Road pipe grates cow crossing

[dun]

For non-perimeter I don;t see a problem. But one year class of heifers at the dairy figured out how to walk acreoss them, they soon talk most of the cows how to do it too. The only catch is they seem to think it''s a one way deal, you sure can;t herd them back in the way they came out.

dun

 

[Farmhand]

We have a cattle guard and my folks have one also. They are about 5' wide. The cows will actually stop and look at how far it is to jump them, then jump them. This width does not stop them. Think that if you double it, then it would work ok.

 

[msscamp]

The only catch is they seem to think it''s a one way deal, you sure can;t herd them back in the way they came out.

dun

Isn't that the way it usually works? :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

A cheap automatic gate opener would be a garage door opener. They really work pretty good.

 

[ctlbaron]

We always called them "stock gaps." We always built them out of bridge timbers. Rough cut at about 10" X 6". I've have had horses to jump them but never had cows to jump one. Beats opening a gate everytime. Driving the spikes with a single bit axe is big fun.

 

[jersey lilly]

We have em here, and have always called em Cattle guards, but that's probably because I was raised in the oil field. 3 to 4 inch oil field pipe is what we make ours out of. 8 feet across for sure, and then paint every other pipe white. Cows have no depth perception, never have had a cow cross one, but however have a mule and a horse that can jump it, also they can walk it. Have since takin them to a different place that doesn't have a cattle guard so they can't get out.
The sandhills state park near my home town, didnt even have a cattle guard, they had yellow stripes painted on the pavement the same width and distance as a cattle guard, and the cows that were run in the park never crossed that. I always thought that was strange as a kid growin up, but didn't know it was because of no depth perception.

 

[Bernard]

I grew up in the Texas panhandle and worked on the big ranches as a kid: 6666 @ Panhandle; Johnson's @ Borger, etc., plus, neighbored at most of the others. There are literally thousands of pipe cattle guards up there as the oil companies installed them so their pumpers wouldn't have to open and shut a hundred gates a day, or be accused of leaving one down and letting cattle out. I never knew of a cow getting out over one, or even heard such a story. Maybe north Texas cattle are just dumber than most, I don't know. We DID train our horses to jump over them so we wouldn't have to get down and open a wire gap, but then some horses learned to get by them on their own, and you never used a cattle guard on the horse trap, anyway. Nowdays, people who already have them on the outside fences are putting chains or even swinging pipe barricades on them - not to keep cattle in, but to keep cars out.