Why don't hay rings work?

Interviewer: What's wrong with hay rings and why don't they work?

CowboyBenWade: Hay rings are a good idea in theory, but sometimes things that sound good, don't work very well in real life. Hay rings are one such example. The idea is that the cows stick their heads through the rings, eat the hay, and they don't walk on it and poop all over it. This is true, it does keep the cows off the hay. For myself, I'm not too worried if my cows eat a little bit off poop every now and then along with their hay. I'm sure it doesn't taste very good and all that, but I'm not having to eat it myself. When they are hungry and the hay is so good, they won't even notice a smear of poo now and then.

Interviewer: Ranchers have told me that they are most concerned with how well the cows finish a bale. Do hay rings work in this respect?

CowboyBenWade: And here is the fatal flaw of hay rings - the cows will eat the bail down, and it'll all collect at the bottom of the hay ring. Now cows are not that smart; it's kind of like a little kid that doesn't want to scrape all the ice cream out of the bottom of the carton. Or perhaps like me that doesn't want to scrape all the peanut butter from around the edges of the jar. Cows are the same way, they look in there at the hay ring, and they don't see a bale in there anymore, so they think there's no more hay. It takes intellect or extreme hunger or maybe both to look at that ring and realize there's twelve inches of hay packed down at the bottom.

Interviewer: Maybe they think the hay down there at the bottom has poop on it.

CowboyBenWade: Again, that would take reasoning to know there is not poop on that hay because they haven't been walking on it. It's a blessing and a curse to be so simple minded. We must do what we can to assuage their simple minds into doing as our powerful minds dictate. We are their masters, and they are our food. We should like our food to be well preserved until the proper moment.

Interviewer: Indeed you do, and they are magnificent creatures you have.

CowboyBenWade: Cows will destroy the bail and throw the hay all over the ground if they can. They want to break it up a bit so they can eat it easier. It's kind of like you cutting smaller pieces off a steak - easier to eat. The idea of hay rings is they can't just take one bite at the time, without scraping their heads against it and tearing it up. Now I haven't measure the actual different in wasted hay between a bale that's placed in a hay ring versus one that's just dumped haphazardly in the field. I'm sure someone has measured this, but it's not me. It will never be me. On my farm, I have more important things to do.

Interviewer: I see. So do you still have hay rings?

CowboyBenWade: Yes, but I used to be a more zealous meat manager. I used to think they helped; I wanted to think they helped, but now I see the truth. And besides, I get tired of lifting that hay ring up and then putting the hay in there, then dumping the hay ring back down on it. It's too much work for too little gain, so hay rings are definitely not worth it on my farm. Now I just dump a hay bale in there and call it a day.

Interviewer: That's much easier then having to lift up all the hay rings, put the hay under there, then push them over again.

CowboyBenWade: Correct, I like to do useful things, and hay rings are not useful to my operation.

CowboyBenWade: I'll tell you a little secrete about galvanized hay rings. Cows rub up against them all the time, and they wear off the galvanized coating. So they start to run where the cows stick their heads through. It's not a big deal at first, but over time they head slots will rust through. Painted hay rings will somewhat mitigate this, as paint is harder to scrap off. But again, this happens over years, and any coating will rub off where cow head goes. It's just facts.

The good thing about galvanized hay rings, is that they run only where the cows run on them. With painted hay rings, the rust forms around the welds, and this is bad. They are more likely to fall apart and become structurally unstable if the welds fail. This same thing happens with painted gates as opposed to galvanized gates.

Interviewer: Do you baby calves get inside your hay rings?

CowboyBenWade: They are mischievous little creatures, and they are always getting through places where I don't want them. They can get inside my hay rings, and then they poop in there. Then the cows don't like that. So no, the hay rings still do not totally solve the problem.

CowboyBenWade: If against my advice, someone chooses to still use hay rings because they think they will help, they can be bought at Tractor Supply or basically any cow store that sells livestock accessories. Hay rings are big, so they can be seen for a long distance away. The feed store that carry them can't really hide them since they are that big.