Shipping container feeding station

Americans have found many clever new uses for surplus shipping containers. Tyler Turner is highly satisfied with the way his container repurposing idea turned out.

"I load eight big round hay bales at once now, so I'm saving a lot of time," says the Illinois farmer. "I feed every 10 to 12 days instead of every other day when I used the old hay bale rings."

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," he says.

The container crosses a fence line, so Turner just opens its latching mechanism (which he kept intact), drives his utility tractor with bale spear through his clean yard up to that 8-foot-wide opening, and pushes in one bale at a time.

"These units average $2,200 to $2,400 in my area. This one was $2,000 with free delivery, so it was a good deal," he says.

Untreated wood lines the six 10-foot-wide, 30-inch-high openings, which easily accommodate 20 cows, according to Turner.

The only fine-tuning he has left is painting and staining the wood frames around each opening.