5.5-6ft for the most part, 10 foot 6x6's and tried to get them all down to 4.5. The inner runs of the races are one plank less, so I can reach over them. It has a cable ran along it though. 28" races lined with heavy rubber belting, first section is 32 ft, and then another 15 leading into the headgate. Cows make that bend no trouble at all. Everything is rough dimension treated lumber, got the same facility that does guard rail posts and wharf lumber to make it.
And thanks, Still have to change some things around with the headgate, going to put in permanent scales at some point, just had portables in front of headgate this yr. But it's worked great for me this fall, really sped things up. Can run thru dozens an hour no problem now.
One thing I also came up with, is after re painting the headgate, and having everything that dark green. I took the neck bars off and painted them white. That seems to have helped brighten up the 'hole' for them to stick their head thru on the auto catch. When it was all dark it was as if they were seeing more of a solid wall and were hesitating to stick their heads thru. But you can even see in the above pic how much more open it looks now, and the head gate is shut in the picture.