What size corral?

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grubbie

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Getting ready to start building some corrals. I have a barbed wire lot area set up already that is 150 x 150 square. Now wanting to build the main corral pen. How many square feet do I need per cow? Right now running 50 pairs, but i may want to go bigger later so was wondering if there was a number of square feet per head or per cow/calf pair. I have an idea but wanted to double check with you folks for different opinions. -Thanks
 
grubbie":27cau79u said:
Getting ready to start building some corrals. I have a barbed wire lot area set up already that is 150 x 150 square. Now wanting to build the main corral pen. How many square feet do I need per cow? Right now running 50 pairs, but i may want to go bigger later so was wondering if there was a number of square feet per head or per cow/calf pair. I have an idea but wanted to double check with you folks for different opinions. -Thanks

There is a table on this site that will give the info you need.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b906/index.html

Here is another, click on table 1
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AN115

Hope this will help.
 
novatech - Thanks for that first link. I thought it was very good. I'll probably refer back to it in a month or so when I build a new pen.

Cuz
 
All I would recommend is it's better to have several smaller pens connected with sorting gates then one large one
 
dun":1flhu5bm said:
All I would recommend is it's better to have several smaller pens connected with sorting gates then one large one

If you had told me that a few years ago I would not have had that "school of hard knocks education". :oops: Over time I have installed sorting gates everywhere I can get them. They are great especially when you are by yourself. :D
 
novatech":16hwrn2y said:
dun":16hwrn2y said:
All I would recommend is it's better to have several smaller pens connected with sorting gates then one large one

If you had told me that a few years ago I would not have had that "school of hard knocks education". :oops: Over time I have installed sorting gates everywhere I can get them. They are great especially when you are by yourself. :D

I don't think you can ever have too many gates, or for that matter too many pens.
 
grubbie":13ablsxq said:
Getting ready to start building some corrals. I have a barbed wire lot area set up already that is 150 x 150 square. Now wanting to build the main corral pen. How many square feet do I need per cow? Right now running 50 pairs, but i may want to go bigger later so was wondering if there was a number of square feet per head or per cow/calf pair. I have an idea but wanted to double check with you folks for different opinions. -Thanks

Make your corrals and pens round in the future - that way the cattle will not pile up in the corners.

Bez?
 
Bez>":3acu197m said:
grubbie":3acu197m said:
Getting ready to start building some corrals. I have a barbed wire lot area set up already that is 150 x 150 square. Now wanting to build the main corral pen. How many square feet do I need per cow? Right now running 50 pairs, but i may want to go bigger later so was wondering if there was a number of square feet per head or per cow/calf pair. I have an idea but wanted to double check with you folks for different opinions. -Thanks

Make your corrals and pens round in the future - that way the cattle will not pile up in the corners.

Bez?

How can you corner a calf if all the pens/corrals are round? :? Kind of looks to me like it would be a bit more difficult to get cattle to go through a gate in the middle of a round pen/corral as opposed to one in the corner of a regular one, too. :???:
 
msscamp":yppeiy7l said:
Bez>":yppeiy7l said:
grubbie":yppeiy7l said:
Getting ready to start building some corrals. I have a barbed wire lot area set up already that is 150 x 150 square. Now wanting to build the main corral pen. How many square feet do I need per cow? Right now running 50 pairs, but i may want to go bigger later so was wondering if there was a number of square feet per head or per cow/calf pair. I have an idea but wanted to double check with you folks for different opinions. -Thanks

Make your corrals and pens round in the future - that way the cattle will not pile up in the corners.

Bez?

How can you corner a calf if all the pens/corrals are round? :? Kind of looks to me like it would be a bit more difficult to get cattle to go through a gate in the middle of a round pen/corral as opposed to one in the corner of a regular one, too. :???:

Problem with corners is they pile up and tend to try and climb - bad thing.

Gates opening into the corral will cut animals off as they travel around the outside and force them into pens or chutes.

I have a ton of drawings - just no idea how to post them.

Bez>
 
msscamp":1gbrpcl2 said:
Bez>":1gbrpcl2 said:
grubbie":1gbrpcl2 said:
Getting ready to start building some corrals. I have a barbed wire lot area set up already that is 150 x 150 square. Now wanting to build the main corral pen. How many square feet do I need per cow? Right now running 50 pairs, but i may want to go bigger later so was wondering if there was a number of square feet per head or per cow/calf pair. I have an idea but wanted to double check with you folks for different opinions. -Thanks

Make your corrals and pens round in the future - that way the cattle will not pile up in the corners.

Bez?

How can you corner a calf if all the pens/corrals are round? :? Kind of looks to me like it would be a bit more difficult to get cattle to go through a gate in the middle of a round pen/corral as opposed to one in the corner of a regular one, too. :???:
You only put the curves in places the cattle tend to crowd where there is no gate . The curves should lead them to the gate. You can take an existing trouble corner and simply put a 45 degree fence across the corner, diagonal across the 90 degree. Curved fence does not have to be perfect. My crowding tub is made up of 4 ft. gates welded together to form a curve. It is a portion of a polygon.
 
novatech":2jw3v40m said:
msscamp":2jw3v40m said:
Bez>":2jw3v40m said:
grubbie":2jw3v40m said:
Getting ready to start building some corrals. I have a barbed wire lot area set up already that is 150 x 150 square. Now wanting to build the main corral pen. How many square feet do I need per cow? Right now running 50 pairs, but i may want to go bigger later so was wondering if there was a number of square feet per head or per cow/calf pair. I have an idea but wanted to double check with you folks for different opinions. -Thanks

Make your corrals and pens round in the future - that way the cattle will not pile up in the corners.

Bez?

How can you corner a calf if all the pens/corrals are round? :? Kind of looks to me like it would be a bit more difficult to get cattle to go through a gate in the middle of a round pen/corral as opposed to one in the corner of a regular one, too. :???:
You only put the curves in places the cattle tend to crowd where there is no gate . The curves should lead them to the gate. You can take an existing trouble corner and simply put a 45 degree fence across the corner, diagonal across the 90 degree. Curved fence does not have to be perfect. My crowding tub is made up of 4 ft. gates welded together to form a curve. It is a portion of a polygon.

You have got it!!

Bez>
 
novatech":68gfc0iz said:
msscamp":68gfc0iz said:
Bez>":68gfc0iz said:
grubbie":68gfc0iz said:
Getting ready to start building some corrals. I have a barbed wire lot area set up already that is 150 x 150 square. Now wanting to build the main corral pen. How many square feet do I need per cow? Right now running 50 pairs, but i may want to go bigger later so was wondering if there was a number of square feet per head or per cow/calf pair. I have an idea but wanted to double check with you folks for different opinions. -Thanks

Make your corrals and pens round in the future - that way the cattle will not pile up in the corners.

Bez?

How can you corner a calf if all the pens/corrals are round? :? Kind of looks to me like it would be a bit more difficult to get cattle to go through a gate in the middle of a round pen/corral as opposed to one in the corner of a regular one, too. :???:
You only put the curves in places the cattle tend to crowd where there is no gate . The curves should lead them to the gate. You can take an existing trouble corner and simply put a 45 degree fence across the corner, diagonal across the 90 degree. Curved fence does not have to be perfect. My crowding tub is made up of 4 ft. gates welded together to form a curve. It is a portion of a polygon.

Thanks, novatech. I have my doubts about it working in practically as well as it does in theory, though. Reason being our sweep tub was round, and if the girls didn't want to go into the chute they were not going into the chute without some fairly strong persuasion! Now, I realize that a chute is much smaller than a gate and contributed to the problem, but they were worked regularly and would usually file into the chute just as nice as could be. It seems to me that, since a corral/pen is much bigger than a sweep tub, it would be that much harder to persuade a bunch of uncooperative cattle to go through that gate. Of course, I could be wrong too. :lol: My contribution to the conversation at hand. :lol:
 
I kind of feel sorry for you folks that have the room to have al these fancy layouts. Makes it much more interesting and a challenge when you only have a small odd shaped space to get things set up so they work.
 
dun":2cx6nj8a said:
I kind of feel sorry for you folks that have the room to have al these fancy layouts. Makes it much more interesting and a challenge when you only have a small odd shaped space to get things set up so they work.

Any chance of a drawing of your setup?

what has been an interest of mine for some time is what works and what not when it comes to the layout of corrals, I am always interested to see what works for someone else. I worked in a corral once that just about have every "fault" according to Grandin, and surprize suprize it was the best working corral I have ever worked in.

In my experience the alleys leading up to the crowding pen in most of the fancy designs as well as the crowding pens are too big in practice.
 
Sometimes it is not all in design. Training can be the key element in getting cattle through the chutes. My cattle work fairly calmly. Mostly because I will take them through when they have no reason to be there at all. They have very little reason to beleive they will be hurt. Cattle have very good memories. If you take your cattle through and it is always a violent experiance they are going to remember that when you want them in the next time.
Friends, relitives, kids, and neighbors that you enlist to help should also be trained before you let them help. If not they can ruin an entire herd. A lot of that old cowboy stuff they see on TV, hooting, hollering, whipping, beating just is not called for. An old canepole with a flag on the end does wonders and can usually be used from outside the pens.
 
novatech":1uehaeah said:
A lot of that old cowboy stuff they see on TV, hooting, hollering, whipping, beating just is not called for. An old canepole with a flag on the end does wonders and can usually be used from outside the pens.

Working Brahman influenced cattle teaches you that in a hurry
 
KNERSIE":2sy7byuy said:
dun":2sy7byuy said:
I kind of feel sorry for you folks that have the room to have al these fancy layouts. Makes it much more interesting and a challenge when you only have a small odd shaped space to get things set up so they work.

Any chance of a drawing of your setup?

what has been an interest of mine for some time is what works and what not when it comes to the layout of corrals, I am always interested to see what works for someone else. I worked in a corral once that just about have every "fault" according to Grandin, and surprize suprize it was the best working corral I have ever worked in.

In my experience the alleys leading up to the crowding pen in most of the fancy designs as well as the crowding pens are too big in practice.

Knersie, here is the basic design that I use.

http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/plans/6230.pdf

I took the plan and flipped it. My crowding tub and alleyway are 10 ft. across. I also placed the entry gate next to the tub.
Cattle want to exit where they came in. I will give them a little grain a few times a year to train them to come in. I close the gate behind them. I will then work the cattle back through the squeeze, which exits back into the corral. They are then taken back out through the trailer chute into the pasture.
I added slide gates in both chutes and also exit gates before the squeeze and before the trailer just in case I do not want a particular animal that has gone into the chute.

The rest of the corral was built around the feeding shed and is simply three other pens with gates swinging both directions. All the pens are 10 ft. wide so they are also alleys. The feed bunk is in the center with a fence through it and a gate at both ends.
This basicly cuts the herd in half and makes them easer to seperate from the start.
 
dun":2g7r6vov said:
novatech":2g7r6vov said:
A lot of that old cowboy stuff they see on TV, hooting, hollering, whipping, beating just is not called for. An old canepole with a flag on the end does wonders and can usually be used from outside the pens.

Working Brahman influenced cattle teaches you that in a hurry

The down side of heterosis. Hyper-attitude.

They have taught me how to weld pipe like a pro.
 

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