going thru fences

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cattletom

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horn lake,ms(north ms)
this may be a stupid question but here goes. we have a ton of gates on our place and i was wondering if anyone has any ideas about building something to go over the fence on a gator/mule/4 wheeler etc. instead of opening gates and then having to shut them back .. i know it sounds like im lazy but im not. when the cows r in the back pasture and u have to go thru a ton of gates to get there. when i was a kid i saw my uncle build a ramp over a place in the fence to drive a 4 wheeler over. i was just wondering if anyone had a ny ideas. tommy
 
Here in Texas, especially in the Hill Country and West Texas, the use of bump gates is common. There are dozens of different designs and variations, but basically the gate is designed to lay down flat on the ground when bumped by the vehicle and then rise back upright after the vehicle has passed over. Some are designed to swing open when bumped and then swing back shut. These gates were designed and built by the ranchers who each added his personal touches so that no two are exactly alike. They all served the purpose of keeping the livestock confined while allowing the rancher to pass through without having to get out to open a gate. Most of the ones I know about are getting pretty old now. The new ones are going to solar powered electric gate openers. Also, have you considered cattle guards? A good, properly installed cattle guard might eliminate the need for a gate on your road.
 
cattletom":38x71nxj said:
this may be a stupid question but here goes. we have a ton of gates on our place and i was wondering if anyone has any ideas about building something to go over the fence on a gator/mule/4 wheeler etc. instead of opening gates and then having to shut them back .. i know it sounds like im lazy but im not. when the cows r in the back pasture and u have to go thru a ton of gates to get there. when i was a kid i saw my uncle build a ramp over a place in the fence to drive a 4 wheeler over. i was just wondering if anyone had a ny ideas. tommy

we built a ramp right next to the gate in one of our places. it's only about 2 feet high & just wide enough for the 4-wheeler to pass over. we've had it there for a couple of years and never a problem. i wouldn't use one for access from any public road or highway or in a pen area where you may be trying to push cows & they'll look for any hole they can find, but only for cross-fencing. i'm sure there may be some cows who would try to cross a ramp just like the cattle guard jumpers but we've never had one who did.
 
I saw something like what you are looking for on an AG program awhile back. It kind of looks like a flattened out set of curved monkey bars like they had when I was a kid with the bars closer together. I thought at the time that it was a neat idea.
 
I saw this in a magazine a while back and tried it myself and it worked pretty good: Find a junked out section of round bale feeder and wire some old cattle panels to it. Pretty cheap/free cattle guard. The only problem I had with it was, I thought it was too steep and cut it down and it ended up being to short. I was using it to keep cows out of an area I was limit-creeping calves and one cow learned that she could jump across. I will probably try it again and make a couple modifications, but it was pretty slick for a few months while it worked.
 
I've alwasy been a fan of cattlegaurds. But a neigbors dairy has one whole year class of cows that learned as heifers how to wolk across them. It's intertaining to watch the girls tippytoe across the cattle gaurds but frustrating to try to get them back in because they apparently think that they only work one direction. The escape direction!

dun

guest":39026apv said:
I saw this in a magazine a while back and tried it myself and it worked pretty good: Find a junked out section of round bale feeder and wire some old cattle panels to it. Pretty cheap/free cattle guard. The only problem I had with it was, I thought it was too steep and cut it down and it ended up being to short. I was using it to keep cows out of an area I was limit-creeping calves and one cow learned that she could jump across. I will probably try it again and make a couple modifications, but it was pretty slick for a few months while it worked.
 
lazyhill":174cwp5o said:
I'll bet it is funny to watch them tippy toe across it. I didn't think that cows had that type of dexterity. Maybe they learned to walk across the part where the supporting bars are placed.

occasionally we get one that will cross a cattle guard.......either they'll tippy toe or some will just jump right across. once they learn it, there's almost no way to stop them, although sometimes a temporary electric fence gap across it will change their ways. then there's always the question of will they notice when you take down the gap & go back to their old habit.
 
I din't either, but that whole year class caught on somehow and that was the end of it. IWhen the rcross it resembles a dog climbing a ladder. They just kind of hunt around with their hind feet till they're on one of the bars. It's slow, but surprising how quick a bunch can get out if you're not paying attention. It's kind of funny that none of the older or younger cows have caught on. Just that one bunch that learned as calves.

dun

lazyhill":n7fs60rt said:
I'll bet it is funny to watch them tippy toe across it. I didn't think that cows had that type of dexterity. Maybe they learned to walk across the part where the supporting bars are placed.
 
We had a neighbor that tried that a catle guard on his lot once didn't work very well. We were going to install on of the electric cattlet guards that I read about in Drovers one month don't remember how long ago seems like a while.
 

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