Corrals/handling systems

[jcissell]

I will rebuilding the area where we work our cows this spring and I have drawn a layout in microsoft visio that I think will work pretty good. We currently have a little more than 60 head so the layout I have come up with should handle them all. Can someone tell me a place where I can post a pic of the layout so ya'll can take a look at it?

Also do any of you know any places that produce good quality panels and tubs that don't cost a fortune like priefert or ww.

Josh Cissell

 

[dun]

Preifert is about the best bang for your buck that you can find. There are alwasy folks that make them out of muffler pipe and sell them cheap. The operative word is cheap.

dun

 

[SF]

You can post a pic at http://www.photobucket.com

 

[Wewild]

I will rebuilding the area where we work our cows this spring and I have drawn a layout in microsoft visio that I think will work pretty good. We currently have a little more than 60 head so the layout I have come up with should handle them all. Can someone tell me a place where I can post a pic of the layout so ya'll can take a look at it?

Also do any of you know any places that produce good quality panels and tubs that don't cost a fortune like priefert or ww.

Josh Cissell

To save it to photobucket.......first highlight it or select all and copy it. Open paint or some other similar program. Paste the picture and save it as a .jpeg or .jpg. Download it to photobucket. Post it to this forum.

 

[jerry27150]

don't know where you are but corral panels are sold at ag stores ( think around 60 bucks) around here or made by some people with a gaurantee for 49 bucks if you are around any big hog operations you can get old hog flooring real cheap & is real rugged( what i used)

 

[jcissell]

At tractor supply you can get economy panels for $40. They are pretty cheap and hold up ok. Not heavy duty but they do the job. I was hoping we might could find some for not much more that were a little thicker. These should do fine b/c we aren't using them in high pressure areas, just for sorting pens. I plan on building the alley and anywhere with pressure out of wood. Only thing I would really like to buy is the tub.

Here is the picture:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v679/ ... orrals.jpg
It's too big to post on here. If you type this in your browser and it is too little to see when you put your mouse over the image a button should appear in the bottom right corner that allows you to make it the actual size.

The diagonal alley on the top left comes from a 1/2 acre pen that the cows are usually fed in. They always go to the back right corner and stand, so it will be easy to open a gate and let them go down the diagonal alley into the biggest holding pen. Then the other 3 smaller pens will be sorting pens. All of it is pretty self explanatory. We have room all around this to add more sorting pens so capacity can easily be expanded. Just add sorting pens to the top and left and we are set.

Thanks

Josh

 

[TheBullLady]

You'll be money and aggravation ahead if you go ahead and buy good panels for your working pens. We've been through enough cheap ones that they aren't worth the bother. And they will inevitably get bent like a pretzel when you're trying to work the wildest cow you own. Or the first one!

 

[Wewild]

Looks good. I like to have holding pens after the working chute. I guess that would be what is down in the left hand corner???

 

[jcissell]

The calving pen could be used to put cows in if needed. To the left of the entire system is the 1/2 acre lot so we could make it so when they leave the headchute they go into that lot or more sorting pens. The reason I say that is a calving pen is b/c there is a place to feed them directly out of the back of that grain bin. Also the chute will be blocking the north wind off that pen.

Josh

 

[certherfbeef]

I agree with bull lady here. Go ahead and get the good, heavy built panels. Even if you don't use the lighter ones in the "heavy pressure" areas. They will get mashed when you least expect it.

There are days, like today(when I have 20 lbs of mud caked to each boot) that I wish for the lighter gates. But I am always glad to have the heavy ones. That way I know when I shimmy to the top and over, the mad mamma that was after me will be turned. Ever wonder why they paint them blasted gates red?????

My husband has always said: "put up more gates than you think you will ever need, and plug every forseeable hole for a critter to crawl through before you start to work the cattle and it will result in less blown tempers 30 minutes into the job."

This coming from 15 years of raising Salers.

 

[Wewild]

The calving pen could be used to put cows in if needed. To the left of the entire system is the 1/2 acre lot so we could make it so when they leave the headchute they go into that lot or more sorting pens. The reason I say that is a calving pen is b/c there is a place to feed them directly out of the back of that grain bin. Also the chute will be blocking the north wind off that pen.

Josh

Releasing cull cows or salable calves into a holding pens while working the herd through the working chute makes sense to me. I wouldn't want them commingled with the others again.

 

[jcissell]

hmm.. That makes good sense. I'll have to draw up a way to run them into sorting pens.

Josh

 

[dd]

I may be looking at it wrong but after your tub you have a wide alley to the loading chute but if you were going into your narrower alley it seems to me there might be a bottleneck there the way its drawn.

 

[jcissell]

I don't think I understand what you are seeing? If I want the cows to go into the loading chute I open that gate. If not, I push them on into the head chute and open the loading chute gate behind them to crowd them into the head chute. Can you explain the bottleneck?


Thanks,

Josh

 

[dd]

Loading them through the loading chute shouldn't be a problem. To my eyes though for them to continue towards your working chute where your alley goes from wide to narrow I can see several wanting to turn around and try to come back.

 

[jcissell]

I kind of thought that but wasn't for sure how to do it any different. That is why I have those 2 gates that close behind the cows as they come through. The last one is less than 10 feet behind the area where is gets narrow. I was thinking that last gate would crowd them down into the chute and the loading chute gate could finish it off. What do you think? Any suggestions as to how I should change it. I wanted the tub right where it narrows down but I didn't want an 80' chute. I can't just move the headgate to the right about 45' b/c the area between the tub and narrow chute is concrete. So I can't put a narrow chute there. It has to be the width of the concrete which is 10'.

 

[dd]

One possible possibilty that I see is that if you continued the side of the loading chute into the alley to a point where the gate behind it is shown as being closed and then back again to the second post to the right of your loading chute you would create kind of a turn into the loading chute as well as the narrow alley. When you're going into the narrow alley that would allow them to twist and turn but get narrower as they went. Then with gates behind them you could ease them the rest of the way. I don't know what that would do to your concrete concerns.
All in all its a nice set-up.

 

[CattleAnnie]

Just a thought that might help. On our facility when you get the cattle down a chute, at the beginning of it we installed a "tail-gate"(aka NoBack or One Way Gate). Found it in a UFA store in Alberta, and have never regretted the purchase.

Saves one person shutting a gate behind the cattle, and a lot safer than the old "shoving the pole behind the animals butt" procedure.


Here's a few links to sites with ideas on building handling facilities.

http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/DOCS/livestock ... Facilities

http://www.beefcowcalf.com/pubs/Topics/ ... acilities/

http://www.hi-hog.com/cattle/page8.html


Diagram of Tail Gate (One Way Gate)

Take care.

 

[jcissell]

dd I don't quite see what you are saying. Do you think you could do a quick little pic in paint showing me what you are talking about?

Thanks for all the help

Josh

 

[dd]

It would probably be easier for me to do brain sugery but ..... I did finally figure out paint and made the change but beyond that I'm screwed. I sent it to Dun and hopefully he'll be good enough to get it posted.
Dean[/img]