Feeding hay

How do you cow pokes feed your round bales? I use a typical 8' ring seen at any farm supply but my cows waste 20-25% of every bale. When paying 25-30 bucks a roll that gets expensive. I need a better idea.

I use the by rings as well. A buddy of mine uses a hay unroller on the back of his tractor. They don't waste near as much but he feeds every morning and every afternoon and I frankly don't have time to spend feeding like that. I think he told he spends and hour each feeding rolling hay out twice a day in one field. I have cows in separate fields so figure time wise. 20 min. Tractor ride to go get 2 bales of of the barn, 20 min. Back to the fields, say he spends a hour per feeding one field. I've got cows in two fields I've got to feed so 2 hours there in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. That's almost 5 hours a day. I feed hay about every 3-4 days in a hay ring. Hay quality has alot to do with waste as well. If no ring was used they'll make a huge mess and waste a alot of hay if you just sit the bales out. The other option I've seen used i think it's called a hay cradle .

I see a cone type hay feeder on the interwebs but I haven't found one local. They run around a $1000 give or take but cut the waste back to around 5% possibly.if I paid that & it worked as advertised I could make my investment back in a year or 2.

We roll em out here and burn what's left over on the ground when it's dry enough in the early spring. It beats the heck out of having that knee deep mess in an area in the pasture.

I go get one at a time from a guy. He loads if on my truck with his tractor and I go push it off in the pasture or barn. This year I also got some square bales. But I only have 4 head so not many to feed