Cattle handling facilities

Danube said:
Would sheeting the 10ft forcing gate be any addition? At least the cattle wouldn't be able to see anything behind them then and the only light ahead of them is up the crush. You could also weld a bar to the top of the rear crush gate so at least your hand is out of harms way when you go to close the gate and you're not putting it between the gate and the wall.
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Good ideas.

It's in the wrong place and it's too small is the issue really so I'll move it in any case.

What do people sheet the gates with?
 
callwaster said:
View attachment 159903

Thats what i have now.

View attachment 159904

There's a couple of things wrong with it.

1. The crush gate is a bit close to the top gates, I was trying to keep it the same length as the hayshed.
2. The dividing 12ft gate in the middle pen is too long to swing into a pen to separate cattle. The 10ft gate is better but still they can get stuck behind it.
3. Small cattle can get through the slip through at 14" wide.
4. Once cattle go behind the solid wall leading into the crush the want to turn around to see their pals left in the middle pen.
5. The tail gate can be a hand trap if you're not careful.
6. The circular forcing bit is worse than a normal pen. They end up facing the wrong way in there and can't turn as they're stuck in a triangular corner.
7. The angled funnel into the crush only seems to convince them to jam in 2 at a time and get stuck.
8. The head gate beside a wall is handy for an animal to belt you against the concrete if you're working on her head.


I was trying to follow the DAFM guidance when I put it up but in hindsight I'd have done something simpler like this.

Short gates. No fancy slip throughs or angled ins or outs. Use the bottom pen only for loading the crush not holding them.


View attachment 159905
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Why do you have a funnel or what's the need for it, what if you just had the 360 gate and no funnel
 
Farmer Geddon said:
That's a nice bit of work. Simple and strong. Hard to tell from the pic, but did you angle the end of the latch bolt to prevent it from digging into the wall?
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No i didnt bother, its low usage and with the bungee being gentle enough its not making too much of a mark yet but still does the job
callwaster said:
Good ideas.

It's in the wrong place and it's too small is the issue really so I'll move it in any case.

What do people sheet the gates with?
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Used stock board on any gates here,
 
What is this set up/design on Crawford's Farm like from 5:40 on, what's wrong with the design when this style of set up never gets mentioned

 
lough said:
@AYF @headcase is your Morris crush, manual squeeze or hydraulic squeeze
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This one is hydraulic. Certainly keeps them still. TB tester was very complimentary of it anyway!

Previous one was manual via swinging the bottom of the sides in. It was good, but not the same as a proper squeeze. We built a lever to help squeeze them. And a few more holes for options of how far we could squeeze would have helped but never got round to it.

Both very good, well built crushes!

Are you in the market?
 
AYF said:
This one is hydraulic. Certainly keeps them still. TB tester was very complimentary of it anyway!

Previous one was manual via swinging the bottom of the sides in. It was good, but not the same as a proper squeeze. We built a lever to help squeeze them. And a few more holes for options of how far we could squeeze would have helped but never got round to it.

Both very good, well built crushes!

Are you in the market?
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I was making enquiries about a Morris one, but there is very little information out there like photos or youtube videos.
They have a manual squeeze and hydraulic squeeze one. I was wondering how the manual squeeze type worked, I was thinking it was the way you described but wasn't sure. I wouldn't be keen on the sides just swinging in at the bottom.
They won't sell the hydraulic one as a manual set up.

I would love a squeeze crush but it is hard to justify for the amount of cows I have, there is a grant but the reference cost comes nowhere close to the actual cost. The existing setup is not safe and would like a safe way of working.

Does the sides on the Morris hydraulic crush work the same as the sides in the Condon one below at 32 seconds
headcase said:
Mandraulic
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Is it a hand pump that works the hydraulics
 
lough said:
I was making enquiries about a Morris one, but there is very little information out there like photos or youtube videos.
They have a manual squeeze and hydraulic squeeze one. I was wondering how the manual squeeze type worked, I was thinking it was the way you described but wasn't sure. I wouldn't be keen on the sides just swinging in at the bottom.
They won't sell the hydraulic one as a manual set up.

I would love a squeeze crush but it is hard to justify for the amount of cows I have, there is a grant but the reference cost comes nowhere close to the actual cost. The existing setup is not safe and would like a safe way of working.

Does the sides on the Morris hydraulic crush work the same as the sides in the Condon one below at 32 seconds

Is it a hand pump that works the hydraulics
Click to expand...
Depends on what breakfast you had
 
lough said:
I was making enquiries about a Morris one, but there is very little information out there like photos or youtube videos.
They have a manual squeeze and hydraulic squeeze one. I was wondering how the manual squeeze type worked, I was thinking it was the way you described but wasn't sure. I wouldn't be keen on the sides just swinging in at the bottom.
They won't sell the hydraulic one as a manual set up.

I would love a squeeze crush but it is hard to justify for the amount of cows I have, there is a grant but the reference cost comes nowhere close to the actual cost. The existing setup is not safe and would like a safe way of working.

Does the sides on the Morris hydraulic crush work the same as the sides in the Condon one below at 32 seconds

Is it a hand pump that works the hydraulics
Click to expand...
Looking at the website now, I think our old one was a "variable width clipping crush" as opposed a Squeeze crush. I think @headcase has the same one? It was better than straight sides for sure.


I seem to recall (don't quote me!) That they explained to me that the "manual Squeeze" refers to a manual yoke, gates and scoop. But all their actal squeezing is done hydraulicly. With the 12v hydraulic system if it's a manual crush (I think)

His reasoning was you can get a proper, faster Squeeze on them that way. And by the time they had a manual system fabricated and fitted, the pump and a ram was almost cheaper.

I saw a 12v one at their factory. It looked good. Simple enough really, and the hydraulic gubbins was just an off the shelf power pack and tank as you'd find on a Transit tipper or such.

The sides do move in a similar way to those in the vid. Bars top and bottom keeping the sides parallel.


I opted full 240v hydraulic as it was going to be a 100%stationary crush. Won't be moved.
 
I asked before but after pricing up a far too extravagant facility I did nothing with the ideas after so apologies for asking again but maybe something simpler could be done. What would lads reckon of putting the crush up against the wall with the red mark and then having a "bud box" on one of the ends whichever works best being right handed, maybe one or two pens as the shed would be available for extra pens when testing etc.
 

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