Ostriches and a new hog feeder

I've been watching craigslist for this kind of feeder -- this one has 3 rings, and will hold 3,000lbs of feed at a time -- and found this one last week for $350. That's a pretty good deal -- a single ring feeder (a "ring" is an extension to make the feeder taller, to allow it to hold more food. ) is usually around $600, and extra rings are $300 or so each, making this feeder retail around $1200.

The fellow I bought it from had bought it used from a guy who was going to raise ostriches. As with most of the exotic crops, the ostrich fellow lost his shirt and sold his gear. What the ostrich fellow had done to modify this feeder for ostriches is to remove the feeder doors at the bottom and put a rubber skirt above to help keep the rain off the feed. I'll make new doors out of plywood and call it good -- the pigs will chew them off eventually, but plywood is pretty cheap.

A big percentage of my animal gear comes from silly animal fads. My hatchers were for emus, my pig feeder for ostriches, my gates from a barn being refitted for alpacas... all sillyness. My rule of thumb is that if I don't eat/wear/use a product from that animal, I don't bet the farm on it.