Watch: feeding made easy with Krunch Kart

Four students from Sligo IT have developed the Krunch Kart, a universal automated livestock feeder.

The feeder is on show at the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Arena at this year's Ploughing.

The feeder is designed to be drawn behind a quad, but there are some aspects that differentiate it from other feeders.

Land type

“Everything is really moving towards quads for farmers in the northwest – the land type means that they are more suited, especially for farmers on the hills,” according to Paul Kelly, one of the students involved with designing and manufacturing the feeder.

Krunch Kart developed by four students from Sligo IT, most feeders drop feed out at the back, the lads wanted it to be able to feed in fields and along a feed barrier in sheds. On show in the @Entirl Innovation Arena @farmersjournal pic.twitter.com/K5QC8wAAe8

— William Conlon (@WilliamConlon) September 17, 2019

“When we were looking at other feeders on the market, they all drop the feed out at the back of the unit.

"We wanted something that would drop the feed out to the side.

"This way, we can use it to feed ewes and lambs out in the fields, but we can also feed along a feed barrier in a shed,” he said.

Old drum

An old drum of a fertiliser spreader was used to make the hopper of the unit, which is capable of holding between 200kg and 250kg of meal.

“We wanted to target this feeder towards small- to medium-sized farmers - there's plenty of machinery on the market targeted towards larger farmers,” Paul said.

The unit is run off the power of the quad.

It can be set to drop 1kg to 1.5kg on to the conveyor belt at a time.

If a farmer keeps track of the drops, they can easily calculate how much they intend to feed.