Updated corral plans

[jcissell]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v679/ ... rrals2.jpg

Ok there is the link to the updated plans. I had to move all the plans up 10'. I couldn't make the chute longer than 15' to 20' b/c of the concrete. Since I didn't have to worry with the concrete anymore, I changed the plans a little more. Can you take another look at them and see what you think?

Josh

 

[Ryan]

Not getting a picture when I click on the link. Says "The page you are requesting cannot be found"

 

[cherokeeruby]

 

[jcissell]

I reuploaded the pic so it was deleted for a minute or two.

Josh

 

[Caustic Burno]

Design is ok make sure your are not making it to big if you do it is more stressful on the cows and you as they have a flight zone very common mistake. I would rather have it to small and they are crowded
It is recomended 20sq ft for every grown cow

 

[CattleAnnie]

Agree with Caustic. Especially where your chute is concerned. If the cows have enough room to turn around in your chute, sure as God made little green apples the cow at the front will turn around and cause a bottleneck with the cattle behind her.

That and you might want to put some more gates in the alleyway that winds into your sorting tub area. Always nice to have more gates. Can save a lot of leg work for you when you're processing or loading cattle (ie. If you're loading a liner, you can run X number of head into one small pen for the nose, X number for the belly, etc. and as you load the liner you just swing the gates open for the next pen when the trucker is ready for them). Just a suggestion.

Looks like you've put a lot of thought into it. Good luck with your plans.

Take care.

 

[jcissell]

Theres not alot of room. The design looks alot bigger on paper than it actually is. I have it all staked out and will be putting posts in the ground soon. The chute it 29" and I am going to slant the sides so they can't turn around. I am going to put more gates like you said. I just didn't draw it in the plans.

Today after I got it staked out, I bet anyone who drove by thought I was crazy. I kinda hunched over to the level of a cow and walked through it so I could get their view on all the angles and walls. It seems to flow very well.

Josh

 

[jt]

getting in late on this one, but one thing that comes to mind is.. if you will be running stirred up cattle thru that pen where the food and water is... they will tear up your feed trough and run over and thru your water trough. most especially calves... i finally moved my water trough... after letting calves out of the chute, they would hug the fence and jump into the water trough and back out instead of going around it.

just my experience..

jt

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

I'm getting in even later! But you may want to give a quick look at Temple Grandin's website for design ideas for pens, crowding alleys, etc. She's apparently a real "expert" on animal behavior and some of her designs make a lot of sense to me, although I still can't quite get over the idea of using 12 foot wide crowding --- seems too small to me --- but maybe that's one of the reason working my cattle sometimes causes me to cuss up a storm (couldn't possibly have anything to do with tigers :lol: )

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

getting in late on this one, but one thing that comes to mind is.. if you will be running stirred up cattle thru that pen where the food and water is... they will tear up your feed trough and run over and thru your water trough. most especially calves... i finally moved my water trough... after letting calves out of the chute, they would hug the fence and jump into the water trough and back out instead of going around it.

just my experience..

jt

Do you raise limosin??? Just my experience... :cboy: ;-)

 

[Caustic Burno]

Chute pretty wide mine are 24" and the bulls make it fine. You can have a lot of train wrecks in the chute.

 

[certherfbeef]

You might also have a slight problem with the load out chute. In my limited experience the cattle aren't just gonna hop onto the trailer and turn around and grin at you. I see the gate that swings against the wall and I see you are gonna use the tub crowd gate to push them onto the load ramp, in theory that will work. But that leaves a triangle shape at the base of the ramp and the wide part is on the wrong end (closest to the ramp). You might either need to change the angle of the load ramp a little or add another gate some how to keep those critters from turning back on you while trying to push them up the ramp. Again, JMO

 

[ollie]

Chute pretty wide mine are 24" and the bulls make it fine. You can have a lot of train wrecks in the chute.

Some of mine are 28 and after 3rs old my bulls can't go down them. Some cows rub hard. One I thought I was going to have to go borrow a hot shot. I beat on her till I got embarrassed and it was only me and her there.

 

[jt]

getting in late on this one, but one thing that comes to mind is.. if you will be running stirred up cattle thru that pen where the food and water is... they will tear up your feed trough and run over and thru your water trough. most especially calves... i finally moved my water trough... after letting calves out of the chute, they would hug the fence and jump into the water trough and back out instead of going around it.

just my experience..

jt

Do you raise limosin??? Just my experience... :cboy: ;-)

:lol: yep... i have some... but i have far more cross breeds... the worst has been the tigerstripes.. like i have posted before, the limo herd i have is by far the calmest of my cattle. ;-) BUT, i will tell you, it does not make a difference what breed you have, if you get enough of them in a coral and some of them get stirred up.. or it might only take one of them getting stirred... they are going to run over your troughs.... or push each other over them.

just my experience... :lol:

jt

 

[jt]

:lol: i will add this too... calves are not very smart :roll: it doesnt matter which breed.. the gate can be 90% open and then will run behind it every time it seems...


they just seem to hug the fence as they go around the coral, and if something is in the way.. they go over/thru it, and then behind the gate that is practially wide open.. :roll: :lol:

jt

 

[Caustic Burno]

Chute pretty wide mine are 24" and the bulls make it fine. You can have a lot of train wrecks in the chute.

Some of mine are 28 and after 3rs old my bulls can't go down them. Some cows rub hard. One I thought I was going to have to go borrow a hot shot. I beat on her till I got embarrassed and it was only me and her there.

He!! I want hide and hair on the sides of the chute only way to go is forward. Ya'll probably have larger cattle than us southern folk my bulls only weigh 1800 to 2000 pounds.

 

[jkwilson]

Chute pretty wide mine are 24" and the bulls make it fine. You can have a lot of train wrecks in the chute.

I agree that too wide is bad, but I have cows that rub on both sides in a 28" chute. No way could my bull go through a 24" chute.

 

[jcissell]

The chute we have now is either 28" or 29" wide. We don't really have a problem with cows turning around. I really don't want to go much smaller b/c we have some cows that it's a pretty tight squeeze on.

As far as the loading ramp goes, there is a wall that will be angled instead of straight so the triangle will flow a little better. I plan on putting a gate or 2 in there to stop them from turning around also.

I plan on feeding the cows in the biggest pen to get them use to coming in and out of there. We have a 1/2 acre pen that we feed in and the cows don't get too crazy in there b/c they are use to us being there and walking around them. We'll see how this works, may have to remove the feed and watering troughs.

Josh

 

[jt]

mine are about 28-29" and for a big heavy bred cow.. that is a squeeze sometimes... my head gate does not open quite that wide and i have had times when i thought they were not going to be able to get thru it.. one got stuck and was hung up for about 30 seconds... got worried she was going to go down on me right there... was glad when she broke loose.

i have backed some out... which means i really need a different head gate imo.

jt

 

[brokenmouth]

i would rather have a bull or bred cow do a bunch of hard rubbing than have a fresh weaned calf turn around halfway through getting a bunch of them loaded