Calf stalls feed hole size?

[SuperDog]

I want to start keeping the calves I buy from the local farmer in separate stalls. I have them built like the ones on this website. http://www.uwex.edu/ces/heifermgmt/d...sMarch2009.pdf and this one http://sheboygan.uwex.edu/files/2010...sinCalfPen.pdf The question I have is, how wide of an opening is needed for a calf to put his head thru to eat out of the buckets? With the cattle panels I have the opening would have to be 8" wide or 16" wide. The 16" seems a bit big to me, but the 8" seems small. Would 8" be enough?

Thanks
Mike

[Cheribelle]

NO. In my opinion. Be sure to tape the cut ends or you'll have sharp edges.

[myersfarm]

16 is to wide and 8 is to small...


why not try to use hose clamps with stiff piece of wire ( smaller but stiff like rebar )
to make the hole the size you want just give them room ...also you did not say if you have 2 holes with one for each bucket or one hole in the middle of 2 buckets that would also make a difference

as far as sharp edges use a hand grinder on the cut edges I think tape would wear off shortly

[sammyd]

We have some and just cut out enough to make 4 holes one if you get my meaning....
grind the remains down so that they don't cause problems.