Cattle Handling Facility Viewing

lough

Well-Known Member
Does anyone have a cattle handling setup similar to that in the videos with a circular forcing pen that I could look at and see it working. I plan on putting up one and modifying another this winter but want to see one working first before I buy any steel.


 
My son works on a fairly big beef outfit and they put a new system recently but didn't go for a round pen, they work on the principal that when you walk cattle into a pen they wait 3 seconds and then wan to turn around and go back the way they came so they have a square pen, cattle walk in and a sheeted gate closes behind them, the entrance to the race is beside the gate and when they turn round and realise their escape route is blocked they go down the race, he says it works really well.
 
My son works on a fairly big beef outfit and they put a new system recently but didn't go for a round pen, they work on the principal that when you walk cattle into a pen they wait 3 seconds and then wan to turn around and go back the way they came so they have a square pen, cattle walk in and a sheeted gate closes behind them, the entrance to the race is beside the gate and when they turn round and realise their escape route is blocked they go down the race, he says it works really well.
 
I know of one in the north east working very well and I'd say the owner would facilitate a visit. If it's any use drop me a pm
 
Unfortunately not much help but currently have all the bits for one sitting in the yard, just need to get it up! And like all things we could have done with it last week :rolleyes2::lol:

In our case it seemed the most straight forward way to go, crush going along the back of shed, cattle coming out the end of shed(or around the shed and into pen from the side) so a circular made the most sense. I’m kinda hoping that we won’t have to bring the gate around behind them every time that they will naturally kind of go out into it then when they turn back they be facing down into the race. Most of our cattle would be fairly ok and handled regularly and through the crush fairly regular but there’s still the odd few(mainly stubborn suckler cows) that can make life difficult which I’m hoping being able to shrink down the forcing pen to a small triangle should leave them no real option but up the race.

Any thing would be better that the old set up where the cattle came out of the shed and were facing straight up the race and always turned back, and then the funnel was too wide so 2 would end up getting right down to the start of the race and jammed:scratchhead:
 
Who did you get it from .
Unfortunately not much help but currently have all the bits for one sitting in the yard, just need to get it up! And like all things we could have done with it last week :rolleyes2::lol:

In our case it seemed the most straight forward way to go, crush going along the back of shed, cattle coming out the end of shed(or around the shed and into pen from the side) so a circular made the most sense. I’m kinda hoping that we won’t have to bring the gate around behind them every time that they will naturally kind of go out into it then when they turn back they be facing down into the race. Most of our cattle would be fairly ok and handled regularly and through the crush fairly regular but there’s still the odd few(mainly stubborn suckler cows) that can make life difficult which I’m hoping being able to shrink down the forcing pen to a small triangle should leave them no real option but up the race.

Any thing would be better that the old set up where the cattle came out of the shed and were facing straight up the race and always turned back, and then the funnel was too wide so 2 would end up getting right down to the start of the race and jammed:scratchhead:
 
Who did you get it from .
Condon in Louth! Been looking at all the makers crushes the last few years at the ploughing and that and just couldn’t look past them to be honest. No hassle dealing with them either! I knew what we wanted and sent them a rough drawing of it after a quick phone call and they were back with a drawing and quote within a day or 2 and had it spot on. Sent the same drawings to others and they didn’t seem to have a clue what we wanted and couldn’t make any sense of the quotes sent back.

Wasn’t till the stuff arrived in the yard that I realised the forcing pen is a newer style with the latch in the middle the same as the iae video above rather than the triangles on top with the nylon bar like the one in the first video in this thread.

We went a 16ft diameter pen, reckon it’ll hold more than enough cattle to fill the race each time and it doesn’t take up a heap of room in the yard.
 
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My son works on a fairly big beef outfit and they put a new system recently but didn't go for a round pen, they work on the principal that when you walk cattle into a pen they wait 3 seconds and then wan to turn around and go back the way they came so they have a square pen, cattle walk in and a sheeted gate closes behind them, the entrance to the race is beside the gate and when they turn round and realise their escape route is blocked they go down the race, he says it works really well.
its called the buddy box, works better than a circular forcing pen
 
DB4D9ACC-6B57-41AA-B32A-B9C042DB9815.jpeg 71487C30-9B8C-4182-A9F9-77C2FBF44117.jpeg F0EC7ABF-AD8A-4635-B0C8-31C65C56CC1E.jpeg 8B13C7E5-34F9-4EE2-9E17-9B8E9821B6B0.jpeg Getting there now, floor hopefully in Monday, catwalk Tuesday or Wednesday then, didn’t bother with the bottom bar on the inside as the catwalk will be up to that height and we didn’t want to risk a narrow gap that could end up with a foot caught in it, took fair lining up on the poles but we got them all near as damit spot on:Thumbp2:(although the pic looks like one or 2 are out:scratchhead:) sliding gate to go back in at the rear after we get the floor in
 
View attachment 60360 View attachment 60361 View attachment 60362 View attachment 60363 Getting there now, floor hopefully in Monday, catwalk Tuesday or Wednesday then, didn’t bother with the bottom bar on the inside as the catwalk will be up to that height and we didn’t want to risk a narrow gap that could end up with a foot caught in it, took fair lining up on the poles but we got them all near as damit spot on:Thumbp2:(although the pic looks like one or 2 are out:scratchhead:) sliding gate to go back in at the rear after we get the floor in

What diameter is that?
I was looking at one last week and instead of curved gates, they were straight between the posts, there was a small gate about a foot long on the end of the gate hanging of the centre post and that enabled it to suit the changing shape of the curve
 
What diameter is that?
I was looking at one last week and instead of curved gates, they were straight between the posts, there was a small gate about a foot long on the end of the gate hanging of the centre post and that enabled it to suit the changing shape of the curve
16ft they also do I think it’s a 25ft diameter one too but it would have blocked up the yard and it’s just too big really for the volume of cattle needed to fill the race really.
 
Lovely job drew, how many big cattle do you think you'd get in the race there? 6?
Yeah I think somewhere around that, it’s close enough to the old race in length and it was around that, it’s about 40ft, can’t think of the exact length off the top of my head now!
 
Yeah I think somewhere around that, it’s close enough to the old race in length and it was around that, it’s about 40ft, can’t think of the exact length off the top of my head now!

I hadn't realised that the circular forcing gate system was available as small as that either. It looks a great job.

Are you going to roof the whole lot too? Best money ever spent here to be honest from a human side.
 
I hadn't realised that the circular forcing gate system was available as small as that either. It looks a great job.

Are you going to roof the whole lot too? Best money ever spent here to be honest from a human side.
Yeah they had one in the ifj years ago and it was that size which had me thinking for years...
When we rang about it he said it’s mainly the bigger size but they do make a go of that size every so often. I don’t really see it needing to be any bigger for the length of the race, a fill of it should fill the race then reload, otherwise you’d end up with the race full and 3/4 in the tub so the race won’t be full the next time unless you let them back and get another few in

Not at the moment, mainly due to the pen being right beside the agitation point.... the race is all covered although it Is only about 1.5ft in under the roof.

Would be tempted to do a roof similar to what you’d see on a horse walker at some stage in years to come.
 
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One or 2 little jobs left and one or 2 done since the pics. We have the gate done on the way out of the shed and we put a zip line along the length of it so we can run drench bottles etc on it and there out of the way.
Gona put a gate shutting to the post on the left of the last pic hanging from outside the sliding gate that can be swung out of the way. There’s also a gate infront of the crush that can swing out to meet the post so we can shed cattle in 2 directions and it also gives a fully secure work area at the front of the crush for dehorning calves etc. Have a hand rail to put up the rest of the way back along the outside walk way and will also be pushing a bit of filling up against it to reduce the height difference.

Very happy with it though the front sliding gate works really well, let the front one out open the slide and the next one runs on up.
The forcing pen works very well too just the right size, can’t see any need for it being bigger tbh, certainly don’t have to bring the gate around all the way every time, maybe about 1/3 of the way most times but if you have a stubborn one the pen gets very small when you bring the gate right around

We’ve put all the cattle through it by now with winter drenching and I’d have to say it certainly made it fairly easy compared to the old crush where you could loose 10minutes fighting to get a stubborn animal up the race
 
Unit I mentioned above is detailed in last weeks journal with good pictures and info.
I was on that farm in Cecil's time. It was a fine place even then and they weren't keeping many cows. Takes a lot of confidence in sucklers to increase numbers like they have done.
 
Very nice setup you have there now :Thumbp2: . I would have thought the forcing pen would have been sheeted .
View attachment 61817 View attachment 61815 View attachment 61814 View attachment 61816 View attachment 61818
One or 2 little jobs left and one or 2 done since the pics. We have the gate done on the way out of the shed and we put a zip line along the length of it so we can run drench bottles etc on it and there out of the way.
Gona put a gate shutting to the post on the left of the last pic hanging from outside the sliding gate that can be swung out of the way. There’s also a gate infront of the crush that can swing out to meet the post so we can shed cattle in 2 directions and it also gives a fully secure work area at the front of the crush for dehorning calves etc. Have a hand rail to put up the rest of the way back along the outside walk way and will also be pushing a bit of filling up against it to reduce the height difference.

Very happy with it though the front sliding gate works really well, let the front one out open the slide and the next one runs on up.
The forcing pen works very well too just the right size, can’t see any need for it being bigger tbh, certainly don’t have to bring the gate around all the way every time, maybe about 1/3 of the way most times but if you have a stubborn one the pen gets very small when you bring the gate right around

We’ve put all the cattle through it by now with winter drenching and I’d have to say it certainly made it fairly easy compared to the old crush where you could loose 10minutes fighting to get a stubborn animal up the race
 
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