Machinery All Around the Farm All Around the Farm: Solutions for winter woes Here are some great ways to make chores easier and keep you more comfortable this winter, courtesy of the farmer-inventors of All Around the Farm. By Lisa Foust Prater Lisa Foust Prater Lisa Foust Prater is the Family & Farmstead Editor for Successful Farming, sharing interesting family features, heartfelt editorial columns, and important health and safety information. Her favorite thing about her job is meeting interesting people, learning their stories, and sharing them with our readers.Lisa started her career with Successful Farming magazine in 1999, working primarily for the web team and writing product reviews for the magazine. She later wrote for the Living the Country Life magazine and website and has written and edited several cookbooks and other books for Successful Farming and Living the Country Life. Successful Farming's Editorial Guidelines Updated on December 29, 2023 In This Article View All In This Article Guide-guard keeps sliding door free of ice Keep cattle water from freezing Recycled warm water keeps tank from freezing Snow pusher slips on over bale fork Keep gravel out of the snowblower Souped-up box scraper becomes snow pusher Front-mounted snow blower DIY windbreak for fence ATV winch opens gate remotely Garage door opener controls gate Keep mice out of UTV, ATV seats Keep hay dry, feed less often Dry boots quickly Shop heater upgrade Old spreader becomes firewood trailer Close Guide-guard keeps sliding door free of ice In the winter, the outside door guide on my machine shed doesn't work very well. Snow covers it up, melts, and then ice forms, which makes it impossible to open. So I built a cover for the guide from some 2×6s and a steel handle. After we get snow or ice, I can remove it to find the guide is always clean and dry. Then I just replace it again after I close the door. -Ken Miller, Rochelle, Illinois Keep cattle water from freezing Courtesy of Varel Bailey This is the result of about 40 years of trial and error. Above ground is a giant rubber tire tank that holds up to wear from cattle. Inside the tire is a cement center designed to be removable when the plumbing (supply and drain) needs service. A valve lets a large flow of water in when cattle come up to drink, and a port on the side with a jet shoots a small stream of water toward the surface at all times. -Varel Bailey, Anita, Iowa Freeze-Proof Pasture Waterer Recycled warm water keeps tank from freezing In northwest Nebraska, we get some brutal temperatures that can cause major freezing of livestock tanks. To prevent this, I decided to insert a 10-foot-diameter tank inside a 12-foot tank. I placed the opening of a small cutout in the 10-foot tank against an inlet pipe that comes from our house's "pump and dump" HVAC system. By way of the design, the gap around the outside of the 10-foot tank allows warm water to flow around the tank, keeping the water open for livestock. If only one side of the tank is needed, I insert a grooved baffle. - Jeff Housh, Hay Springs, Nebraska Snow pusher slips on over bale fork I have christened this snow pusher the Mad Max because of the way it looks going down the road. People who see it say it looks like a tank. The wings are at 45° angles, so the blade stays upright when it's set down. At 9 feet wide and 30 inches high, the snow pusher is the same size as a loader bucket, yet it's lighter to haul around. It won't scalp the gravel like a bucket, either, which keeps rocks out of the yard. It can also be flipped around to push snow to the side for clearing farm lanes. Also, instead of having to get off the loader repeatedly to switch from a bucket to a spear, this implement has both. -Craig Schnoor, Maquoketa, Iowa Bale Spears in Snow Pusher Makes Quick Work for Loader Keep gravel out of the snowblower I beefed up the factory shoes on my snowblower because I was tired of gravel flying everywhere, but that still wasn't enough lift. I added a hydraulic cylinder for a third shoe, and now there's an optional 4 inches of lift. That seems to be just right. Any higher, and it could twist the snowblower on its three-point hitch. It's high enough so I don't pick up gravel anymore from the crown of the road on our narrow driveway. -Hans Jess, Olin, Iowa Farmer-Built Leveling Foot Keeps Gravel out of the Snowblower Souped-up box scraper becomes snow pusher Instead of spending thousands on a commercial snow blade, we took a box scraper apart, mocked up a mounting plate, and added extra skids and beams. The best thing is cleaning snow from a 70' x 11-foot farm scale in one pass rather than shoveling by hand. -The Mann family, Marshalltown, Iowa Box scraper called to duty as snow pusher Front-mounted snow blower This front-mounted, PTO-powered snow blower has three hydraulic cylinders. One raises and lowers the entire unit. Another rotates chute direction 180° left to right. The third cylinder controls the deflecting shield at the end of the chute for even more precise placement of snow. -Joseph Oesterling, Saginaw, Michigan Front-Mount, PTO-Powered Snow Blower DIY windbreak for fence I used old rubber horse mats and strap iron to make a windbreak that hangs over my continuous fence. I bent the strap iron to make hooks and attached the hooks to the mats with bolts. (Holes are drilled in both.) It was a fast and easy option that cost me around $40 to make. -Dennis Buse, Bridgewater, South Dakota ATV winch opens gate remotely Getting out of the truck to open electric fence gates multiple times a day was frustrating, and driving over the wires can cause them to get caught on the vehicle. This remote-controlled gate made of chain was made by using a remote-controlled ATV winch. Solar power charges the gate and keeps the 12-volt winch battery charged. -Gary Jongeling, Watertown, South Dakota Farmer designed remote-controlled electric fence gate Garage door opener controls gate After years of repeatedly having to get off of the skid loader to open and close the electric fence gate when going in and out of the cattle yard, the solution was a $150 garage door opener mounted vertically on the side of the silo. The remote control opens and closes the gate from the seat of the skid loader. -Jim Brimeyer, Holy Cross, Iowa Keep mice out of UTV, ATV seats Mice love to crawl in the hole under a UTV or ATV seat, chew out a section of foam, and make a nice little home. So I took some small pieces of aluminum flashing and punched in several small holes for air to come through. Then I used self-tapping screws to attach the flashing to the underside of the seat over the original, larger hole. -David Barrett, Leesburg, Ohio Keep hay dry, feed less often Lant Elrod I repurposed a shipping container into a feeding station. There are 40×12-foot concrete pads on either side of the container. Down the length of the two 40-foot-long sides are six openings. Turner made them with a reciprocating saw, which was real easy to do. I load eight big round hay bales at once now, so I'm saving a lot of time. I feed every 10 to 12 days instead of every other day when I used the old hay bale rings. -Tyler Turner, Illinois Shipping container feeding station Dry boots quickly I nailed together 13×5×5-inch pieces of wood, drilled four holes into the top, and screwed in 1½-inch male adapters to accommodate 24-inch-long pieces of PVC pipe. Next, I cut out a hole on the end for a squirrel cage fan. (Any fan would work, but the squirrel cage-type moves more air.) No more waiting hours for boots to dry. -Paulus Wollmann, Faulkton, South Dakota Shop heater upgrade I built a waste oil burner from a combine cylinder. In the bottom of the cylinder, an upright 8-inch-long, ¾-inch bolt is centered in a steel plate. Three stacked brake drums surround the plate and bolt and, after a small wood fire here gets the bolt hot, a gear pump outside the rotor brings in oil to drip onto the bolt. A 2-inch pipe equipped with a squirrel cage fan brings air in, and an elbow aims air down into the brake drums. It's so warm, we stand around talking instead of working. -Vernon Hege, Trementon, Utah Turn a Combine Cylinder into a Waste-Oil Burner Old spreader becomes firewood trailer It's hard to get a big tractor with good hydraulics into the woods. I bought an old spreader this year for $300 and put a trailer log splitter on it. A hydraulic apron runs off the splitter pump, so no PTO needed. I removed the beaters and unload firewood out the back with the apron. -Gerald Fuss, Alto, Michigan Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit