When training calves to drink at our automatic feeders, it is difficult to keep them inside the stall. We took an iron pipe and welded two rods on both sides so it doesn’t slip out

I had a problem with losing the plug for my bulk tank manhole where I connect the pipeline to the tank. I attached a chain to the plug, so now it stays there and is always in reach

To avoid opening the shop door when I needed air, wasting electricity and letting out heat, I simply hung a hose reel outside the shop and hooked it up to the air supply

When parking my tractor and feed wagon in the shed, I have poor visibility and it’s hard to know when I have driven far enough ahead. So, I came up with this simple solution

I slipped a milker inflation into the broken off end of my metal shovel and secured it in place with duct tape. Now when I use the shovel, my hand pushes on a soft inflation instead of sharp metal

In cold weather, we had different operators driving off with the skid steer still plugged in and damaging the cord. That problem stopped after we started putting the cord through the hand rails

To ensure no cows are locked in the headlocks when the manure scraper cleans the alley, we hung the times of the day when the scraper comes by on the post by the headlock lever. That way, we don’t...

To stir milk replacer, we got ourselves a paint mixer for a cordless drill. It’s a fast and very effective way to mix the milk replacer for our calves

Rather than hauling newborn calves on my cold truck bed, I built this calf cart. I made a metal cradle that a tote fit into. I added some wheels and a hitch and made a sliding door on the back

Sometimes our hay and silage samples were getting burned because we forgot to turn the moisture tester off after the allotted time was up

To keep our semen tank off of the concrete, we set it on a mover’s dolly. This makes it very easy for the tank to be rolled out to the truck when filling it with nitrogen

For heifer feed troughs, we use half of a ditch culvert. We make metal brackets for them and use wooden half circles to close up the ends

To teach our calves to drink from the water trough, we take one ball completely out so they can easily access water on one side and learn how to operate the ball in the other

We use this cart for hauling small square bales inside our barn. It is 5 feet long and 3 feet wide, and it is made of stainless steel so it doesn’t rust

Our calves kept chewing through the hose that supplied water to our waterer. We took a piece of cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) tubing and slid it over the hose. Now the calves can’t chew on it

I came up with an idea to unroll three rolls of barbed wire at once to build a fence. I took a piece of metal long enough to fit three rolls of wire

My tools were getting unorganized, and I would not know where the last person put them. So, I came up with a simple idea. I hung all my tools in the right place and traced them with a permanent marker

Do you need a handy way to hold your dipper when milking cows?

We always have shoe booties (shoe covers) for visitors at the entrance door of our barn for biosecurity reasons. We made a wooden box that is 2 feet long, 1-foot wide, and 1-foot deep

I routinely paint measurements on forage and feed bags and piles to track disappearance of feeds and help monitor forage inventories