Cattle handling facilities

bk1991

Well-Known Member
What have you got that you find good and what would you change ? I eventually want to get a scales so i know my weights better but would like to hear from others what they have in terms of head gates etc that makes it easier and safer for one man job .
 
What have you got that you find good and what would you change ? I eventually want to get a scales so i know my weights better but would like to hear from others what they have in terms of head gates etc that makes it easier and safer for one man job .
Used a side by side crush recently as opposed to one animal following another.Super for getting through numbers for vaccinating or testing.
 
What have you got that you find good and what would you change ? I eventually want to get a scales so i know my weights better but would like to hear from others what they have in terms of head gates etc that makes it easier and safer for one man job .
What have you got now?
 
The wooden crush was put in sixty years ago the red metal one about forty years ago. The wooden one had a garden gate at the top the metal one had a self locking gate that brought mad cattle to a sudden stop. We had a portable weigh crate that was dropped in . In later years I rigged it so the cattle could enter from both ends so when they ran through the crush you could turn them around and back down the race again. It was great for training cattle to be quite in the crush because you could run them through a few times without treating them.

33E5205E-97EF-4544-B096-D3875221594C.jpeg1AFCF115-605B-4C7B-8D4B-DAE68EE641AA.jpegBA4C2887-664E-43B7-88EE-31D249637DC1.jpeg1C1A9CFD-24E2-45D5-87D1-EB1956D65FAF.jpeg
 
What have you got that you find good and what would you change ? I eventually want to get a scales so i know my weights better but would like to hear from others what they have in terms of head gates etc that makes it easier and safer for one man job .
A fairly simple thing but a vet gate behind the first animal that closes off the rest of the race is a gift. We used to be having to climb in over side to castrate calves and it was seriously draining and you never quite felt 100% that an animal wasnt about to rearend you. We used to open the second panel at one end when we were scanning and push it across to the far side to block the race but you were never fully secure. I cut the panel in the old crush and added in a pillar and gate and it made a big difference.
 
Any gates on a race should be sliding where possible.
Far easier than trying to move a stubborn beast to swing a gate open.

Give Temple Grandin a google, I learnt a lot from her videos.
Agreed! On the new crush we’ve a sliding gate at the rear, then another behind the vet gate aswell. I think most plans seemed to have the sliding infront of the vet gate(closer to the head gate) but I saw no use in it there as it would leave it tight for weighing and when it’s behind the vet gate it also added security that nothing will come over it!5E17989E-EB39-4E7F-AC49-6B3916F22D12.jpeg
 
What have you got that you find good and what would you change ? I eventually want to get a scales so i know my weights better but would like to hear from others what they have in terms of head gates etc that makes it easier and safer for one man job .
I wouldn't get a head gate where the cow has to close it, I have the Nugent Beef head locking gate here and it's a disaster. @AYF and @headcase have the morris head gate http://www.morrislivestockequipment.co.uk/ it closes in from the side and you can put an extension handle on the crush and close it from behind the cow.
I think one of these would be the ideal, the head gate closes in from the side, the sides of the crush also move in

I would build something like this U shaped one here, holding pens and a curved pen feeding into the crush,
https://iae.co.uk/fixed-cattle-handling-systems-installation-downloads/ or a smaller version

That's my wish list and has been in the planning stages for to long now and am hoping to get the holding pen with curved pen built next year
 
Wormed and weighed mine today
2.5 hours to do 120
Main thing I'll say with any handling systemis run the cattle though it often,even if it means running them though and just catching them for 10/20 seconds

Out of the 120 only about 10 belted into the crush,rest just plodded in tidy
 
You mind me asking what kind of price the full crush was?

looks a smashing job
A7E02409-C033-468F-AE8F-5B2B784505B2.jpeg28ACD47E-959E-44BB-8B17-A37CEEC11BCC.jpegDC94624F-2DF1-4ABF-9E26-005BE7B29414.jpegWas up around 5k+vat,for the steel work that doesn’t include the head gate as we had it on the previous run but does include a head scoop. We got the lot direct from condon and they were a1 to deal with.
Wasn’t a cheap job but hopefully will be a lifetime one.
Very happy with it. We also load cattle into trucks or trailers out of the forcing pen using the gate to the left behind the race and any lorry man that’s been here has been delighted with how easy it works. You can push them safely all the way with the gate without having to be in with them until the last one or 2 are on the ramp
 
Built our own sliding gate here, isn't much to them really.
The slider we have is just a standard door rail bolted to a fairly heavy angle iron. Plenty mounting clamps to hold it. Door itself just out of box section. Use a rope to close it so no bar to hit your head on (opens to the opposite side)
Been in 15 years and hasn't gone wrong yet.
 
What have you got that you find good and what would you change ? I eventually want to get a scales so i know my weights better but would like to hear from others what they have in terms of head gates etc that makes it easier and safer for one man job .
When you are building it try and have a roof over it or have it inside a shed and have it well lit up.It makes life a lot easier if you have an off farm job. When you only have weekends and evenings for working with stock
 

This would be good start in my book. Similar to drew's I suspect.
 
Place in Tip I worked in had these instead of sliding gates far far easier to open and close quickly think they are in the abp factories too
 

Attachments

  • FFB02EB3-A89C-47BD-A63E-3A3524A4FC43.jpeg
    FFB02EB3-A89C-47BD-A63E-3A3524A4FC43.jpeg
    176.8 KB · Views: 177
  • 547B360B-4755-4C56-B2DE-EC9621A9A3F6.jpeg
    547B360B-4755-4C56-B2DE-EC9621A9A3F6.jpeg
    130.3 KB · Views: 177
Place in Tip I worked in had these instead of sliding gates far far easier to open and close quickly think they are in the abp factories too
I saw some of them on some of the American sites and thought they looked the business alright.
Iae do them @scoffcruddle

 
View attachment 84614View attachment 84615View attachment 84616Was up around 5k+vat,for the steel work that doesn’t include the head gate as we had it on the previous run but does include a head scoop. We got the lot direct from condon and they were a1 to deal with.
Wasn’t a cheap job but hopefully will be a lifetime one.
Very happy with it. We also load cattle into trucks or trailers out of the forcing pen using the gate to the left behind the race and any lorry man that’s been here has been delighted with how easy it works. You can push them safely all the way with the gate without having to be in with them until the last one or 2 are on the ramp
Do you mind working between crush and shed Drew? thinking of similar here but wondering if its worth having 2 stands
 
Do you mind working between crush and shed Drew? thinking of similar here but wondering if its worth having 2 stands
No it’s actually our preference to work in there, with the old crush we would have let cattle out into that yard so the idea was to work between the crush and shed so that we were separated from them, however with the way we set it up we actually run cattle back into the other sheds now rather than out into the yard. We put a hand rail that lifts out on the outer walk after those pics as it’s quite a high step and didn’t want to risk it but the outer walkway is rarely used.

since those pics we’ve added a few extra bits, a mount point on the wall for the clock of the scales, an a3 sized white board so we can write out weights or tag numbers if looking for ones to geno tag etc. Then we also have a zip line along the length of the crush so we can hang drench or pour on bottles out of it and they can be run up and down the length of the crush as needed.
 
Back
Top