Moving cattle from farm to farm

[NonTypicalCPA]

I'm considering buying a 15 acre parcel about a mile from my home farm for additional pasture. It currently is being hayed and has no fencing. If I buy it I'd create 3 paddocks with a common area for water and loading/unloading. My question is what is a good setup at a minimum to get the cattle loaded on a trailer, assuming they won't just hop on? How do others set up a simple loading area?

 

[NonTypicalCPA]

 

[Ky hills]

We have a 12 acre tract of land across the road from our main farm. It has an old tobacco barn sitting in the middle of the place. I have gates set up inside so that they can only go into part of the driveway part. I feed them in there a few days to get them used to going in then when ready just fasten them in. Back the trailer up close to one side of it and have a loose gate to kind of move them with and usually they go in without too much problem. If I didnt have the barn, I would likely just have a fairly stout fenced lot or corral panels set up to work about the same way. Ideally the lot would have gate on a side of it and maybe a gates width alleyway leading to where you would load out.

 

[Ebenezer]

Just be sure that you can use it and thieves cannot.

 

[sstterry]

Here is a pretty simple setup.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Man oh man, that right there would solve a lot of my hay needs. Have you considered haying that ground? Would doing that free up hay fields adjacent to your other property that could be converted to pasture?

 

[Lbass]

I don't know how busy that road is or how many driveways you have to go by. I do know that a 3-4 day old calf will cover a mile with mamma no problems. After the first or second move the cows know whats going on, convincing the calf crop every year can get to be a pain. I don't even need a lead a vehicle. Just get behind the calves and slowly push. Couple panels here and there with survey tape to block intersections... But i'm all on dirt road.

Usually takes me 15 minutes to cross the intersection or run down the road 1/4 mile... 2 hours for the 1.5 mile trek... calves get bigger and the time goes down.

If I could buy one of the 40's in between farms. Life would be better though.

 

[JMJ Farms]

If you just want simple then all you need is a sturdy pen big enough to hold all your cattle at one time. Then a smaller pen off the side (can be as simple as two panels chained to the trailer)

 

[Dave]

I built three when I was over on the coast. A simple 40 by 40 pen. I use RR tie posts and heavy rough cut lumber. In my case there was a 12 foot gate in the Southeast corner. Then a 7 foot wide alley inside the pen along about 25 feet long on the South side with a get at each end. The trailer loading end of the alley was on the West side of the Southwest corner. I hope that make sense. I didn't have working pens there. I figured if something needed worked I could just load them up and haul the few miles home where I had good facilities.

I don't know how busy that road is or how many driveways you have to go by. I do know that a 3-4 day old calf will cover a mile with mamma no problems. After the first or second move the cows know whats going on, convincing the calf crop every year can get to be a pain. I don't even need a lead a vehicle. Just get behind the calves and slowly push. Couple panels here and there with survey tape to block intersections... But i'm all on dirt road.

We drive hundreds of cows down the road here. Often for 8, 10, 15 miles. But I don't believe that would be a good idea in the area the OP lives.

 

[NonTypicalCPA]

Thanks guys. It's a busy road so I need to keep them off of it. I was thinking along the lines of JMJ with a small sweep to push them into the trailer.

 

[Son of Butch]

We rented a pasture a few years ago. It had 2 entrance gates 1 on the east side the other in the
SW corner. The West side was a solid fence with a 10 ft gate on south end. What he had done was
build a 2nd solid fence about 40-50 ft long with 10 ft gate on north end. So we could either drive
through or backup to this long narrow pen to load cattle out of the pasture. We would herd the
cows and calves south along the west fence into the narrow catch pen, it worked really well.
For stubborn cows we could leave the north gate open and put feed in the pen to entice them to
come in.

 

[Son of Butch]

To clarify my posting above...
solid fence = well built fence, strong enough to resist cattle pressure, (not a windbreak type)

 

[backhoeboogie]

Cattle are going to want to go home when you put them in a new pasture. They'll be stressed at first. Good forage should help. Strong fences are a must. There won't be an honor system when it comes to fences.

 

[JW IN VA]

I am fortunate enough to live in an area where my loading areas are are visible from someone's house or totally inaccessible to the main roads(3/4 mile behind a locked bar and still visible from my home).If thieves concern you,you could fence in a 1/4 to half acre lot and divide that 60/40.To load out,some panel gates in a line several gates long would crowd onto the trailer and the gates go home when you aren't using them.So long a you aren't crowding them too hard,"T" posts would hold the gates in place.
Just my suggestion.