Hay Waste: The Financial Impact Due to Poor Design

Overview

Saving money is not just something everybody wants to do. Agriculture is all about finding better resources to help save money, too. The purpose of this project was to see if smaller gaps on feeders would be able to reduce hay waste and save thousands of dollars. The feeders I used were store-bought as my control and my 2”x4” and 4”x4” as the other two variables. The hypothesis is that hay feeders with small openings for goats to eat from will waste the least amount of hay to help save money. The method was to have three feeders of each kind and have 9 goats rotate through each one of them every day. Then measure the amount of hay that was fed and the amount of hay waste that each goat had. The results showed that the best hay feeder was the 2”x4” with only 4% of waste. This feeder had reduced hay waste by 85% which showed that my feeders were effective in reducing hay waste compared to the control. This can save for just one goat per year $15.65 and large herds can save up to $1,565. In conclusion, there are a lot of great feeders out there for your livestock. This feeder however is inexpensive, has minimal waste, and is off the ground. With this, it keeps the hay eatable and prevents a lot of waste. The best option to do is to have small 2”x4” inch gaps for your hay feeders. This will give the best results and help you save thousands in the long run. With this, agricultural farmers have many options to save money for more important things.

Awards (1)

• Fourth Award of $500 $500

Competition history

• ISEF 2021 Engineering Mechanics · Entry ENMC063

Resources

• ISEF abstract page ↗

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