The problem with rice bran feeders is ANY moisture will cause the feed to cake up, thus causing the feed to clog up. We had a guy buy one of those feeders with the auger type spinner. This didn't work because of the moisture that clogged up the feeder opening.

I am a LSU Mechincal Eng senior and our senior project is building a rice bran feeder for a guy who works for exxon. One of the biggest errors in the designs out there now is the hopper/silo. It cant not have all planes diverging at same time causeing the bran to bridge (No feed). I work at a local plant and we deal with tons of bulk powders and our design is being based off proven technologies used here at the plant. i can post pictures later on once its been built and post on how well it worked.
hopefully something great can come out of this besides a diploma and my own 'working' rice bran feeder

just soon pour it on the ground and wait for the college kid to finish... at least on the ground they paw the crust off : )

There is a guy on bayou bucks forum that made an automatic rice bran feeder. If you search the forum for rice bran feeder you will find it. He is selling them for $400 for the complete setup which comes with metall 55 gal. drum. I tried to make my own and am still working on getting it perfected. If you do a search for automatic rice bran feeder on youtube you can see his as well as mine and the powder keg. Mine is the one with me talking with the 4 second run time.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=automatic+rice+bran+feeder&aq=f

hengemhigh.. i was told that the law (or governing group) states that the inventor holds first rights to the invention unless i signed over rights (which isnt the case). i can patent my idea but as most people know this is very very costly expecially for young buck like myself. i dont have 10k to throw down on a patent. but lsu offers to pay for patent but get 60% of shares while you get other 40%. i will really consider filing for patent is product turns out to perform as well as i think it will. if all else fails i will have one coolest rice bran feeders out there that all my buddys can be jealous of and atleast make a few and sell to them on my free time.

I have one of the powder kegs. It seems to work pretty well. THe only problem i have is that we have hogs on our property and so I had to raise it up on longer legs. so now if there is the slightest of a breeze it spreads the bran over too big an area. I have not put it out this year. I would be willing to sell it if you are interested in a 1 year old model.

GameOver, rnrnBe creative, be patient and don't let the school screw you with a 40/60... Think like Bill Gate or Job, the Apple bro! You'll figure it out if you do have a winner..and we do need a rice bran feeder. a freind of mine made us some at the camp, and they work very WELL when the deer make them work, but other times, you can waste $80 of bran..???

I have one of the 55 gal protein feeders that has the 3 tubes hanging down. I mix rice bran / buck/doe pellets or any pelletized feed and it works very well. It is tall enough where the hogs don't eat all the feed. I plan on getting another protein feeder for my camp in Tensas later this yr.

the biggest problem keep running into is the guy owns a farm in kentucky but doesnt live there so he cant be there every weekend and wants the feeder to hold 300 lbs of rice bran. you all can imagine how much rice bran this is. he wants it to feed 2 lb at time so that hopper would last him over 3 months of twice a day feeding. if it was 150 lb i would have this thing in the bag after testing my current design with the 3 sacks i have at house

GOOGLE IT MAN U'LL FIND BETTER DEAL FUR SHO

jls,

what are you talking about googling. It seems there are only 2 or three choices for automatic rice bran feeders.

Gameover,
If you are interested in selling one of your feeders that can hold 150 lbs of bran I would be interested in purchasing one. Send me an email if you are interested. Thanks.

David J.

Ummmmmm David Every1 Not as Smart as you seem to Be. Too Bad you Don't have one thoses Feeder U say they Only make 2 Of.I woulden Sellummm the Bran to put in if

jls,
I don't know what you are talking about. I have searched google and found 2 automatic bran feeders for reasonable prices. The other is not even really advertised that I found, but thats fine. I don't know why you are being ignorant, but thats fine too. I thought you knew of some feeders that we didn't know of. No problem buddy.

Talkin bout u Commenting on what the Info i gave out THats what I'm Talkin Bout.....

BUILD YOUR OWN MAN Can't be that Hard

The protein feeder I have is Gravity fed, and will last for a long time. I put mine out back in August and it is still over 3/4 full !! The deer come up to it and eat all they want from the tubes plus the feed doesn't get wet or wasted.

jls,
I am still having trouble understanding what your problem is. You stated 'google it'. I am not sure what you expect us to google. I have googled automatic rice bran feeder and it returned a couple of units. There really isn't much about them on the internet. I would be willing to bet that is why people are interested in them and how to make one. Not much info out there that I can find. Anyway, I am finished trying to understand you and make sense of your poorly typed messages. It is like trying to read something in ebonics and I can't understand that either.

David J.

here is another rice bran feeder. a little pricey for my blood though.

http://palermooutdoors.com/Home_Page.php

I have the On Time Powder Keg. Overall the feeder is a great idea. However, hogs have been a problem knocking it over etc. The last time it was knocked over rice bran got all in the control panel causing it to quick working. Contacted On Time and they were great to work with. I was amazed at how great their customer service was. They have sent me a brand new updated control panel that I will be installing this weekend. In addition to that I have reinforced the legs and also raised the feeder up a bit and so far have had no more problems. So, for the price I feel as though the Powder Keg is a sufficient feeder for me and it brings in deer and hogs.

What you also need to do is anchor your bran feeder down with stranded wire using metal tent stakes you can get at Academy. Use at least 3 wires in a triangle. This will stop the hogs from turning your feeder over.

I did one better. The PVC leg extensions are slid over a 4 foot 1/2' rebar hammered 2 foot into the ground. Needless to say, its not going anywhere now!!

here is a pic of a rice bran feeder me and my dad made seems to be working good just a plywood trough its anchored down with some rebar