in agricultural field can also be of some help.
Regards,
Ishwar G Mulani.
Author of Book : Engineering Science and Application Design for Belt Conveyor.
Email : parimul@pn2.vsnl.net.in
Tel.: 0091 (0)20 5882916 ■
Sounds Like You Need A Seedvac!
Dear Mr. Powell,
Our company produces the exact machine that you require! We have sold a number of these units in Texas for deer feeding that uses a similar overhead-type feeder.
The SeedVac is a "pressure-only" fully portable pneumatic conveyor that is powered by a 10 HP gasoline engine that was designed to convey bulk seed into farm field planters. The bulk seed is typically discharged from a gravity flow wagon or Buckhorn-type bulk box. Our company has produced the SeedVac for the past 8+ years. Full details and installation examples and uses can be found at our www.christianson.com website by clicking on the "SeedVac" icon.
The conveying distance is typically up to 50' as we want to minimize the chance of product degradation (i.e. germination will be affected by damaged seed). In your application, however, damage is not a concern as it is a feed product.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Tim Flann
Sales Director
Christianson Systems, Inc.
20421 15th St SE
Blomkest MN 56216
Toll Free Tel: 800-328-8896
Tel: 320-995-6141
Fax: 320-995-6145
website: www.christianson.com ■
Help moving grain in quail management area
I'm an architect, not an engineer. I've been asked by a Texas quail management area to help design a very low cost (less than a couple thousand dollars), low tech method to move bulk grain (wheat) from a small silo to remote 55 gallon drum quail feeders in the rough Texas counrtyside.
I design buildings not bulk handeling equipment.
Right now it is done by filling bags with an auger; loading the bags onto 4WD truck and trailer; shouldering them over the 1-200 ft of distance that is not navigable; and hand filling the feeders. That's about 10 bags per feeder. There are 1250 feeders spread over about 65,000 acreas. Twice a year. It's killing them.
There must be a better way of doing this that takes at least a couple steps up from manual labor.
Solve the problem and you'll get 3 days of guided quail hunting with dogs and lodging in some of the last great wild quail country in America ■